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Mandelson: I had been there [in the cabinet room] in the 60s, because when I was a boy, we knew the
Wilsons, Harold and Mary Wilson, quite well ... Once they invited me and my brother up in 19 ... oh God, sometime in the 60s - a couple of times actually, to go and watch trooping the colour, which is lots of
chinless wonders with bright scarlet uniforms, you know ... going marching round on horseback, round
Horseguards Parade swapping colours and doing all sorts of things with flags which are completely incomprehensible to the outside.

And on that occasion, when we had gone up to Downing Street to view that from the stand at the back of Number 10, I was shown the cabinet room. I can barely remember it. Actually, the thing I most  remember... was stuffing my face with these marvellous ... brown bread-wrapped pieces of asparagus. I
think l had never had asparagus and those little sort of rolled-up smoked salmon sandwiches - which
I'd never seen before.

Marian Finucane [presenter]: I was expecting you to say that when you saw the cabinet room you
thought of history...

Mandelson: It was more exciting to have these peculiar sandwiches brought round on trays. And they kept on offering me these things and I think I was quite sick from Downing Street. I wasn't really reflecting on the cabinet room .....