Peter Mandelson to get another role?

The Guardian speculate that

"Lord Mandelson is being tipped as a possible "minister for information" under a shake-up of the way Downing Street holds its media briefings announced today.

Officials planning the overhaul believe that one option would be for the business secretary to hold weekly news conferences to explain government policy.

The prime minister's spokesman announced the setting up of a working group to review the way Downing Street conducts media briefings in "an increasingly fast-moving and online media world".

One option being considered would involve Mandelson giving a televised briefing to reporters every Monday about government business, according to a Westminster insider.

If Mandelson were to hold a weekly televised briefing, he would in effect add "minister for information" to his long list of titles. In the past some governments have appointed an official "minister for information", although the title has not officially been used in recent years.

Such a role would not involve Mandelson giving up his post as business secretary.

Mandelson is widely acknowledged to be one of the best media communicators in the government. He first came to prominence as a Labour spin doctor, although if he were to hold press conferences every Monday there is some danger that he could overshadow the prime minister or attract too much attention to himself."

Is there any limit to the powers and roles that the unelected Peter Mandelson may accrue to himself? I am not convinced that Peter Mandelson is the great communicator that he and the media believe he is, I and many others find him a massively irritating presence. However I do concede that he is a better communicator than Gordon Brown but then who isn't?

But come on "Information Minister", who thought of that title, do these people have no sense? Does anyone else think that it has more than a slight ring of 1984's The Ministry of Truth? As with the other Ministries in George Orwell's novel, the Ministry of Truth was a misnomer and in reality served an opposing purpose to that which its name implied, being responsible for the falsification of historical events; and yet was aptly named in a deeper sense, in that it created "truth" in the newspeak sense of the word...

This Labour government is becoming beyond parody.