Pussycat Mandelson should beware of snakes

So, Lord Mandelson sees himself not as a big beast of the Labour party but as a kindly pussycat. Asked by the Guardian's Decca Aitkenhead what was his biggest concern when he returned to the Cabinet, he responded quick as a flash: "Whether it would last - given my experience on the last two occasions."

Then he was off: "No, seriously ­ it was whether I would fit in. I think probably the nicest thing I've experienced ­ slightly in contrast to my previous time in government ­ is how warmly my Cabinet colleagues have embraced me."

Should Gordon Brown, asked Aitkenhead, bring back some more big beasts? "I don't really see myself as a big beast," Mandy replied. "More as a kindly pussycat."

As his aides giggled, Mandelson warmed to his theme, "Yes, a kindly pussycat. I'm a kindly pussycat, with strong views about what we need to do."

Aitkenhead is, of course, the Guardian's specialist at getting Cabinet ministers to reveal all in the silly season: a year ago she famously interviewed Alistair Darling and got him to say that Britain faced the worse economic slump for 60 years. The fact that he was spot-on was lost in the fog of criticism that followed.

No such faux pas from Mandy, who seemed intent on proving to Aitkenhead how much he had changed since he was Tony Blair's hard man - "sometimes the hit man" - in the early days of New Labour.

"I was a very hard-nosed, uncompromising figure who was manning the barricades of change in the Labour party, and prepared to take down anything or anyone who stood in the way. I don't feel in that mode now."

Asked to explain the warmth he felt in Cabinet now, he said: "I think people are aware that I'm not denying anyone their place in the sun. I'm not competing with them in the way I did before.

"Older figures in government used to fear that I was endlessly plotting their downfall, or excluding them from the team, but the circumstances are completely different now."

He suggested that younger Cabinet members felt no sense of suspicion towards him. "They've wanted to work with me. Appreciated my age and experience. And my ­ my sense of fun."

Before Mandy gets completely carried away with what an adorable pussycat he has become, the Mole would urge him to read a story about a cat called Wilbur which appeared on the front page of yesterday's Sunday Times.

Wilbur, a four-year-old tabby, strayed into the next door garden in the suburbs of Bristol where he encountered a 13ft Burmese python. "We heard the python's strike from the terrified scream that came from Wilbur, and the blood-chilling cries as he fought for his life," said Wilbur's owner.

When vets later opened up the snake, the cat's remains were identified by his microchip.

Beware of snakes in the long grass, Peter. Not everyone in the Labour party loves you. ·