Product Description

The hotly anticipated memoir of one of New Labour's three founding architects.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #88 in Books
• Published on: 2010-07-15
• Released on: 2010-07-15
• Binding: Hardcover
• 512 pages

Features

• New
• Mint Condition
• Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon
• Guaranteed packaging
• No quibbles returns

Review
`A compelling account of the New Labour years...nearly every page is illuminating.' --Steve Richards, Independent

`He has written a good book...informative, clear and containing refreshing doses of self-knowledge, occasional regret and thoughtfulness.' --Andrew Marr, Financial Times

`A revealing and important book by a more winning individual than I had expected to encounter.' --Matthew Parris, Spectator

`The Third Man contains enough gossip, intrigue and scandal to keep the cognoscenti titillated...there are valuable nuggets scattered throughout.' --Peter Hain, New Statesman

`An utterly absorbing read, a rich and satisfying page-turner ...this is a vital book, and a pleasure to read.'
--John McTernan, Scotsman

`A very good book...fluently written and substantial, this is a serious book by a serious man.' --Matthew d'Ancona, Sunday Telegraph

`Mandelson has added heavily to the sum total of political knowledge...The Third Man is well-written, pacier in parts than others, particularly those where the author deals with the psychodrama of which he was an integral part...a significant contribution to our understanding of the Labour years.'
--Philip Webster, The Times

About the Author

At the age of thirty-two Peter Mandelson became Labour’s Director of Campaigns and Communications, and was elected as MP for Hartlepool in 1992, serving in government as Minister without Portfolio, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, and Lord President of the Council. He remains in Parliament as a member of the House of Lords.

Customer Reviews

A conservative review
I decided that I wanted to read an account of the New Labour years following the recent change in Government. After some debate, I decided to go for this book over the various other main contenders for a few reasons. Firstly, I didn't have the patience to wait for Blairs, secondly, I simply couldn't believe I would get any sort of frank account from one of the Alistair Campbell ones. Finally, I just had a gut feeling that this would be particularly honest and open in terms of the Blair/Brown relationship as I didn't see what motive Mr Mandelson would have for holding back, something not the case with the other authors I mentioned.
What a good decision this turned out to be. The account is very open, astonishingly so in places, and makes for an entertaining read, or should I say listen, as I actually had the audio CD version, which was if anything enhanced by Mandelson doing the reading.
As with any book, people need to read this and make up their own mind, but what really struck me about this was the sense that New Labour really never achieved what it promised due to the relationship between Blair/Brown, and I did sense genuine regret from Mandelson on this. Tony Blair actually comes across pretty well, but Gordon Brown comes across very poorly (if we are to believe this account and many others that support it). Mandelson provides strong evidence that for the first few years of power Mr Brown convinced himself he had been cheated out of the top job, which led to constant attempts to outmaneuver and undermine Blair, to the extent that it really did affect the success of New Labour. If there is one resounding conclusion you can draw from this, its that Blair should have had the decisiveness to address this issue firmly early on, but once this was left to ferment, it simply got worse and harder to deal with, which unfortunately it never was.
In summary, a frank account, which if you can look past a touch too much self justification, is a surprisingly honest and entertaining read, made even better if you go for the audio book route.

Peter Mandelson - Political expediency and the dark arts
William Hague once joked in the House of Commons that the only title that Lord Mandelson lacked under the Brown Government was that of Archbishop. Perhaps the only reason for this is that Mandelson's "Jesuit like fervour" thus far has been generally been lavished on politics, although nothing should be ruled out. Love him or hate him Peter Mandelson is the consummate politician and media showman. Watching interviews by him in support of the book he is still playing down the level of visceral hatred that consumed the New Labour Project but for every one page of analysis in "The Third Man" there are at least another twenty which highlight the cronic dysfunction and the bitter tribalist soap opera that consumed British Government since 1997. Reading this book you sense clearly that Mandelson was at his "best" as the spinmiester starting work for Neil Kinnock, then as one of the architects of New Labour. He was of course at that time the man with the terrible moustache, not yet outed by Matthew Parris but the with a fearsome reputation building as a late 20th Century Machiavelli as he intimidated the media and other politicians but combined this with a sinister charm and waspish wit. His ability to think on his feet is clearly second to none, but it comes no where near to his plotting skills and you forget how closely he came in 2008 to destroying George Osborne in the Oleg Deripaska affair.

Of the two great protagonists in the "Third Man" allegedly Tony Blair is happy with Mandelson's portrayal. Yet it is far from sympathetic, indeed Blair is portrayed as a man bent on action but someone who was fundamentally weak when it came to dealing with Brown and his supporters. Blair's announcement of additional spending on health on the BBC led to a volcanic reaction from his Chancellor and a counter cabinet which constantly micro managed Blair's ambition on public services reform through the prism of the Treasury. On the other great drama Mandelson was a bit player when it came to the Iraq War and his insights about the failure to plan the rebuilding/recovery phase are of limited interest. But what is fascinating is that more than Blair it is Mandelson's relationship with his nemesis Gordon Brown that is at the heart of this book. Mandelson describes Brown as "hair-raisingly difficult to work with", almost "impossible to advise" and these are some of the friendlier comments. As such Mandelson's attempt to justify the greatest feat of political hatchet burying in modern politics is explained in the following terms "We had been through too much together since the founding days of the modernising avant-garde to relapse into sulkiness or acrimony. We had come to understand each other again. We respected each other. We liked each other.".

Do we believe him? The answer is of course we don't. Mandelson needed Brown in the same way that the Brown needed Mandelson, based not on friendship but pure political expediency, combined with the lustre of power and most of all the will to survive. Mandelson clearly knew that Brown's chances of winning a general election were almost zero. You smile when you read that in response to Harriet Harman's suggestion of "future, family and fairness" as the strap line for Labours campaign of 2010, Peter Mandelson suggested an alternative to a meeting with Alastair Darling and Douglas Alexander that they replace the words with "futile", "finished", and "f**k*d".

Everything about this book is controversial. Its title the "Third Man" sticks another two fingers up at his old enemy and newly enshrined fellow member of the Lords, John Prescott (or "Two Ermine's" as he is now known). Its timing after May 2010 is particularly raw and it comes "smack bang" into the epicentre of a incredibly dull Labour leadership contest which cannot hope to compete with the revelations of this supreme master media manipulator. It also acts as the overture for what will be the main opera when Tony Blair releases his own autobiography "A Journey" in September. Finally one imagines that over the past week a minor earthquake may have registered on the Richter scale in Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath as Gordon Brown MP reads Mandelson's weighty tome. You suspect that while Mandelson may be the "Third Man" and that his story is well told (if sometimes in very cringeworthy terms) this is a three act drama that has yet to fully unfold and the political dagger that hangs over the New Labour project may yet to be fully drawn.

Confessions of a spin doctor
After a brief Introduction, in which Mandelson blames a lot of his troubles on his loyalty to Brown and Blair, and lists the familiar claims of New Labour's achievements, there are background chapters on his early years as a member of a privileged left-wing family in North London. But the book takes off with his initiation into politics and the start of his controversial career as a highly successful backroom `fixer'. Right from the start, it is clear that Mandelson is out to stake his claim of parity with Brown and Blair in creating New Labour, defining its policies, and steering it to election victories. He emphasizes that that he `discovered' the duo and was the first to recognize their talents and potential for high office. The three of them became `brothers'. This didn't last long after New Labour gained power and we now know about the fierce and corrosive war that was waged between Blair and Brown, with Mandelson often in the latter's sights for his perceived `betrayal' in supporting Blair. This is discussed fully, but most of the details have already appeared in Andrew Rawnsley's recent book `The End of the Party'.

Given that the author was the supreme `spin doctor' of New Labour, a reader has to decide how much of this book to believe. Many details confirm what Rawnsley has reported, although Mandelson's version puts himself in the best light. However, there are places where he is disingenuous. For example: his strong denial that there was any connection between the peerage given to Lord Levy and the fact that he was Tony Blair's fundraiser, while admitting that Levy `held out for a peerage' after he was told it would be too soon; and his explanation of why he failed to disclose to either his senior civil servant or a building society a loan from Geoffrey Robinson to buy a house. There are new details about the about the final days of New Labour and events leading up to the 2010 General Election - how Brown refused to budge from his entrenched position that growth was the only way out of the severe economic problems and how he resisted all efforts from his colleagues to take seriously spending cuts or an increase in VAT - but this is a small part of the book.

Then there is what is not in the book. There is very little about foreign policy and Iraq, the event that, rightly or wrongly, will really be Blair's legacy, and no discussion of whether New Labour's economic and financial policies might have contributed to our present debt-ridden state. And of course there is almost nothing about Mandelson's closely guarded private life. To be fair, the sub-title of the book is `Life at the Heart of New Labour', but then why include chapters on his early family life, and why disclose very personal information about a former partner's sex life?

Overall, I found this a disappointing book that adds very little to what is already known about the New Labour years and the style lacks the sparkle of Rawnsley's book. The Labour Party may now `love Peter Mandelson', as Blair wanted and Mandelson believes, but it has not altered my view that the 'Prince of Darkness' has not changed.