THE incredible Peter Mandelson scandal is still unfolding on both sides of the Atlantic, and, together with last week’s seismic Manchester by-election, is increasingly likely to force Keir Starmer’s resignation as British prime minister.

It is striking that the early stages of the hugely ambitious Mandelson’s career plan involved securing the post of Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, which once enjoyed a significantly higher profile but has since largely disappeared off the political radar.

Although I have previously written in this column about the enormous spotlight which followed Mandelson during his time in Belfast, many of those who held the same job down the years also used to be familiar faces from the front line of UK politics.

With no disrespect to the present incumbent, Hilary Benn, he could take a lunchtime stroll from NIO headquarters on Chichester Street past the nearby City Hall and almost no-one would recognise him.

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The shortage of people generally walking through the centre of Belfast is a question for another day.

The prominence of secretaries of state has obviously declined since the height of the Troubles, but, even in the years after the Good Friday Agreement, the role was........

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