´óÏó´«Ã½

Are we really now going to hound politicians, of whatever political hue, simply for having conversations? It's no wonder that fewer and fewer people want to go into politics. If an illegal donation has been made, then I stand corrected, but my understanding is that no such donation has been made. Where is all this going to end? Anyway, wasn't Mandelson there as well? There are far more important things going on in the world I my view!

isn't there a nice group photo of the Bullingdon somewhere? Maybe NN can show it[or the portrait] to remind us?

the bigger story is that foreign donations to political parties can be accepted through the fig leaf of a company that is 'based' in the uk.

is there a common link that brings such a politically strange group together ?

3 men in a boat.

So we have a Russian oligarch, a banker and Ossie; three men A,B and C. But I just have a feeling Man D might have had a bigger role.

YACHT-GATE

Are you mad? It just wouldn't work - the yacht would sink. Gates are not water-tight. You might as well have 'imaginary money', and 'valuable debt'; the whole lot would do a Bermuda triangle and take your country down with it. You will be suggesting, next, we elect governments by giving votes to the gormless; and then, that we hand a nuclear button to anyone with a serious enough tic to set it off. What else? Invite every wealthy crook we can find to live in the UK; people our hospitals with a wide range of semi-English speakers to further distress the frail and elderly and frightened, and then join a different bunch of crooks, whose accounts never add up and whose agenda doesn't either? You're 'avin a larf! The people would never stand for it. Yacht-gate, yacht-schmate mate.

In the highly unlikely event of George Osborne putting in an appearance on tonight's show, could someone at least straighten his tie, so that he doesn't look quite so 'flustered'.

Anyone would think he has something to hide and is desperately worried about the impact of the cat escaping from the bag...

Is this another 'story' that only the political journalists are interested in?

Stop trying to provoke/make a story - it's lazy.

3 men in a boat

I've heard it suggested the Ossie story is Mandy's revenge. Wasn't the original "dripping poison" story a set up? It always seemed that way. (Brown would not have dared dump him at that time, so he was safely back). Ossie hammered, Cameron badly damaged (there was little there anyway), Brown and Milliband will be pushovers. Mandy can still do it!

One commentator suggested he 'should have walked away' - but as they were on a yacht,
Mr Osborne would then have
drowned. It is all a matter of judgement but walk on water?

He is not Peter Mandelson ...

#2

Hi

I couldn't agree more with you about company's, but also Union funds should not be used to fund UK political parties either.

There is no requirement that UK Union members can only be UK registered voters ?


If we want political party funding reform it has to be fair and not just one sided.

Personally I would like to restrict all political donations to £15(or less) pa and only from UK registered voters, No Company's and No Unions or other collectives !

I believe our politics has been taken away from the individuals in our nation and we need it returned to us. Being in control of their party funding is the only way to do it !

Yatch Gate

Well it covered that the FTSE and Dow are down again, which was last weeks story.

What happened to all the cedit default insurance, sorry swaps? Insurance has to under written.

The real question, the true news analyst's question, is why have the ´óÏó´«Ã½ spent the day trying to smear Osborne with such a thin story?

Why, as well, the peculiar sight of Peston, your business correspondent not your political correspondent, making a lot of the running on this one?

There is a strong reek of a back-story here, because the main effort is so patently weak. Does the ´óÏó´«Ã½ want to get Osborne for their own reasons? Are they being leant on to do the smearing? Is Peston getting his own back for the formal complaints made against him by Tory MPs? Whatever, leading the news all day on this story certainly isn't supported by the facts as they are currently presented, so what really is going on?

SHARKS OUT OF WATER

"Yacht-gate: What happened on a yacht in Corfu this summer? That's the question that we've spent the day trying to answer."



Anything like that?

Why didn't you spend the day doing something more useful?

I suppose at least it gives the LibDems the chance to do their usual "holier than though" bit. Yawn!

Where is the story of Osborne? No money changed hands and no laws have been broken, why are the ´óÏó´«Ã½ going after this?
The real story is Lord Mandie and why he was there also what relationship he has with the Russian, Mandie is in government George Osborne is not, so come on ´óÏó´«Ã½ get onto the cabinet minister and get the relationship out in the open, because the smokescreen of George is looking like a cover up to keep the Lord of Sleaze out of the press!
oh and if George Osborne or anyone else wants to go and sit on a yatch somewhere in this downturn thats fine, as long as we are not paying for it no one cares what he does in private!
Over to you Lord Mandie, dont be shy on this issue

Peter Lilly says this evening that this is not a story because there was not a donation. Not true, there does not need to be a donation. It is a criminal offence under PPERA 'Section 61(1)' to facilitate the making of donations by impermissible donors.

Paxman should be for cedto resign after his pathetic defence of the Tories on tonight's newsnight - it was left to 3rd rate Lab and Lib Dem politicians to ask the question: Why would Rothschild make the claim re Osborne's donation-seeking if it was not true? Uh? What other question is important here? Wach the tape again. Paxman is biases. Paxman is useless. He is a parody of an inquiring journalist and he tarnishes the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s hard won claim to impartiality. I have worked in the national media for more than 20 years and was ashamed.

Ken Clark and the rest of the panel seem to have left out that although a strong cut in base rates may not result in the granting of credit or loans as much, the reduction in interest rates will soften the blow to bills being faced by households. It is probably a truism that households in the UK are re-balancing their personal balance sheets away from debt. They will be able to manage this better under lower interest rates.

The same will also keep businesses now at the margin in play and not take out businesses out of the economy, thus shrinking it.

#12 JJ

Excellent

Poor George...

I (too?) HAVE been soliciting donations - (well, personal loans actually) - to remain afloat (also unsuccessfully).

NO money has yet been forthcoming - & NO money has changed hands... I'm clearly overjoyed at how competitive the interest may become on the loan I can't get...

As LORD KEN says, the interest rate is irrelevant if you CAN'T GET THE CASH! (Russian or otherwise).

In the absence of any story it is to Paxman's credit that he wound
this item up live on air ..............

As for Tony Wright MP: perhaps he should go away and re-read
page 96 of Andrew Rawnsley's
'Servants Of The People: The Inside Story of New Labour'
before asserting that Gordon
Brown would never have got
into any similar situations:

"During that limousine ride with the Chancellor Blair developed with Brown an alternative ruse"
[chapter 6 entitled 'They'll get
me for this' dealing with the
Bernie Ecclestone donations].

Of course, were a Wendy-Alexander-style 'thank-U'
note to surface in a bottle
addressed to a yacht over
in Corfu (or indeed Jersey)
then Newsnight should of
course return to the story.

Oleg Deripaska sounds like an interesting sort of a guy .......
lots of public spirited work on
climate change for G8 as well
as his interests in alumninium
with or without any EU tariffs?

MENTAL PARTY FUNDING (#9)

Partys collect £millions to expend on neutralising other parties' propaganda (paid for with other £millions) and in buying the votes of the gullible. They have shown just how creative (devious) they can be in getting round any rules. Remove parties and the problem goes away.

DINOSAUR IN THE STUDIO (12)

Please spare us the agony of Kenneth Clarke. The stain of tobacco, (particularly on a man who accepted 'health' while in the cabinet) plus the outmoded public school stutter, do not mark him as a sage. What benefit to Newsnight erudition, a man who has gained a big slice of cake but lost his soul?

Why are we not building yachts like the Queen K on the Clyde?

Building the Queen Mary was a Keynesian response to the big
recession in the 1930's .........

So why not start building boats for billionaires in Britain instead of whinging about excess - and
passing up the yacht market to
our German friends in Bremen?

Surely this is more ethical than
building Trident submarines - it
might lead to increased imports
of aluminium from Russia but a counter-benefit might be that a
thawing of the cold-war would be that Russia would focus more on football and vodka cocktails and world peace might take a leap forward by encouraging more of
our politicians to take holidays?

Just a thought ......


[Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]

l

Outstanding Jeremy tonight particularly with Peter Lilley & Co .Absolutely priceless - from asking Tony Wright if would go on the yacht, to his reply that he would have gone, to which he replied " I would have gone to Skegness." The best line of the night was by Jeremy -
"you're a man who can see a conspiracy in an order for five cups of tea." :-)

Indeed the more I think about it
the more I like the idea of yacht construction for Russian billions
in say Burntisland in Fife which
is of course within commuting distance of Glenrothes where
local Tories are desperately seeking a Big Idea to dish
the headmaster of Gordon
Brown's Old School .........

There is a local tradition in
Oleg's favourite industry -
aluminium - and chances
for visiting billionaires to
be entertained at a local
football club in Kirkcaldy
called Raith Rovers where
they can mix with ordinary
Fifers while inspecting the
progress on yacht building
work at nearby Rosyth .....

I say: go for broke, George!
Mandelson is on board: and
both Labour and Conservative
have nothing to lose but your deposits as the SNP sail past.

#Neil Robertson

How do you know Oleg Deripaskas work on climate change is public spirited?

Not saying it isn't.

Have followed you link etc.

Remember the 2005 G8 agenda of climate change was probably from my work.

The win win scenarios in the Sustainable development submission, could also have come from work I did the same time for the Cabinet Office.

The work seems skewed towards business and not pure planetary management or SD in the most effective way.

#25 is my own answer to a question posed at #23 on
yachts: viz 'Why are we
not building yachts like
the Queen K in Britain?'

Oleg's floating gin palace seems to have been built in Bremen ....

Not that there was any gin in Mr Osborne's cup of tea (allegedly)!

This is a journalists' & TV commentators' dream story. Mandy, a top Tory, a Russian oligarch and a yacht. Even Jeremy seemed to enjoy it.

Does the public even care? Nah! Get it off the headlines, please.

#21

Ban all political parties ?

Independents would still need a campaign fund to fight an election ,who's going to supply the money and what's their motives ?

The Americans have a saying "Money talks and BS walks", until we the voters are in total control of party funding thats how they are going to treat us.

I don't agree with the Hayden Phillips report , thats something the parties have come up with, unconditional taxpayer funding of registered parties is just wrong.

I think every UK voter , if they so wish, could donate £15 (tax deductible)to a party of their choice per year.
I think a simple 0800 number where UK voters could quote their preference and their NI number from their registered telephone number(address), would do the job.
This would cut out Companies , Unions , Special Interest groups and just leave the people who matter in an election "The UK Voters".

I suppose it's like a shop, if customers don't like the products , they wont buy them and you go bust.

Some could even say it's performance related pay for political parties :P

good newsnight but spoilt by the flippant attitude shown by Jeremy to the yachtgate thing...it is SERIOUS Jeremy who kept asking the same inane question 'does it matter' well, yes it does. Three people fingered Osborne over this affair and are prepared to go to cour over it. If that is not serious for George then Paxo is his mate. The impartiality of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ is at stake here and to it's credit the ´óÏó´«Ã½ has given this subject plenty of 'airtime' so Paxman should be a bit more even handed in his questioning. It was as though Tony Wright and the Lib DEm guy were on the rack instead of the Tory apologist Peter Lilley. Good Newsnight though.

If Mr. Osborne decided to fry his career and drop his party in the fire over an illegal £50k bung from a dodgy Russian he deserves all he gets.

However, before I try and figure out what else is going on 'out there' from between the lines of the rest of the ratings-chasing Westminster Village Useful Idiot media, with a national audience now well-primed by a certain national broadcaster, I so far have this from ´óÏó´«Ã½ Breakfast News (aided by what I read above):

The 'evidence', as outlined by a single wheeled-in studio 'expert' of uncertain objectivity: A bloke says another bloke asked another bloke in his hearing for an illegal donation... that did not transpire and hence serve anyone's interests... whilst they were all on a boat. And he has... a 'witness' (two against one=proof? In this murky world?). The second bloke denies this. That, so far, is it... what 'might' have happened is about as loose as it gets, and what didn't happen is in no doubt. This is NEWS???

Meanwhile, on possibly the same boat, a bloke in power and a current position of influence has conversations with a bloke... whose business interests (and hence incentive to take sides) end up gaining from the very outfit employing this first powerful person at the time.

Meanwhile, I am unsure on which dinghy half of Labour met Bernie E all that time ago, but I am sure the ´óÏó´«Ã½ will not find this of relevance either.

I am disgusted with the way ALL our media is trying to shape our mindsets in such a crass ratings or agenda-driven partisan manner, free of any hint of journalistic ethics or editorial objectivity.

But at least I can surf between them and drop those I don't rate, and certainly not support them with my money (bar a few extra visitor clicks).

I don't appear to have this option with the largest, and most pervasive of all. Why?

At the moment Mr. Osborne would appear to the chatterati to be at best a good excuse for a headline or at worst Sarah Palin's secret boyfriend.

As with a load of others Mr. Osbourne's judgement in a 'perceptions' era is pretty suspect and he is paying the consequences, but that these others are getting a free pass while he does is nothing sort of gob-smacking.

My life seems in the control of an unelected, unaccountable media elite (one of which I am forced to fund) that is itself out of control, and I am seeing the rather flawed 'but it's the best we have' concept of democracy being eroded in front of my very eyes as a consequence.

At least I can, for now, vote (no idea who FOR, but 'ENABL' (Enough, Now; Anything But Labour) is a cert for who NOT) out a shambles of a government, but tell me please how I have a say that counts in what happens to their state PR department?

Forget the bad joke that is Newswatch. Forget cookie-cutter issuing Complaints. Forget the most mis-named entity in the world: the Trust. And all the other options I have seen suggested are either the actual entity the ´óÏó´«Ã½ supports, or is beholden to them.

And no, I don't fancy not paying the fee... yet. It's illegal and gets me a fine or record, which I can't afford.

THE GOOD FIGHT? (#30)

Hi Steve. Note how easily we drop into 'fighting' talk. If candidates arose from the established, constituency residents, fighting for 'the prize' would be unnecessary and inappropriate. Why would anyone accept, as proper, their approval being bought - in any walk of life?

Currently we fight anyone in the world who is not 'with us'. Might that come from the combative mentality of standard politicians?

I don't claim this is guaranteed work - but what we have certainly doesn't, so I am poking about for something better.

I did indeed follow the link to Celtic Lion #26 - excellent ...

And reassured to hear that
a seer from Blairgowrie was
able to influence the G8's
climate change agenda in
2005 at Gleneagles - and
beyond .....

The previous Scottish Exec
under Jack McConnell can
also I suspect take some
of the credit for getting
climate change on that
G8 agenda too - and of
course for arranging for
Mrs Putin to visit Glamis
Castle with Cherie and
the other G8 wives. NB
I seem to recall Russia
signed up for Kyoto in
the run-up to that G8 -
and that Queen E was
discussing seasonal
variation in the leaf
shedding pattern of
trees at Sandringham
over that particular
cup of Russian tea!

I'm sure that tea
was laced with a
heavy dose of
publicly funded
spirit too - in
honour of the
Queen Mum?!

Comment #23 is probably still being 'moderated' because it
contained a hyperlink to the
shipyard in Bremen that built
Oleg's yacht ...... hopefully it
was not because I mentioned
the adjective 'Keynesian' - in
reminding Messrs Osborne and
Mandelson that in the 1930's
work on the Queen M (as in Mary) was restarted to give
work to Scotland's unemployed.

Again the question asked was:
why are yachts for billionaires
being built in Bremen but not
in Britain where Brown prefers
our skilled shipbuilding workers
to devote their energy to what
from - a Russian point of view
- must look like weapons of mass destruction (pointing
in the main at them)? Why
not target Russian tourists
instead - like Visit Scotland?
And build them their boats?

CREDIT/DEBT WHERE IT'S DUE (#32)

"I am disgusted with the way ALL our media is trying to shape our mindsets in such a crass ratings or agenda-driven partisan manner, free of any hint of journalistic ethics or editorial objectivity."

Oh come on Junkk, be fair (this is the Age of Fairness). You get mindset-shaping banalarama (walls of VT) and award- winning cameraperson: Ray Ling of the Obscurantist School (runner up in the 'Best Futile Car Chase' category) plus incoherent speech and prima donna presentation. And don't lose sight of Paul Mason (even if he is across a busy road and behind a Starbucks window) the man is a god - a "Good god" as in: what will they do next? And all for a license fee that can go up - as well as up.
Britain at its best.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Poor old Trafalgar day. Ignored by the ´óÏó´«Ã½ as usual. How the moral relativists must hate it? Celebrate bravery and courage in the face of overwhelming odds ? Remind people of Britian was forged out of wars against those trying to crush it? The idea one culture is to be preferred over another? Yuk.

Tony Wright MP prefers Butlin's
- but most voters would I think
rather be with Boris ...............

As 'The Telegraph' reported on 22
July (allegedly) London's Mayor
said: "Stuff Skegness ........ my
trunks and I are off to the sun".

Or should that read: "The Sun"?!

Now Newsnight: why not get on to the Megrahi appeal story .....

Isn't the contempt the government has shown for the Chagos islanders with the connivance of the Law Lords (see today's ) worth quizzing the government about.

I wonder what QE2 thinks of this scurrilous use of "the royal prerogative"?

# 34 Neil Robertson



Submission to United Nations Environment and Development report 2002 commissioned by UK Gov.

Climate Change and Africa

How to use win win win scenarios in SD application.



It would appear someone has put ads on my site, these will have to go.

(Yes I did know the UK was going to suffer flooding on or after the 8th December 2006. The Tay flooded on the 13th.)

I did tell the police 6 weeks in advance, but they decided not to act.

If they had done I am sure the large reinsurers may have been tempted to invest quite a lot in the Scottish economy to find out how it was done.

This Corfu business is a non strory!
Mandelson is poison, we all know that and now we know that Osborne is at best naive and at worst a five star pratt.
Must we endure any more of this???

Another factor on the Mandelson/Osborne "he's more guilty than me!" affair is the Russian aspect.

Before arming himself with a banana David Miliband was lecturing the world on the dire threat that Russia posed to the West.

I myself disagree with that proposition in the case of Georgia as they launched an artillery bombardment killing apparently two thousand civilians. As an aside Panorama was talking of "hundreds" of dead earlier this week. Have the figures been confirmed?

Anyway why was half the British political establishment on a yacht exposing themselves to risk if they actually believe the Miliband prognosis? Very inconsistent.

The fact that the government loses data every other day - and it has been several days since the last announcement so Jacqui Smith is having an effect - is affected by the culture.

Perhaps the problems derive at the top.

The Chagos Islands appeal story is a further reason for ringing up
Tam Dalyell - he's campaigned
on that since the 1960's; and
he is also calling for the appeal in the Megrahi case to speed up.

Tam also knows a bit about yachts: before going into
Parliament he initiated the conversion of troop carriers
into floating educational cruise ships and was for many years
the Director of Education on these Baltic cruises. He also continues to take an interest
in Scottish-Russian relations.

This is a picture of SS Nevasa:


- a rather sleeker and bigger
'yacht' than Oleg's on which I
first visited Russia on one of
these school-cruises. There
were several other famous
school-cruise vessels in the
British India fleet: Dunera;
Devonia; Uganda; Nevasa.

Now: if Tam could persuade Oleg to get together with Billy Butlin, George Osborne and Lord Mandy,
we could diversity UK shipyards from making weapons of mass destruction and do something
a bit more positive for peace?

Just an idea .... a Keynesian
one as well .........

As well as educational yachts for School kids, another great idea that came out of West Lothian was the idea of recycling former naval craft as medical support boats and sailing them up The
Amazon to Peru. Vine Trust in
Bo'ness do this - and there is another Scottish NGO called
Mercy Ships run by Stagecoach boss Anne Gloag which sends medical ships to West Africa.

Such maritime activities are
much more useful than GB's
big idea of upgrading Trident
to win votes in the Rosyth area.

#45 Neil Robertson

Celtic Lion- The Seer from Blairgowrie.

Thank you I like that

You were not to know but the CD I had on, was by a band voted Scotland's No 1 of all time, and very well deserved as well.



Now as you may have found from one of my sites the strategy for Scotland this was sent to all MSPs at Holyrood at the start of April 2006.

This was to provide an alternative to the recession which we knew was coming, when and the magnitude.



A sustainable ship building industry for Scotland was covered.

The Seer from Blairgowrie

What has been overlooked in most media comments is the practice behind such informal meetings; on a yacht or otherwise - though it seems the meetings were taking place in the Rothschils villa and - apart from the infamous meeting with Cameron - the yacht was being used as overflow bedroom accomodation. What it was not was an all-expenses paid holiday - where were the wives and partners?

Politicians are often almost desperate to get input from people outside of government. They feel trapped by the control their civil servants exert over the information they are provided with. I have a number of times seen ministers sail very close to the wind in order to get such 'unbiased', or even just alternative, views.

This process can be on a one-to-one basis, or in small groups of powerful players; as this one appears to have been. Or it can be on the large scale; the annual junket at Davos brings together literally thousands of the great and good (and some of the not so good) to talk to each other.

All of this happens 'informally', with unwritten rules; though, if you want clarification, you are usually referred to the Chatham House Rules.

George Osborne broke two of the key rules. The first was in bringing in an outsider, the Tory fundraiser, and using the occasion for 'business reasons'. The second, and the one which started the argument, was divulging what was said (by Mandelson) to outsiders. Confidentiality is essential if such meetings are to take place.

Then, of course where the friends had long known each other, there was the public school ban on 'sneaking'. It was as bad as cheating at cards, which used to get you ostracised by the whole of 'society'. Osborne is a cad and a bounder; and I suppose he is!

UNSPEAKABLE BRITISHNESS (Chagossians)

The compulsory purchase (compensated eviction) of the Chagos Islanders, is a fitting precursor to pre-emptive armed invasions, de rigueur since 9/11. Might we, of the civilised, advanced world, espouse ethnic cleansing next? Would that be the (final) solution to the Afghanistan impasse? We would have to rename it of course. In view of the incessant use of 'clear' by politicians defending some vague course of action, I suggest: 'Clearance'.

On last night's show, was Ruth Lea wearing her father's woolen socks with Mary Jane shoes?

THE MANDELSON WEB (#50)

I think you will find that Ruth Lea and Peter Mandelson are sartorial sourcing at a well known chain of (far end) high street retailers. Peter is a devotee of the 'Mix n Mismatch' school. Not sure about RL.

#49 Barrie

Clearance

Think that has already been tried in Scotland see Clearance: Highland.

I refer the Honourable Gentleman to #47 Big Country

Celtic Lion-Seer from Blairgowrie

'Chatham House rules' be stuffed.
Mandelson's private comment on Brown became a matter of public interest as soon as he rejoined Brown's Cabinet. If Brown thinks this matter is 'very serious' the Minister should step aside - as
he was the only member of the yachting party with any power
to influence policy on metals.

George Osborne is an honest
man who is being subjected
to attack to divert attention
from the recession ............
he wrong-footed Brown last
summer over inheritance tax
and Gordon didn't like that.

But quite a lot of voters did.

Labour should go and suck a lemon ... instead of trying to
milk five cups of Russian tea.

#49 Barrie Singleton

After rigorous assessment of your suggestion in comment 49 that CLEARANCE be applied to actions such as 'compensated eviction' etc. Our focus groups, market research and polling evidence have found this inappropriate.

In view of the current state of UK Plc. Lord Mandelson's appreciation of cruising on a yacht. Plus suggestions that boat building could be a Keynes solution to the troubles of the British economy.

We are pleased to announce the next Government initiative for the benefit of the country will be called:


Clearance Sale

BALDRIC WISDOM (#52)

As Blackadder's literal side-kick once explained: "Irony is like goldy and bronzy".

In Dundee we remember with a plaque [ Bookhimdano comment
#38][and not just on Trafalgar Day] the role of Mary Buick of
this city who during the Battle of Trafalgar cradeled Lord Nelson's
head and then helped embalm him - in a barrel of brandy .....



And to think all poor George Osborne got was a cup of tea
in the heat of battle on that
other yacht ..... Tots of rum
all round, I say - Cuban? Or
better still from Dominican
Republic!

ODD OR TYPICAL BEHAVIOUR ?

or is this ?

BANK OF ENGLAND????????

REMIND ME AGAIN, WHO OWNS THE BANK OF ENGLAND, THE FEDRAL RESERVE, THE IMF ,THE WORLD BANK... ETC

PEOPLES BELIEF IN MONEY SEALS THEIR FATE......

no 59. does capslock help you in your beliefs? if not, turn the damn thing off.

YACHTGATE: THAT

None of this really

Does Anybody Remember Yachtgate?

There is no evidence that electric or hybrid cars are more energy efficient then the internal combustion engine.

In fact due to the high resource requirements in manufacture they could be worse for the environment.



One of these high resource inputs that make these so inefficient is NICkEL for the batteries.

Richard Burden MP is hinting now Mandelson is in talks to bailout the UK car industry.



With a restructure to make new 'fuel efficient and hybrid' cars. Which independent research shows no evidence for. On account of large resource inputs such as NICKEL.

Brown having made a statement that Mandelson did no wrong over his involvement with Russian Oligarch Deripaska



This because some politicians and media want answers to, did he do him a favour over Aluminium.

Mr Deripaska though has other problems as the Mail On Sunday 28th October pointed out.

"There was concern last night that Lord Mandelson could face a conflict of interest over a deal that may leave taxpayers exposed to Mr Deripaska's stake in a Russian firm.

The oligarch is scrambling to refinance a £2.8billion loan from banks, including the Royal Bank of Scotland, that he used to buy a stake in Norilsk NICKEL. "