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People need to stop promoting ‘serial liar’ Blairites as a force for good

Two ‘serial liar’ Blairites have been prominent on social media in recent days. And it’s supposedly left-wing people who’ve been promoting them. Let’s be clear: this really isn’t OK.

The Canary‘s editor-at-large Kerry-Anne Mendoza tweeted that:

So, what’s the deal?

The return of the “Prince of Darkness”

First up and Peter Mandelson was in Hartlepool. He was campaigning for Paul Williams, Labour’s candidate in the by-election. It was “great to be back” according to Mandelson. Apparently, Labour is “under new management”. Williams declared on Twitter that:

Mandelson is well respected across Hartlepool as a hard working MP here for 12 years.

Anyone see the problem here? Well, this is of course the same Mandelson that, as Socialist Appeal wrote, was the “Prince of Darkness” that Labour:

parachuted into Hartlepool to serve as its MP in the 1990s.

It’s the same Mandelson that quit government twice due to scandals. This is also the same Mandelson that voted for the second invasion of Iraq. And it’s the same Mandelson that then quit as an MP to get a more lucrative role in the EU. And the same Mandelson who then quit that job to return to government. Also, as one person pointed out on Twitter:

And as someone else noted:

Oh, and it’s the same Mandelson that’s also chairman of a global lobbying firm.

It’s perhaps a measure of both Williams and the Labour leadership that an endorsement from one of the most controversial figures in UK politics of recent decades is somehow a good thing. But, Blairites attempting to bring their careers back from the dead, and people welcoming these political zombies back, is a running theme at present.

Labour’s very own Dominic Cummings

Enter Blairite number two: Labour’s very own Dominic Cummings, Alastair Campbell. He’s been all over Twitter in recent days. This is because of campaigning lawyer Peter Stefanovic, whose video about Boris Johnson’s “relentless lying” went viral:

All power to Stefanovic. He’s been persistent in trying to get the corporate press to report on Johnson’s lying. This led to Campbell on BBC News jumping on Stefanovic’s bandwagon when he mentioned the video during an interview:

So, people have been praising Campbell for raising the video:

Anyone see the problem this time? Well, this is of course the same Campbell that helped create ‘New Labour’. As the website politics.co.uk noted:

Campbell was said to have coined the name ‘New Labour’; drafted the speech that led to the symbolic rewriting of Clause IV in the Labour Party constitution; and worked to court Rupert Murdoch and persuade the Sun newspaper to support Labour in the 1997 General Election.

It’s also the same Campbell who was involved in Blair’s ‘dodgy dossier’ on Iraq’s weapons. It’s the same Campbell who, along with Mandelson, was involved in the People’s Vote EU campaign that played a part in Labour’s 2019 election loss. This is the same Campbell who was anti-Jeremy Corbyn, and who Labour subsequently expelled.

‘There’s always an agenda’

Neither Mandelson nor Campbell have even remotely left-wing principles. They are both careerists. Both men are more interested in corporate capitalism than egalitarianism. Yet some people are now portraying both as a pair of moral compasses.

So, as Mendoza summed-up:

The people promoting both Mandelson and Campbell are either:

  • Thinking that finding common ground with them is good.
  • Deluded.
  • Acting in bad faith.

Make your minds up which one you think it is.

Featured image via flydime – Wikimedia, the Guardian – YouTube and the Financial Times – YouTube

By Steve Topple

This post was originally published on The Canary.