Mandelson's Greek farce Act II
After last year's furore in Corfu, the minister is again courting controversy over lavish hospitality. Jane Merrick and James Hanning report
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Lord Mandelson's two paid-for nights in the Astir Palace resort cost under £1,000, he says
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It was, arguably, one of the most memorable incidents of last year, and certainly one the key players would rather forget: involving Peter Mandelson, George Osborne, a couple of yachts, some of the planet's richest and most influential people – all set against the glistening backdrop of the Aegean.
Obviously unconcerned about the risk of tempting history to repeat itself, the two politicians again came together in 2009, again in Greece – and again surrounded by lavish floating gin palaces to mix with millionaires, billionaires and the world's elite.
Yet, while Mr Osborne noted his attendance at the Bilderberg conference in the MPs' register of interests, his co-player in this Greek drama's second act has been a little coy.
Lord Mandelson, like the shadow Chancellor, spent two nights at the five-star Astir Palace resort on an exclusive pine-covered peninsula outside Athens as a guest of the Bilderberg Foundation – the secretive organisation that has spawned a thousand conspiracy theories.
The Secretary of State for Business used taxpayers' money to fly to Greece because, happily, he had arranged a meeting with his Greek opposite number on the eve of the three-day conference in mid-May.
The taxpayer paid for hotel accommodation on Thursday 14 May, which his department said was justifiable because of the ministerial meeting the next morning.
He then stayed Friday and Saturday night at the Astir Palace, paid for by the Bilderberg Foundation, and flew back to Britain on Sunday.
A spokesman for Lord Mandelson said he had no need to declare the hospitality because it fell below the £1,000 threshold at which peers must declare their interests on the register within 30 days.
The spokesman refused to reveal what the accommodation cost, but the cheapest rate for a room at the Astir Palace is €390, which at the time would have been about £350 – total £700 for two nights. This was for a room with two single beds. Lord Mandelson's spokesman refused to say if he had gone for the budget option.
The next highest rate was €560, which for two nights would have tipped over the £1,000 threshold, even before the cost of meals and drinks, also funded by the Bilderberg Foundation, are taken into account.
While there is no suggestion of wrongdoing on the part of Lord Mandelson, a cursory look at the resort's literature suggests it would be difficult to spend less than £500 per day. There were also concerns that he had used taxpayers' money effectively to attend the Bilderberg conference. The resort is in the "most exclusive area of the Athenian Riviera", says the literature, where "luxury and nature combine to create a uniquely beautiful destination". On a private peninsula, it was developed in the 1950s as a playground for Greek shipping aristocracy, and multimillion-pound yachts are moored there all year.
The Lib Dem MP Norman Baker, who tabled questions in Parliament about the minister's attendance at the conference, said it was an "amazing coincidence" that Lord Mandelson has timed his meeting with the Greek business minister to coincide with the Bilderberg conference.
Mr Osborne sparked last year's Corfugate saga by leaking the news that Lord Mandelson "dripped pure poison" about Gordon Brown while the pair holidayed on the Greek island and on the yacht of the Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska.
The threshold for declaring hospitality and gifts for MPs is £500, half that for peers. Mr Osborne registered the Bilderberg trip two weeks later. He refused to comment on the conference last night. Apparently recollecting last year's furore, an aide said wearily: "We're not going anywhere near that one."
A spokesman for Lord Mandelson said last night: "It's no secret that Peter went to Bilderberg.
"The trip was declared to the permanent secretary as usual and recorded in the departmental hospitality register. It was below the £1,000 threshold for the House of Lords register."
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Comments
Corfu (Κέρκυρα in the Greek) is in the **Ionian** - the second largest of the Ionian Islands.
It rather spoils the punch of the Mandelson story to have it suddenly plonked in the Aegean.
Real Journalism does NOT exist......
We have the EUSSR using Pre-Release diktats - which restricts what journalists are allowed to know, and what they can print.
The 'elites' are ever more closer to controlling everything, with Mandelslime and his 'friends' at Bilderberg the real controllers of politicans and journalists.
We're just the workers ants; pay our taxes, be fooled into thinking we've got a democracy - when we do NOT.....work, work, be taxed, work, be controlled, have less freedoms, just work, work, AND DONT QUESTION ANYTHING.....the 'elites' know best - don't they ?
Mandelslime is the biggest 'user' of expenses and freebies, along with the gruesome twosome the Kinnocks, the BLiars, Berlusconni, Chirac (socialists/left wingers - hmmmm - surprise) - in fact ALL the 'elites' in the EUSSR are in it for themselves.
If there was PROPER investigative, FREE minded, INDEPENDENT minded journalists out there - with newspaper publishers prepared to print the truth - I think the worker ants would start a revolution across the EUSSR.
But there's NO Free journalists, there's NO free independent newspapers, and the little worker ants are ignored. Just pay your taxes, be controlled - And DON'T ask questions about the 'elite'...!!!!
Well done to the Indy for having the balls to actually write about this bizarre, clandestine meeting.
We want and deserve answers as to what takes place there
If the credentials of Mandelson are to be judged--these are not representatives of any sort of virtues.
World Bankers and the businessmen of the largest and most powerful International Corporations, alongside slippery politicians, are not likely to put humanity before their own interests.
Doubtless, no journalist will be able to circulate a publication on these intriguers, so we must be very vigilant with European politics as well as our own.
I charge you, do nothing, publish nothing that might dissuade Mandelson from holidaying on anything that might sink!
if we are going to pay for the meetings, then we should be entitled to know what happened.
Why are Mandelson's courtiers being so coy? If everything is above board then surely it is no trouble for them to release the hotel's statements showing the cost of his stay was beneath the 1000 pound threshold.
This is typical of Mandelson, he was always a disreputable cad on the make and a dishonest dandy, but since his ride of the EU gravy train, introduction to the world of the super rich as EU trade commissoner, and subsequent return to the UK as an inexplicably very rich man, and "Lord", he has become insufferably arrogant and disdainful of the law, which he apparently believes only applies to the 'little people'.
The guy's been caught cheating once to often and really needs to be brought to heal. In this incident he clearky rode rough shod over the rules and lied to cover up his tracks. What does it take for the regulator to act in this country?
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/noswin
Also look into tony Blair's attendance on several occasions and ask why this was never covered in teh MAIN STREAM PRESS.
I want answers..!
What I really would like to see is The Independent actually investigate what is being talked about by the likes of Mandy at the Bilderberg conference, but I doubt this will happen, as that would open a nasty can of worms for the owners of The Independent.
The real issue is what the participants discuss and what decesions are taken in such meetings. Though they reportedly go to a private meeting, the discussions and decesions taken there surely affect public policies because otherwise such gathering would not be arranged in the first place.
The attendees like Madelson, Osborne should be asked in no uncertain terms what did they discuss. If they say they are not going to divulge what happened, all reportes should stop going to any of their meetings. They surely cannot live without being constantly in the news.
(2) Meeting Agendas never disclosed;
(3) World's press always excluded;
(4) All attendees sworn to secrecy;
(5) Minutes of 'Bilderberg' meetings never published (assuming they are ever taken);
(6) 2 mile exclusion zone placed around meeting venues, strictly enforced (including lethal force) by patrols of F-16 fighter jets and hidden squads of SAS or Navy SEAL type units kept discretely in reserve.
And you media bitches complain of Conspiracy Theorists???
Do not wait for the mainstream to expose the Bilderburgs as the media is entirely owned by them.
What was The 'Independent's coverage of the event like? Remember, if the media don't cover something, it is a conspiracy theory. Also, if you come to different conclusions than those offered by mainstream ideology and media, these are also conspiracy theories.