FORMER Trade and Industry Minister Peter Mandelson, who was forced to resign after secretly borrowing #373,000 to buy a house, has been inundated with ''sympathy'' letters from well wishers and friends, writes Catherine MacLeod.
Since Mr Mandelson resigned on December 23 he has received nearly 800 letters from members of the public, one of them from a 10 year old boy who described Mr Mandelson as ''a brave man'' who should not have resigned.
Friends of Mr Mandelson say the former minister is still in a state of shock still scarcely able to believe the course of events. He has yet to decide on his future although it seems likely that he will use his recess to undertake ''good works'' somewhere in the developing world.
Other ministers arriving back at their desks in London to start work after the Christmas holiday hope that the last two weeks though ''deeply damaging'' will have a cathartic effect.
Echoing the Prime Minister's comments in South Africa, a senior minister said: ''We are pursuing policies which will improve people's lives and that is ultimately what should count. The sooner we can leave all the ego-tripping behind us the better it will be for us all.'' A senior Liberal Democrat MP claimed that Mr Mandelson's departure would make little difference.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article