# Mandelson files: 1,504 pointless pages? Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/in-the-room-7693582/mandelson-files-1-504-pointless-pages Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/in-the-room-7693582/mandelson-files-1-504-pointless-pages.md Podcast: [In The Room](https://stenobird.com/podcast/in-the-room-7693582) Published: 2026-06-02T16:58:55+00:00 Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/intheroom/episodes/mandelson-files-1504-pointless-pages Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/69861398d4e01f1069d58875/e/6a1f0bcfa5a56cd1510667f7/media.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/in-the-room-7693582/episodes/mandelson-files-1-504-pointless-pages Duration seconds: 2573 ## Resource After 83 days of waiting, the government has finally released the second tranche of files on the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador to Washington. The first tranche was already heavy on the filler, but the latest set of documents takes it to a whole new level. It features an incredible amount of seemingly pointless material: Mandelson’s resignation letter appears 8 times, there’s pages of printed versions of Microsoft Teams notifications and the full transcript of a President Trump interview with ABC News.  Today, we dissect the files, picking out the parts that do really tell us a lot - in particular about how Peter Mandelson himself operated behind the scenes. Find the best clips from the podcast and more from Helen and Cleo on the show's Instagram page here . This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios Executive Producers: Olivia Foster and Carrie Rose Producer: Sam Durham Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/in-the-room-7693582/episodes/mandelson-files-1-504-pointless-pages/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/in-the-room-7693582/mandelson-files-1-504-pointless-pages.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.