Tales of the Mandy-Spected I

o Peter Mandelson is back in the cabinet. I well remember his first few days as Northern Ireland Secretary very well.

Why because he made me repeat work I'd already carried out. The reason being that in his first day briefing he saw the event that the branch I worked in at the Department of Enterprise Trade and Investment were holding on the Thursday Friday* morning to launch a new BT call centre in Londonderry. He saw this as a good event to follow up a walkabout in Belfast with. So our team had to call back all the local businessmen, or their secretaries who had already been tentative or said no to up the level of guest that was coming to the event from VIP to VVIP. Oh yeah many of them knew exactly what that meant. So in a week that I've been working flat out, this time not for Mandy, but in a call centre (oh the irony), he has returned to the Cabinet.

To complete the picture I'll be off to Markinch tomorrow remembering a previous by election in Hartlepool.

*Hey come on not bad from memory on a Friday lunchtime.