"For too long, decisions have been taken behind closed doors - tablets of stone have simply been past down to people without bothering to involve people, listen to their views or give them information about what we are doing and why"
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"Tablets of stone" is a deliciously loaded metaphor for a politician to choose: it conjures divine authority, fixed commandments, and the smug finality of decisions presented as inevitable. Mandelson is attacking not just secrecy, but a style of governance that treats the public as an audience for decrees rather than participants in choices. The intent is clear: to rebrand power as consultation, to cast openness as the antidote to an exhausted, managerial elite.
The subtext is trickier. Mandelson, a master operator associated with New Labour’s message discipline, is also talking about himself and his political generation. The line performs contrition without naming culpability. "For too long" makes the problem feel structural, ambient, almost weather-like, rather than the product of specific actors. "Behind closed doors" is both a critique and a protective cloak: it condemns opacity while avoiding the risky specifics that true transparency would require. The promise is participation; the offer is better communication.
Context matters because it lands in an era when British politics was trying to reconcile centralized, media-savvy governance with rising demands for accountability, from Freedom of Information campaigns to post-devolution expectations. Mandelson’s framing reveals a key modern tension: legitimacy now depends on process as much as outcome, yet the political machine still believes control is how you deliver. The line is less a revolutionary manifesto than a carefully crafted pivot: keep making decisions, but sell them as if they were made with you.
The subtext is trickier. Mandelson, a master operator associated with New Labour’s message discipline, is also talking about himself and his political generation. The line performs contrition without naming culpability. "For too long" makes the problem feel structural, ambient, almost weather-like, rather than the product of specific actors. "Behind closed doors" is both a critique and a protective cloak: it condemns opacity while avoiding the risky specifics that true transparency would require. The promise is participation; the offer is better communication.
Context matters because it lands in an era when British politics was trying to reconcile centralized, media-savvy governance with rising demands for accountability, from Freedom of Information campaigns to post-devolution expectations. Mandelson’s framing reveals a key modern tension: legitimacy now depends on process as much as outcome, yet the political machine still believes control is how you deliver. The line is less a revolutionary manifesto than a carefully crafted pivot: keep making decisions, but sell them as if they were made with you.
Quote Details
| Topic | Decision-Making |
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