For all of those dead-end burger bar jobs that Labour once castigated now read new dead- end burger bar jobs

For all of those dead-end burger bar jobs that Labour once castigated, now read new dead- end burger bar jobs, subsidised through the benefits system and served up with some relish by - Mr Mandelson.Here then is a taste of the milk of pure Thatcherism poured into Blair and Schroder's Die Neue Mitte; "The labour market needs a low wage sector in order to make low skill jobs available. Because all those pre-election promises of a "high wage, high skill" economy have been cast aside. A member of the old "Gang of Four", who split from Labour to form the short-lived SDP in the Eighties, recently agreed that the Blair/Schroder document was "positively Thatcherite". This "New Middle", or in old Blairese "Third Way", document offers an economic policy which may turn those unwanted elderly relatives over at the TUC into gibbering wrecks. Rocked by the Euro election debacle, the more impressionable in marginal seats believe that the mythical conjuror is the only one able to save their bacon. Meanwhile, journalists and Labour MPs await the puffs of smoke from Downing Street. Yet while Peter Mandelson may complain that it is difficult to offer many opinions orally, he has been able to wield his pen to quite dramatic effect - and with the exception of the Financial Times's employment editor, Robert Taylor - few appeared to have noticed what he has been up to during his enforced sabbatical.The former Trade Secretary is one of the key architects of a new concordat between Tony Blair and Chancellor Gerhard Schroder of Germany, entitled "Die Neue Mitte".

There is precious little Cabinet enthusiasm for an early return of the errant Prince of Darkness.A succession of backbench MPs have been groomed to make pleas for an early return of Peter Mandelson He has done his time, they say. At the same time the corrosive briefing which bedevilled the Government when Mandelson sat astride his web diminished upon his departure. Many of his detractors would freely acknowledge that he performed well during his brief tenure at the DTI. What is more he believes in it.In the greying world of parliamentary politics, Mandelson cuts a dash.

He gives every impression of being willing to act as Blair's Trojan horse for the project. Whatever its veracity, the AEEU conference made perfect sense for a Mandelson appearance. The union is "New" Labour-friendly; its newly-knighted general secretary, Sir Ken Jackson, is aggressively in favour of the single currency, and so of course is "New" Labour's Mr Bad In public at least Tony Blair may be cooling towards Emu Not so Peter Mandelson. He said no. But on Monday the former minister could keep his silence no longer.

From Brussels he joined fellow Europhiles in batting for the euro. By Wednesday the former minister was continuing his rehab course, this time in self- deprecatory mode at the AEEU's (engineering union's) annual conference in sun-kissed Jersey.The Westminster whisperers have it that Peter Mandelson may effect an earlyish return to government, possibly as Minister for Europe, a job now held by a fellow North- East MP, Joyce Quin. Hell, with all that time on his hands, I even suggested he write an occasional column for Tribune. Sadly such penance - and penance of the unpaid variety - proved to be beyond him. Since politics and a vow of Trappism do not go hand in hand - not even under "New" Labour - I sympathised with him. A few weeks ago the ex-minister was bemoaning the fact that it was fast becoming impossible for him to voice any opinion, however pedestrian, for fear of the whole of Fleet Street immediately leaping down his throat. And in the same week that ordinary party members awoke to receive new membership cards with the words "Labour Party" scrubbed for user-unfriendly "New Labour", the Westminster village was otherwise engaged with the relaunch of Peter Mandelson by Peter Mandelson.