Those voting in the election for the next Chancellor of the University of Manchester, whose polls tonight! may wish to be informed of the actions of one of the candidates.
Lord Mandleson is currently in St Petersburg, speaking at an event that has been termed Vladimir Putin’s vanity show.
The St Petersburg International Economic summit is Russia’s counterpoint to the more famous Davos Summit held earlier in the year and 2015 will be the Labour peer’s third appearance.
Last year he caused much controversy appearing despite widespread calls for a boycott from the West following Russia’s actions in Ukraine and the Crimea and was accused of undermining British foreign policy.
David Cameron ordered his serving ministers to stay away from the event, the Labour called for a political boycott of the event. And the White House has asked Wall Street executives to keep away, telling them attending will “send an inappropriate message”.
None of this deterred Mandleson who wrote that “Crimea will turn out to be a pyrrhic victory for Putin because not only will the peninsula be ostracised internationally and unable to earn a living, ask northern Cyprus what this is like — but Russia will end up footing the enormous annual bill for its utility and welfare costs, hardly affordable given Russia’s faltering economy.”
The Labour Peer is up against Poet and writer Lemn Sissay and the Halle’s Sir Mark Elder in the election for which the results will be announced on Monday.
