The principle underlying the release of the Mandelson papers is that officials are always ‘on the record’ – but our leaders must be able to speak their minds freely, says Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins

Texts were not published in the latest tranche of documents related to the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador

The Mandelson furore has been reignited after the emergence of embarrassing WhatsApps from Darren Jones - which were not included in this week's huge data dump.