During the briefest of chitchats with Alistair Darling earlier this year I asked how his book was coming along and, in particular, what it would say about Mervyn King. I recalled from my tenure as his junior minister during the collapse of Northern Rock the frustration in the air from the governor’s then-reluctance to act faster.
From his answer, however, it became clear that he had misheard me and thought I had asked about Gordon Brown. Suffice to say, when I compare his response then to what is in the book itself – which carefully and factually describes Brown’s weaknesses and the breakdown of their relationship – I conclude that the book is an understatement of his strength of feeling on the matter. By contrast, although he chronicles well his policy tensions with King in the second half of 2007, he was clearly, at a basic level, able to work with the governor in a relationship that had mutual respect.
Darling’s book is an important historical document because it explains simply and clearly when and why key decisions were made, from the scrambling of a Treasury team to advise on Northern Rock to the decision to underwrite all of that bank’s deposits. Work commenced on a Keynesian stimulus in July 2008, we discover, and thoughtful preparation not only led to the saving of RBS in an afternoon but also to genuinely global leadership to avoid complete systemic collapse and subsequent economic depression.
The tone is straightforward with occasional glimpses of deep irony. He readily accepts, for example, that he personally would have been ‘a footnote in political history’ if it were not for the banking crisis. Northern Rock is seen as a ‘well-disguised blessing’ providing necessary experience for what was to come. And, overall, he does not believe in panicking ‘before it’s absolutely necessary’ (and it nearly was).
Yet, with notable exceptions at points of high tension, the style is sometimes pedestrian, proof if any were needed that it was indeed written by the man who was twice awarded the ‘most boring politician of the year’ award by a trucking magazine. But it is also abundantly clear that this straightforward and calm approach was exactly what was required at the time.
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Kitty Ussher is an economist and former Treasury minister
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Back from the Brink: 1,000 days at Number 11
Alistair Darling
Publisher| 336pp| £19.99
Kitty on a slightly more in depth and relevant issue associated with Alastair Darling. I watched Ed Balls on the Conference and his speech in detail. I am afraid you are all in trouble.
People are “keyed in” to core issues now as they are uncertain about the future. Their patience and tolerance for nonesense is minimal as they are taking politicians seriously and not trusting them very much, but still taking them seriously.
MPs still have not got their heads around how the public, those that vote, think. And without blowing my own trumpet too much I have been proven right and again.
You see all this rhetoric about Labour being for this and that, while agreeing with George Osborne, is fatel, its inconsistent, contradictory and worse, a reliance on the old strategy that we can please everyone by telling them what they want to hear.
He has got it wrong and though I have not checked the papers i have no doubt they will punish himn for it.
Worse still was his lacksadasical humour during his interview with Andrew Neil and incredible arrogance when Neil was playing a deeper game (he clearly knoes how angry people are or he was just lucky) by showing Balls’s reckless attitude to what are very serious times for genuinly professional and hard working people that balls would not understand with respect.
I say this not because I care about the tribes within the Party, I say it as an observation.
This is a sales pitch for Darling the book which attacks Brown pity these people did not get rid of Brown or better could have stopped the deal being done with Blair, because everyone who knew brown knew the type of person he was, a climber who would not allow anyone to get in his way.