Press enter or click to view image in full size Photo by Nicola Ripepi on Unsplash In recent weeks, the news in Britain has been all about the Mandelson Affair. At one point it seemed it might even force Prime Minister Keir Starmer to resign. Overall, it is a parable for our times. Peter Mandelson never came close to the top job (Prime Minister), yet had a special status due to fervid journalism and rancour. To Labour Party insiders, he was a devious soul, and to those outside the party, he was a cunning opponent. They called him ‘the Prince of Darkness.’ This began when he was Neil Kinnock’s Director of Communications during the 1980s, the years when Labour was struggling in the face of Thatcherism. In essence, he was an early ‘spin doctor;’ someone who could spin a story, a fountain of plausible explanations. His job rested on his ability to present Kinnock as electable in the eyes of centrist voters who might otherwise vote for the breakaway group, the Social Democrats.…