Peter Mandelson was confronted by an inebriated audience member as he sped away from the platform after delivering his speech at last night's Chemical Industries Association (CIA) dinner at
Mandelson's speechwriters had been keen to stress reliance the chemical industry has on the automotive sector, and perhaps laboured the point, he remembers.
A furious chemical salesman contact told him afterwards that Mandelson was a fool for neglecting all the other key industry sectors, especially the product he works in. It showed his ignorance of how the industry functioned.
He told Will: "I happened to be coming back from the gents when I saw Mandelson was leaving the event and walking towards me. I went up to him and told him he knew nothing about the chemical industry and was an idiot to be coming here spouting all this nonsense."
Needless to say Mandelson's minder whisked him swiftly away from the ranting man.
We have read the attached blog with some amusement. As the person who was escorting - not whisking - Lord Mandelson out of our Dinner I can honestly say to you this account - even allowing for the opinion overruling fact in the blog world - could not be further from what actually happened. If this is an attack, I would guess Mandelson must hope for them to happen on a regular basis. It was not an attack. I have no idea if the guy meant it to be an attack. I did try and find him afterwards to say I still hoped he would enjoy his evening and if there was anything he wanted to push CIA to do or say to government he should feel free to say so - especially if he was from one of our member companies.
The CIA is not going to tell journalists what to write - it's up to you. And as I hope you heard from the Chief Executive's speech we will champion the cause of our member companies - as we have done with the launch of our manufacturing strategy. All I would say is why not give us a call and check out the position from our angle. If we don't know we'll say that. But on this occasion we do and we can tell you the blog is inaccuarate.
Hope you enjoyed the evening.