Overnight the extent of the potential damage to Britain's Labour government from the Peter Mandelson affair obviously sank in on him and the prime minister, Mr Blair. Mr Mandelson's decision to resign and Mr Blair's to accept it along with that of Mr Geoffrey Robinson, the Paymaster-General, who lent Mr Mandelson £373,000 to buy a London house, are sensible and timely.
Their initial effort to ride out the affair clearly could not be sustained, as Mr Mandelson fully accepted in his resignation letter yesterday. "I do not believe I have done anything wrong or improper", he wrote. "But I should not, in all candour, have entered into the arrangement. I should, having done so, have told you and all other colleagues whose advice I value. And I should have told my Permanent Secretary, on learning of the inquiry into Geoffrey Robinson". It was inevitable that Mr Robinson would resign along with Mr Mendelson. His role in helping to finance New Labour's rise to power reveals much about the party, contradicting the very image of probity and political cleanliness Mr Mendelson strove so hard and successfully to communicate.
Their departure helps to maintain that image, but public memories are long and can be unforgiving. While the Conservative opposition has been deprived of a running issue on which they could have built over the Christmas holiday the affair marks a decisive break with the long honeymoon enjoyed by Labour. Political misjudgment runs through it like a scarlet thread. Nearly as serious as Mr Mandelson's successive misjudgments in not declaring his interests was Mr Blair's initial decision to stand by him. Their close relationship is revealed in the letters they exchanged yesterday, including the hint that Mr Mandelson could return to office after a suitable time in the political wilderness.
For all that, however, they and the government will benefit from the prompt recognition that a mistake was made. There seem to be no policy issues at stake. Mr Mandelson had done an effective job in the sensitive position as Minister for Trade and Industry. His responsibility for competition matters and his strategic role in preparing British public opinion to join the single currency were crucial in the New Labour programme, while his presentational skills will be missed by Mr Blair and his team.
An aura of seamless policy consensus is part of New Labour's self-image and public appeal. This affair does not dent it, but it does reveal the intense personal, political and media factionalism lying behind the facade of unity. Mr Mandelson's supporters suspect the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Brown's faction circulated the information which brought him down. Intense and intrusive media management by the Blair team may have been necessitated by the long Conservative hegemony over the press and television, but it has created resentments which seem bound to resurface in hostile coverage. There are fences to be mended after these two days.