Back By Popular Demand

Lord Mandelbrot the Infinitely Recurring may be set for another recrudescence. The Government has already put the boot into Gordon Brown once, with much rah-rah and raspberry-blowing over his apparent urge to become head of the IMF. Even if Daveybloke's Cuddly Coalition were the sporting and chivalrous sort, the fact that Brown chose to open his bid with a speech about funding education and helping the poor can hardly have helped his case. Now the Government is hinting coyly that the man whom the Glorious Successor probably hates even more than he detests Ed Balls, and only slightly less than he loathes Tony Blair, would make a rather jolly director of the World Trade Organisation. A spokesbeing has proclaimed that Lord Mandelbrot "does not have enough credibility for the IMF", which presumably means he isn't yet a big enough crook. Still, it is encouraging to see Daveybloke and his orange muffler continuing in their efforts to initiate a new politics in Britain and replace the sleaze and petty spite of New Labour with something generous, clean and nice.