Mr. Mandelson is no newcomer to politics. He was the undisputed brains behind the overwhelming Labour Party victory at the 1997 British general election. As a gesture of gratitude for the success of his masterfully orchestrated campaign, Mr. Mandelson was given control of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). There he proved himself no more adroit at the fine art of ethical ministerial conduct than the very scandal prone Conservative Party government ministers he had driven from office. First came rumors (later vaguely confirmed by Parliamentary inquiries) that Peter Mandelson and multi-millionaire Geoffrey Robinson (the then-Paymaster General) had engaged in some elaborate high stakes and undisclosed business transactions which among other things involved pricey gifts and offshore bank accounts. Then came rather hushed revelations about Mr. Mandelson's sexual preferences and domestic living arrangements. In response to these rumors, truths, and tabloid teasers, Mr. Mandelson did exactly what every other self-respecting British politician does when he/she really wants to attain the rank to which he/she believes the status as a Member of Parliament rightly entitles him/her: Mr. Mandelson resigned from the DTI and returned to the back benches of the House of Commons.
Some Parliamentarians languish on the back benches for years. Their only claims to public recognition are the shouted-down questions they attempt to submit to front bench government ministers during question-time. Other Parliamentarians use the back benches as a waiting area while they are between cabinet jobs. And so it is for Peter Mandelson. At the 1999 mid-year cabinet reshuffle, the prime minister Tony Blair selected Mr. Mandelson to replace out-spoken (and many argued pro-Irish) Mo Molam as the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. This was intended as a sort of peace offering to the Ulster Unionists, and expectations of the new Secretary were high: Would he do for the peace process what he had done for the Labour Party? In other words, could he create an illusion of peace and stability in a region where turbulence and real trouble lay just beneath the lofty and polite rhetoric of co-operation? He made a solid effort at it, but again Mr. Mandelson was his own worst enemy.
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