That was the jab Gordon Brown aimed at David Cameron in the run-up to the Conservative Party conference. Cameron, of course, is far too well-mannered to respond by observing that 9 years in waiting did not seem to have prepared Gordon Brown terribly well for the top job. After all, here we are in the midst of an economic crisis, with families feeling the financial pinch, and high-street banks failing around us because of the dubious status of their mortgage loans.
I have to wonder, then, at the thought process which must have preceded Gordon Brown's decision to re-instate Peter Mandelson as a Cabinet Minister; Mandelson, you may recall, had to resign from the Blair cabinet 10 years ago because of the dubious status of his own mortgage loan (an undeclared £373,000 from the then Paymaster General, Geoffrey Robinson). He then had to resign a second time, in 2001, following allegations that he had improperly intervened in the passport application process for a wealthy donor to the Millennium Dome project Mandelson was running at the time.
The BBC's Radio Five Live today had an interview with Chris Patton (Lord Patton of Barnes), the former Conservative Cabinet Minister and last Governor of Hong Kong. At one point Patton remarked that Mr Mandelson might be "just the man to convince UK businesses that they need more regulation".
This being radio, it was quite impossible to see whether his tongue was in his cheek or not.
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