The Beal Report #9: Three Is The Magic Number

Regular readers will be disappointed to learn that the music industry did not take up any of my recent proposals to save itself. Instead, they had a big party on one of their many huge yachts, and invited Lord Mandelson, the UK’s Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Sensibly recognising filesharing to be a threat to Britain’s national interests on a par with terrorism and “skunk” marijuana, Mandelson leapt into action, and immediately announced legislation under which anyone who persistently downloads content illegally can have their internet access blocked after two warnings – known as “three strikes”.

Now, I’m sure we can all think of sixteen or seventeen reasons why such a policy is unworkable and wrong. What interested me, though, is why Lord Mandelson was attracted to three strikes in particular: why not two, or four?

Like most questions, this one can be answered with the use of HISTORY. In 1998, Mr Peter Mandelson (as he then was) was forced to resign from his post as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (as it then was) after it was reported he had bought a house with an interest-free loan of £373,000 from an MP whose business dealings his department was investigating, and which he failed to declare as an interest.

He resigned from the government again in 2001 after it emerged he had contacted a Home Office minister on behalf of a foreign businessman applying for UK citizenship, whose company was under investigation by the Indian government; and who had been a sponsor of the Millennium Dome, for which Mandelson held responsibility in a previous role.

After a stint on the European Commission, in 2008 he was appointed to the House of Lords and returned to the government, unelected, in his current role. The clear lesson Lord Mandelson has taken away from this lengthy and colourful career is that everyone ought to be entitled to two misdemeanours: but what kind of lowlife scum would be implicated in ethically dubious activity a third time?