Whatever Happened to the Prince of Darkness?
Or
The Prince of Darkness Ages Made Lighter
Or
The Prince of Darkness Ages Made Lighter
Excerpt from “Weathering the Wilderness” The Autobiography of Neil Kinnock. Chapter 11: 1985-86 (Published 1998)
“It was at this point we looked to improve the public image of the party. It was 1985 and things hadn’t really improved since the 1983 general election. I, and indeed, the rest of the party knew we couldn’t face another defeat like that with the Alliance seemingly on a continuous rise.
One of my first points of call in the search for an image improvement was to speak to a television producer by the name of Peter Mandelson. Peter worked for London Weekend Television on their politics show Weekend World and I knew of him through his uncle Alexander Butler who was a well connected party member back when I was first involved. We’d met however briefly when he was a councillor in 1980 but he’d since left the party and I hoped to convince him to rejoin.
As it happened I was unsuccessful, which was a shame, Peter was eloquent, charming and had an excellent eye for presenting people, groups and issues in a certain light. This would be a skill he'd still use to his benifit throughout his career, but I digress.
Our meeting, held at an Italian restaurant in Islington was pleasant enough but I just couldn’t convince him to leave television. He saw the move as too risky compared to his current job security. On top of this I’d heard from others (and in meeting him I’d got the impression) that he’d grown tired of politics and rather disillusioned with the Labour party. At the end of the night he said he wasn’t the man for “the mammoth task” of improving Labour’s election record. Still, he was quite friendly and apologetic about it and we remain quite good friends.
Still, with less than three years until the next election, the search for a new image had to go on. "
“It was at this point we looked to improve the public image of the party. It was 1985 and things hadn’t really improved since the 1983 general election. I, and indeed, the rest of the party knew we couldn’t face another defeat like that with the Alliance seemingly on a continuous rise.
One of my first points of call in the search for an image improvement was to speak to a television producer by the name of Peter Mandelson. Peter worked for London Weekend Television on their politics show Weekend World and I knew of him through his uncle Alexander Butler who was a well connected party member back when I was first involved. We’d met however briefly when he was a councillor in 1980 but he’d since left the party and I hoped to convince him to rejoin.
As it happened I was unsuccessful, which was a shame, Peter was eloquent, charming and had an excellent eye for presenting people, groups and issues in a certain light. This would be a skill he'd still use to his benifit throughout his career, but I digress.
Our meeting, held at an Italian restaurant in Islington was pleasant enough but I just couldn’t convince him to leave television. He saw the move as too risky compared to his current job security. On top of this I’d heard from others (and in meeting him I’d got the impression) that he’d grown tired of politics and rather disillusioned with the Labour party. At the end of the night he said he wasn’t the man for “the mammoth task” of improving Labour’s election record. Still, he was quite friendly and apologetic about it and we remain quite good friends.
Still, with less than three years until the next election, the search for a new image had to go on. "