In defending the government, Business Secretary Peter Kyle used a phrase that has become the clinical understatement at the heart of the Mandelson crisis: referring to the revealed emails, he said, “that has changed the situation.” This simple statement belies the political earthquake the revelations have caused.
The phrase is a masterpiece of political minimalism. It acknowledges the new reality without conveying the panic, fury, and embarrassment that has engulfed the government. It attempts to frame the dismissal as a calm, logical response to new data, rather than a frantic U-turn forced by a media firestorm.
But what “changed” was everything. The situation went from a manageable political controversy to an untenable and explosive scandal. Mandelson went from being a “worthwhile risk” to a national disgrace. The government’s position went from defensible (in its own eyes) to utterly indefensible.
This quote will be remembered as the moment the government officially admitted its initial judgment was wrong, albeit in the most muted terms possible. It is the dividing line in the scandal: before the emails, when the government thought it could ride out the storm, and after, when the storm became a hurricane that blew their entire strategy apart.