Call me cynical if you want, but I cannot get over the feeling that the so-called Curry House plot against Gordon Brown by previously arch-loyalist Labour MPs Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt has all the hallmarks of a Machiavellian “cunning plan” by Mr Manipulator, Peter Mandelson.
Geoff Hoon, in particular is not known for his radical views. The former Defence Secretary who took Britain into the illegal war against Iraq has always been a yes-man. His normal reaction when told to jump by the Labour leadership, is to ask “how high?” By botching the attempt to unseat Gordon Brown, Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt have effectively stopped a more effective revolt by more competent conspirators like Charles Clarke. It has also left Mandelson in a stronger position, leading the Labour General Election campaign and consolidating his position as the power behind the throne.
Of course, if you want to hear a true master manipulator then just listen to the former Blair spin doctor, Alistair Campbell. In his evidence today to the Chilcot enquiry on the Iraq, he once again demonstrated his economy with the truth, insisting that, almost alone amongst those in the know, he and Tony Blair “genuinely believed” that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that threatened Britain and that Blair had not promised Bush that Britain would go to war against Iraq a year before the House of Commons voted on the decision. Campbell also denies the dodgy September 2002 dossier had been designed to present the case for war, despite their reliance on it to present that case for war to MPs. But I'm sure the Chilcot enquiry will believe him. After all that is the job that Peter Mandelson gave them.
