Probing Mandelson's Sunphobia

PETER Mandelson has become a touch paranoid about the press over the past couple of weeks - but then he may have something to be paranoid about.

In his column last week, the New Statesman's political editor, Steve Richards, recalled a conversation with Mandelson, not long before the former Trade and Industry Secretary's resignation. He asked Mandelson about his expressions of warmth towards the European single currency.

Mandelson replied: "Yes, but every time I do that there's an attack on Gay Mandelson in The Sun. There's a correlation between the two, you know." Could it be true? The Sun's political editor, Trevor Kavanagh, who has written more than his share of gay politician pieces, says it is not: "I think this is a sad example of paranoia. Our campaign against Europe has been running much longer than the debate over Mandelson. This is just an example of Sun-phobia." But a glance back over recent months reveals some truth in Mandelson's assertion. Take his speech to business leaders at the CBI conference in Birmingham at the beginning of November. Mandelson made it clear to his audience that he had his sights set on monetary union soon after the next election. Six days later Kavanagh wrote his infamous piece entitled: "How many skeletons are still in the closet? Riddle of Britain's Gay Mafia". On 19 October Mandelson was reported to have ridiculed the suggested ban on taxpayer's money being used to campaign for a Yes vote in a referendum on EMU. Days later there was another rush of "Gay Mandelson" stories in The Sun, relating to the BBC memo banning mention of Mandelson's sexuality, which were reported in every other paper on Fleet Street. In fact, while The Sun has run 30 stories which feature the words "Mandelson" and "gay", The Times managed to run 103 stories on Mandelson and the single currency. So have Mandelson's famous powers of analysis deserted him? Trevor Kavanagh has another answer: "People like Paul Routledge and Derek Draper, who are arch media manipulators, are always the first to blame the media for their problems, now Mandelson is just doing the same."

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