Mandelson came to praise Brexit. Merck just buried it

When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.

- William Keegan

Our beleaguered prime minister will be familiar with the words of Claudius in Hamlet as he (Starmer, not the prince of Denmark) is accused of yet another misjudgment. I will refer briefly to Lord Mandelson, but promise that this will be an Epstein-free zone. Last weekend, while he was still our ambassador to the US, Mandelson gave an extraordinary speech. The bottom of the barrel was already being scraped as he praised Trump's “ironclad” stomach for political risk.

Yes, one appreciates that these are delicate times for Europe’s Nato members trying to keep the clown in the White House on board. But diplomacy is one thing; obsequiousness and kowtowing are quite another.

Mandelson made no mention of the “political risks” Trump is taking with his assaults on the domestic and international rule of law, or his savagely undemocratic attacks on academic and cultural institutions.