Loyalty to "the Party" is all

The UK in 2009 is resembling more and more the Soviet Union in the 1970s. This Spectator piece reveals via John Kampfner "The price of Mandelson's support" for Gordon Brown thus:

"Not known until now is one vital part of their negotiation. Mandelson – on Blair’s behalf – set down specific conditions for the Iraq war inquiry. The deal, I am told, was explicit. Not only would the hearings be fully in private, but that the committee would, as with Hutton, be manageable. Brown was instructed to ensure that the members of the inquiry would, in the words of one official “not stir the horses”. Brown readily acquiesced. He was not in a position to do anything else. It was a done deal, even before James Purnell sent alarm bells through Downing Street with his resignation on the night of June 4.

Which in turn begs a further question. Why should confidentiality in the Iraq hearings be so important to Mandelson? Again, John supplies the answer:

Mandelson’s involvement in this affair is more complicated. He has personally less to hide than Blair, Campbell and the others who were intimately engaged in the war planning. His motivation hinges around preserving the Blair Brand that he was instrumental in creating. He agreed a year ago to join Brown’s cabinet in order to ensure that the Brand was not sullied. He agreed to prop up the prime minister earlier this month in order to ensure that the Brand was not completely destroyed.

A mystery solved, then – and another shameful chapter in the New Labour saga written. The terms of the Chilcot Inquiry – already unravelling – were initially traded in return for loyalty: no more or less. Gordon revealed that more or less anything was for sale in those fateful hours; Peter revealed where his deepest loyalty still lies. And, to the huge relief of the Conservatives and dismay of many in the Labour ranks, the Brown premiership was salvaged"