Holy Smokes. The UK Mandelson story just won’t quit. It’s the gift that keeps on taking — credibility, public confidence, the benefit of the doubt.

For those of you who haven’t been following, Peter Mandelson was dumped as UK Ambassador to the United States, after close connections to Epstein were revealed. Mandelson took money. Mandelson offered advice. Mandelson leaked confidential information to Epstein. How did this happen? How did he clear the supposedly rigorous Foreign Office vetting process?

Well, it appeared he didn’t. Mandelson failed to pass that test. However, now thanks to the good work of The Guardian, we now know he didn’t. Mandelson failed. But he got the prestigious job anyway.

Did the Prime Minister mislead parliament by failing to disclose this rather salient fact? Apparently not. Because he didn’t know.

Nor did any member of Cabinet.

So now, the most important questions are: Why didn’t he know? Why such a profound lack of interest?

I’ve seen it happen before in governments. Everyone seems to know what the leader wants and is ready to please. People start managing down instead of managing up. No one wants to reveal the ugly truth because there will be consequences. Just go with the flow and hope things work out. Well, they usually don’t. And someone has to take the fall, in this case, the top civil servant in the Foreign Office, Sir Olly Robbins. I predict he won’t be the last.

Indeed. Where was the direction coming from? Or was a government direction-less? Potentially, even worse.

And here lies the lesson for governments of all stripes around the world. When it comes to secrets, most if not all will come out. Why? Because in this case and others, someone wants it all to come out.

So if you are paid by government to manage issues, remember this: It’s going to come out. Figure out a way to get ahead of the story. Or suffer the consequences.