Horse or scorpion? What they're saying about Mandelson's return to the cabinet

'Proud' Mandelson back in cabinet (BBC) - this is the place to go for the background story, if you're not up on contemporary British politics.

• Peter Mandelson himself has insisted that any antipathy between himself and Gordon Brown is in the past, saying that "from here on in we're joined at the hip".
• Many have reacted with incredulity to those remarks. On today's Politics Show on BBC 1, for instance, David Cameron said, "that's the problem with Peter Mandelson: he says things which are difficult to believe".
• In the same interview with Jon Sopel, Cameron also admitted that within the Conservative Party, "one Mandelson" is defined as "the time it takes between meeting Peter Mandelson and hearing him say something rude about Gordon Brown".
• That seems to tally with a report in today's Sunday Times that "Peter Mandelson 'dripped pure poison' about Gordon Brown into the ear of a senior Conservative just weeks before his extraordinary cabinet comeback".
• Nor is it only Conservatives making those remarks: Peter Kilfoyle called it "a thoroughly retrograde step",
• John McDonnell described the move as "an extraordinary step backwards into the worst elements of the Blair era, to reinstate possibly the most divisive figure in Labour's recent history",
• an unnamed MP acknowledged that "Gordon says he is bringing Peter back because of his great experience of business," but asked "what about his experience of stitching people up and dividing the party?"
• and Michael Meacher, another socialist member of the parliamentary Labour Party and a former minister, described the Prime Minister's decision as "the most bizarre political appointment since Caligula made his horse consul".
• Referring also to the sacking of Metropolitan Police commisioner Sir Ian Blair, Rod Liddle shares with us his "Quantity Theory of Awful People; one goes, another comes to fill his place [...] No matter what happens there will never, ever, be fewer of them in public life [...] Blair bows out, here's Mandelson back, grinning from ear to ear, unable to believe his luck, pledging his utmost support to a man we suspect he stil can't abide and whom he will undermine".
• Matthew Parris wonders whether Mandelson's return to government is actually "The return of the scorpion", asking "Do you need to be reminded of the fable of the scorpion and the frog - the story of a stinging insect desirous of crossing a river, and hitching a ride on the back of a frog? “But you're a scorpion,” says the frog, “you sting”.
  “Normally, yes,” replies the scorpion with both apparent and perhaps real sincerity, “but why would I do that when it would sink us both, drowning me too?”
  Compelled by this logic the frog obliges. Halfway over the water, the scorpion stings. The frog's last words are: “In the name of God, why?” The scorpion's last words are: “Because it is in my nature.”"

And me? On Friday I changed my Facebook status to "Matthew is now definitely not voting Labour. Mandelson!?!"