Robbins Nest

22nd April 2026 Towards understanding an almighty mess There was once a bad decision, and then there was a worse decision, and then there was an even worse decision. The bad decision was, of course, the appointment by the Prime Minister to appoint Lord Mandelson as Ambassador to the United States. At the time few expressly objected and some saw merit in such a sui generis appointment to deal with a sui generis President – a Trump Whisperer. (Though we had a perfectly competent Ambassador in place who was good at that too.) The worse decision was how the Prime Minister opted to react when information was published about Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein. He blamed Mandelson for lying, he blamed the civil servants for not telling him about a vetting exercise. He was “furious”. His chief of staff was sacked. He decided it was everybody’s fault, but his own. And then there was the worst of the decisions, at least from the perspective of his overall credibility. He sacked Oliver…