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Lord Mandelson was interviewed by Evan Davis on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 this morning.

 

It was not a good perfromance as Peter Mandelson came over as very tetchy - he accused Evan Davis of being cynical and the Opposition of being hypocritical and was sarcastic throughout the interview ("Are you finished?" he asked Evan Davis, at one point).

 

But apart from the content the style of the interview was interesting.  It seemed to be a classic example of a Parent/Child exchange as defined by transactional analysis.  Peter Mandelson assumed the role of a patronising parent and Evan Davis (who can be patronising himself) immediately took the role of a pleading child.

 

More on transactional analysis:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transactional_analysis