On Saturday, as the late summer afternoon sun shone across the lawns of Ditchley Park, the cream of the British foreign policy establishment gathered in a giant marquee to hear the ambassador to Washington give the 61st annual Ditchley lecture on how Donald Trump’s re-election revealed something profound about an elite that had lost touch with modern fed-up electorates.
After a glowing introduction from Jonathan Hill, Peter Mandelson picked up on the Conservative peer’s description of his career as durable, laughing and saying “that captured it to a T”. His career had indeed been durable, but five days later it turned out not to be indestructible.
