Fish and chips the Mexican way
The famous story about Peter Mandelson was that he once went into a northern fish and chip shop, spotted the mushy peas on display, and asked for "some of that guacamole".
A total fabrication, of course, from the days when Mandelson was the ogre of the Labour Party.
The real sign of Mandleson's transformation in Labour terms came not with his extraordinary speech and standing ovation in the conference hall this afternoon, but a small scene on the Brighton seafront last night.
A colleague spotted Mandy leaving a chip shop bearing a tray of chips and, yes, mushy peas.
More for show, I suspect, than consumption.
I'm Michael Crick, and I'm Newsnight's political editor. My guiding rule is that in any story there's usually something the politicians would prefer the world not to know. My job is to find that out. Follow me on
Comment number 1.
At 28th Sep 2009, bookhimdano wrote:don't mention the voodoo...
one poster on 5 live summed the speech up 'it was like watching Delia shout 'lets be havin yer' on the norwich football pitch'.
it was a bit emotional.
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Comment number 2.
At 28th Sep 2009, barry white wrote:Any more stories that should be true but not?
Its the time for them to come on out now the election is near. The truth does not really hurt, just interferes.
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Comment number 3.
At 29th Sep 2009, Quietzapple wrote:I heard that he praised the "wonderful guacamole dip" after a visit, in the company of other southern Labour politicos, to a chippie ooop north, where what my family sometimes called "mucky peas" were de rigeur before they were adopted by southerners.
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Comment number 4.
At 29th Sep 2009, JunkkMale wrote:Watching the fawn-out to Little Master Sunshine's outing in some quarters, and I am reassured that when one moves beyond the beholden and hence bonded WUVI-classes, which number a few thousand at best, the rest of the population have longer memories and less well (and often less dubiously-funded, in some cases) packed bank balances.
In actually labouring terms, that is.
Come the election. Comes the day.
Now all I need to figure out is who I can actually stomach voting for.
A Parliament of NOTAs is, sadly, a route to anarchy. I owe my kids better than that.
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Comment number 5.
At 29th Sep 2009, leftieoddbod wrote:all of the reasons why Labour will be trashed at the election.....Mandy, Gordon, Mandy, Gordon, Mandy, Gordon....the public don't want you guys...you are finished, you have messed up now please...kindly leave the stage, you are now an embarrassment...
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Comment number 6.
At 29th Sep 2009, MacScroggie wrote:Among other things Our Mandy is an adept chameleon.
( Or maybe he actually likes that processed green vegetable. )
This is when we need a political commentator to pop the question to His Lordship !
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Comment number 7.
At 29th Sep 2009, stanilic wrote:I think the mushy peas incident is quite unfair to Mandy. I come from the same neck of the woods as Mandy, am a few years older and grew up at a poorer address.
No chippy in that part of London served mushy peas in the Fifties and Sixties. He would have not have known of the phenomenon until he finally went up north. For some of us this was sooner for others later.
My Dad took me up north when I was twelve as he wanted me to know where the real work was done in the country. I had my first mushy peas then and loved them: good honest grub!
Someone from the balmy London suburbs, middle-class like Mandy, would not have understood muchy peas but would have known guacamole. I bet he did use the word `guacamole' but this was quite reasonable within the context. Only the inverted snobbery of others makes this an issue.
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Comment number 8.
At 1st Oct 2009, Quietzapple wrote:Funny how various persons. whom I shall not be sufficiently impolite to describe further, want to give the impression that the next election is over bar their greasy chicken counting . . .
Perhaps, Michael, you might blog on the wanna-be bandwagon effect, which, I understand, may play a role in their propaganda?
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