Lord Mandelson’s staggering fall still has the power to shock

The arrest of Peter Mandelson is not as seismic as that of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor but it still has the capacity to shock. Not so long ago, the very notion of the ‘Dark Lord’ of British politics, as Mandelson was known at Westminster, accompanying detectives to the police station to be questioned under caution would be unfathomable. This is someone who held not one but three Labour prime ministers in his thrall and the most senior Tories as well, as they marvelled at his ability to manipulate the message and his international connections. No one did it better. He was part of the cabal that drove Tony Blair to the highest office and three general election victories. Even after being knocked back by scandal, he was rehabilitated by Gordon Brown. When Sir Keir Starmer secured the party leadership, he received a detailed memo from Mandelson outlining how Labour could win again. The next morning, Mandelson answered a knock at his door in Camden. There was Starmer in his tracksuit, having ridden his bike over from his home, desperate to learn more. Mandelson had that grip. On the day of John Smith’s death, he was stalking the press corridor in the Commons, expressing his sadness but also making sure that a seed was planted – the next leader might not be Brown as widely expected, but Blair. It was Mandelson who, with Blair and Alastair Campbell, drove the party of Clause 4 and unionisation in a different direction. He it was who declared that this New Labour loved the “filthy rich”. Well, look at where that took him. He was a brooding, always plotting, imposing figure, preferring to stay in the shadows, standing on the edge at parties. People went to him and sought his blessing and advice, not the other way round. Britain’s twin pillars of government and monarchy are cracking. As Andrew, formerly known as Prince, and Peter, resigned from the Lords but known as Lord for now, their honours have gone. Next, it could be their liberty. Neither development was previously thought possible. Both have been arrested on the same charge of misconduct in public office. It’s possible to take from that the reassurance that British public life is undergoing a cleansing of epic proportions. But there are too many unanswered questions, too many unknowns, too many unpublished files relating to Jeffrey Epstein, to be sure the buck stops with them. Certainly, it’s hard to imagine anyone higher - and there are few so mighty - being similarly felled. But there could be others with grand reputations, who were also treated deferentially by virtually all they met, able to open doors that for the rest remained firmly locked. We just don’t know. It is clear, though, that on this side of the Atlantic we are unafraid – even if it means striking down totems who bring into question our whole national way of life. “Nobody is above the law”, said Starmer, shortly before news of Andrew’s arrest broke. Over there, they have not been treated to the sight of their great and good undergoing such glaring humiliation. The contrast could not be starker: the brother of our king and a towering political giant who until recently, let us not forget, was ambassador to Washington, have been felled; in the US, not one former or current senior office-holder has been interviewed by the police, let alone actually arrested. It can be argued that Mandelson and Mountbatten-Windsor are facing questioning for abusing their official roles and that so far, while business executives have been embarrassed by the references to them in the Epstein material and have resigned or made to squirm, no one governmental has been accused of carrying out favours for the late convicted sex offender. That is a fine distinction, which could evaporate on closer scrutiny of the millions of Epstein documents. The fact is it the UK’s court of public opinion that has brought the pair down. In the States, the appetite is not there – certainly from the Republican side, not to the degree that would encourage probing of their biggest beasts and not from the White House itself for reasons, given Donald Trump’s friendship with Epstein, that are obvious. Britain’s law enforcers have not hesitated – or if they have, we don’t know about it. From our prime minister there has been a clear steer to do as they see fit. That has not always been the case – our history, especially latterly, is littered with charges of cover-ups and high-level obfuscation. Perhaps that is the reason why we are acting now, that we cannot witness any more. In any event, what is unfolding in the UK over Epstein is of greater consequence than anything hitherto in the US. Their press is cowed or blinkered, as are those prosecutors who ordinarily would be investigating and yes, arresting. These are not normal times in the US. They are turbulent here, too. But if there is a positive to emerge from this it is that democracy in the UK is very much alive. Alas, that cannot be said of present day America.