Alistair Darling's economic prowess

Finally Alistair Darling has recognised what many of us in the blogosphere have been saying for months. In an interview in The Guardian he has admitted that The UK is facing its worst economic crisis in 60 years and that the economic downturn would be more "profound and long-lasting" than most people had feared. Do read the whole sorry article and note that Alistair Darling's main concern appears to be that Labour isn't getting its message across rather than the fact that his boss has destroyed the UK economy. I was interested to read that

"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"."

And equally interested to rad that he

"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."

I note that despite evidence to the contrary those great brains at the Treasury have said the Chancellor's comments were "entirely consistent" with his previous statements -

"These are the same difficult economic circumstances that every other country in the world is having to deal with... But with employment levels near record highs, interest rates that are historically low and the past decade of rising incomes and job creation, the UK is well placed to deal with this."

The level of delusion within the Treasury is truly mind-bending.


Back in April Alistair Darling was still claiming, despite the strong evidence to the contrary, that "there were grounds for optimism" despite the "unprecedented shock to the economy." He also said that the UK still had a "strong economy that had proved remarkably resilient" in the slowdown. "The IMF has down-rated every country's growth forecast in the light of what's been happening in the world economy. However, they have lowered their expectations in relation to us by less than other countries," Alistair Darling said he was sticking by his forecast made in the Budget that the UK economy would grow by between 1.75% and 2.25% in 2008 and by 2.25% to 2.75% in 2009, substantially above IMF projections. "I do remain optimistic that provided we can take action, not just in this country but.. with other countries,...provided we can take the right action,.. then we can ensure that the economy stays growing as it has done for the last few years." "I do remain optimistic that provided we can take action, not just in this country but.. with other countries,...provided we can take the right action,.. then we can ensure that the economy stays growing as it has done for the last few years."





For some good coverage of our out of his depth Chancellor, I recommend a look at Letters From a Tory.