The Guardian has an exclusive interview in Saturday’s magazine with the Chancellor, Alistair Darling:
Britain is facing “arguably the worst” economic downturn in 60 years which will be “more profound and long-lasting” than people had expected, Alistair Darling, the chancellor, has told the Guardian today.
In the government’s gravest assessment of the economy, which follows a warning from a Bank of England policymaker that 2 million people could be unemployed by Christmas, Darling admits he had no idea how serious the credit crunch would become.
Darling’s blunt remarks lay bare the unease in the highest ranks of the cabinet that the downturn is making it all but impossible for Gordon Brown to recover momentum after a series of setbacks.
The chancellor, who says that Labour faces its toughest challenge in a generation, admits that Brown and the cabinet are partly to blame for Labour’s woes because they have “patently” failed to explain the party’s central mission to the country, leaving voters “pissed off”.
In a candid interview Darling warns that the economic times faced by Britain and the rest of the world “are arguably the worst they’ve been in 60 years”.
To deepen the sense of gloom, he adds: “And I think it’s going to be more profound and long-lasting than people thought.”…
Darling does not name names, but says some people want his job and have been trying to undermine him. Many in the Treasury believe that Ed Balls, the schools secretary, has been less than supportive. “There’s lots of people who’d like to do my job. And no doubt,” he adds, half under his breath, “actively trying to do it.”
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9 Comments
Darling’s interview is an astonishing admission of the extent of the government’s failure, both political and economic. I have blogged in more detail about it, as it’s extraordinary on so many levels.
Is this expectation management?
I think boldkevin is right. Darling & Labour couldnt continue with their line of ‘ it wont be too bad – we are in good shape compared to the rest of the world’, as Vince Cable has said.So they are now going for broke saying its going to be very bad (running the risk of creating more panic & the situation worse), in the hope they claim credit if things dont turn out so bleak. Dangerous stuff which will do let to restore confidence.
I think it could be a case of the boy who cried wolf – after ten years of blairite spin (and no end in sight thanks to cameron) anything that is refreshing frank may be unfairly dismissed.
Politicalbetting.com reckons Darling might have leadership issue motivations-
http://politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2008/08/30/is-darling-trying-to-spike-gords-latest-re-launch/
Which makes sense – but reading his actual words he appears sincere enough – compared to say Miliband…
It may well be correct and frank in some ways, but the ‘it’s international (and so it’s not my/our fault)’ is in there as well. From a politician, it is a masterstroke of potential doublespeak.
a) It supports Gordon – It’s not our fault;
b) it supports himself – It’s definitely not my fault;
c) it undermines Gordon – He says everything is fine;
d) it elevates himself – I’m telling it as it is – you can trust me.
What a politician!
Given the press reports that Stephen Carter (Downing Street’s Head of Strategy) is to be ‘moved on’ and that Stephen and Alistair are both former Presidents of Aberdeen University SRC in the 1980s – could Darling’s outburst be a parting gift from Carter to his soon to be ex-employers?
Incidently at University Stephen Carter was a member of the Liberal Party…
The anglo-US model of free market economics (ie neo-liberalism) looked very attractive a couple of years ago after many consecutive years of economic growth. But as Vince pointed out, it was based upon running up huge debts and irresponsible lending. The difficulty with the current situation is the unpredictability. No one seems to know what will happen yet, so Darling could well be right.
Liberals need to account for the fact that markets are unstable – they have been in many parts of the world, and now they are here.
We need to have laws in place similar to Germany that makes getting into debt harder, because markets concentrate too much on short term gain and ignore the long term consequences. They do not seem to learn the lessons from history.
Tightening access to credit overall would be more of a contributor to poverty than something helpful. Mohammed Younus didn’t win the Nobel Prize for being a loan-shark for no reason, after all.
I’d like to see some legislation about the proactive targeting of people with dodgy credit histories for ultra-high interest loans, but access to credit is an asset and it would be counter-productive and paternalist in the extreme to legislate that companies can no longer lend to people who we think are too poor and hence irresponsible.
As for our Anglo-Saxon model of free markets (i.e. not neo-liberalism at all), it’s pretty comprehensively been shown to be far superior to alternatives, which is why it is completely dominant in the EU and North America, helped create the economies of the Asian tigers, is driving growth in India and China and which is now only being held back by nationalism and ill-placed protests at the WTO.
It’s true that liberal economics suffers from economic cycles, but the alternatives suffer from having economic peaks far worst than the worst recession we’ve ever seen. It’s just a shame that each time recession looms, some people’s memories of the bad old days of nationalist economic collapse always seem rather fuzzy.