Parliament & Politics: 'Red Pete' Mandelson shows his credentials

THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT

THE TALK of the Westminster village this week has been the way that Baroness Thatcher has blundered into the Pinochet affair and successfully created mayhem for all three party front benches.

First the Tories: the deputy leader, Peter Lilley, was left coughing and spluttering when he was unable or unwilling to answer the direct question on the Today programme "Do you agree with Lady Thatcher?". Across the house, the Labour Party's generation of MPs who were part of the anti- Pinochet protest movement of the Seventies, were suitably wound up by the affair. Peter Mandelson, or "Red Pete" as he has now been nicknamed, got in first with an opportunity to prove he really has good old-fashioned student credentials.

Unfortunately for former lefties Jack Straw and Robin Cook, who would dearly have loved to have got in some anti-Pinochet kicks, their civil servants made them mumble boring official Whitehall-speak.

Even the Liberal Democrats were unable to enjoy the moment to the full. Menzies Campbell's early comments were pure agitprop, but by the time Paddy Ashdown got in on the act, his natural desire to be statesmanlike meant he could not enjoy to the full the advantages which Liberalism normally offers for attacking right-wing hate figures. The best solution came from Dennis Skinner, who suggested that General Pinochet's punishment should be to take up residence with Lady Thatcher.

PHILIP GOULD, Labour's chief backroom boy, is promoting more Lib-Lab coalition talk. With the Jenkins report on PR due out next Thursday, his remarks will be seized on by Lib Dems, who will demand an early signal that Tony Blair is coming off the fence.

There is no danger of the Prime Minister falling into this honey-trap, which all leaves Mr Ashdown very vulnerable. While Mr Blair may yet wish to see his friend inside a ministerial limo in due course, Paddy's party won't let him wait that long. He has been leader for over 10 years and they want him to deliver some jam today.

Blair's eventual promise of referendum jam tomorrow may be too late for Paddy.

PRIME MINISTERS need to keep their eye on those they dismiss in reshuffles. The first hint of serious trouble occurred for Mr Blair this week when David Clarke, the recently sacked cabinet minister, broke cover to challenge Mr Blair about the alleged suggestion from the Bank of England governor, Eddie George, that northern unemployment was a price worth paying for low inflation.

Mr Clarke managed, successfully, to recreate the grim spectre of the North-South divide and rekindled memories of the industrial recession of the early 1980s which haunted the Conservative record.

As Tory "wets" railed against Mrs Thatcher's allegedly divisive economic policies, and the likes of Ian Gilmour and Francis Pym were consigned to the scrapheap, the then prime minister may have come to regret the opening lines of her premiership, on the steps of No 10, when she quoted from St Francis of Assisi "Where there is discord, may we bring harmony."

Similarly, Mr Clarke's comments were a far cry from Labour's election theme tune, "Things Can Only Get Better", which echoed in Mr Blair's ears as he walked into No 10 in May last year.

THE FIRST sign of early electoral panic by a Labour MP with a marginal constituency was spotted when Gisela Stuart popped up to demand a debate on Rover at Longbridge. Mrs Stuart won the nearby seat of Birmingham Edgbaston from the Tories, and local unemployment will increase as a result of the forthcoming redundancies.

Any lingering hopes Mrs Stuart might have had that there will be a government bail-out were dashed when Mr Mandelson donned the mantle of the late Keith Joseph and washed his hands of the issue with the comment: "The company's future rests in its own hands."

While Mrs Stuart went through the ritual of blaming it all on the Conservatives, her anxious demands hinted at the prospect of local Labour unpopularity, nasty constituents' letters, and a packed surgery this morning, full of voters telling her "Never again".

JOHN REID, the new Minister for Transport, has been thumbing through the Thatcher guide on "How to flog off the family silver".

In a bravado performance of skill and daring he appeared before the Transport Select Committee to defend the Government's policy to sell off the national air traffic control system. In Opposition, the Labour Party gave commitments that air traffic control would remain in public ownership. But, less than two years later, the eminently effective Mr Reid had no problems in arriving at the conclusion that the private sector offers greater efficiency. Proving worthy of his promotion, he waxed lyrical about the dynamism of private enterprise as an engine of additional investment.

POLITICOS, the Westminster bookshop and modern equivalent of the 18th century political coffee house, hosted a reception for the launch of Parliamentary Portions.

This culinary compilation, by Labour MPs Liz Blackman and Nick Palmer, offers a revealing gourmet's guide to MPs who have submitted their favourite menus.

There is a heavy emphasis on healthy eating and, as befits New Labour, the cuisine is notably Italian, pasta-friendly and vegetarian. Ben Bradshaw, Labour MP for Exeter, manages to pass the politically correct eating test on all three counts offering a vegetarian serving of Pasta Con Salvia, a dish "that combines speed and deliciousness".

At the other end of the spectrum is a recipe from the Speaker, Betty Boothroyd. Her offering of stewed oxtail is described, like herself, as a dish that is "traditional, well-loved and warming". Thankfully Madam Speaker's kitchens are beyond the reach and remit of Jack "Enforcer" Cunningham who banned beef on the bone.