Another Villain or Three

The interesting thing about the Nat Rothschild verdict and the media reporting of it is how teflon-coated Mandelson has proved to be this time.

Rothschild is obviously a disgusting individual, deeply unattractive in almost every way. Born into plutocracy, and obviously with a sharp brain, he appears to be interested in money and power and nothing else. He might have done any amount of good in this world, given his wealth, brains and opportunities. Instead he surrounds himself with the skidmarks of the financial/political/celeb society in which his type move.

Mandy is attracted by his money, doubtless, and the doors that he can open to other billionaire sleazebags. But Mandy is politically savvy, if accident-prone. The two sackings from Cabinet were entirely justified, even if the Hinduja brothers did lead him astray. He should have known that jumping, spontaneously, on board a billionaire's lear jet and heading off for a bit of homo-eroticism in the Siberian tundra would go down poorly, even if he wasn't actively taking bribes or promising to use his influence in corrupt fashion. (He wouldn't, would he?)

So I find it interesting that the court seems to have gone out of its way to exonerate Mandy of any wrongdoing and to have heaped all its scorn upon ugly Nat. God knows Mandy is a moth to a flame when unworthy billionaires are there to be befriended, and his appetite for being thrashed on his noble but naked buttocks with birch twigs whilst rolling in the snow is almost certainly enormous. But he knew why he was there, who he would meet, and what might become of it all. It surprises me that none of the press felt like pointing this out.