The final episode of our saga: Mandelson's fall from grace in the aftermath of Keir Starmer's election first as leader of the Labour Party and then as one of Britain's most rapidly unpopular Prime Ministers.

Can't get enough Mandelson? Subscribe now to Extra Bad Gays to hear our subscriber-only followup discussion with James Butler of the LRB and Juliet Jacques of Suite 212.

Mandelson knows too much, understands too much, to be left out of the equation. It’s because he’s sly and underhanded and deceitful that people need him, because it’s a political system that works on those qualities. This is court politics; it’s what Mandelson is a master of, it’s what Epstein was a master of, it’s what Trump is a master of: the informal power of relationships.

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SOURCES:

Mandelson and the making of New Labour, Donald Macintyre

Mandy: The Unauthorised Biography of Peter Mandelson, Paul Routledge

Outrageous! The Story of Section 28 and Britain's Battle for LGBT Education, Paul Baker

Tory Pride and Prejudice: The Conservative Party and homosexual law reform, Michael McManus

The Rivals : the intimate story of a political marriage, James Naughtie

Bloody Nasty People, Daniel Trilling

Clampdown: Pop-Cultural wars on class and Gender, Rhian E. Jones

1997: The Future That Never Happened, Richard Power Sayeed

Authentocrats: Culture, Politics and the New Seriousness, Joe Kennedy

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