Alistair Darlings comments this morning further enhance his image as a merchant of doom. He might as well have said 'the end is nigh'. Leaving aside the fact that he is having to promote short term policies drafted by Number Ten and not the Treasury, it is clear that Labour MPs are losing their patience with the Chancellor. What they want is someone who is more upbeat and can be positive about the long term future. They rightly ask that if the economy is supposedly so strong, why is the Chancellor talking it down and talking us further into a recession?
Alistair Darling is a British Jimmy Carter. In 1979 Carter talked about a 'national malaise' which was sweeping America. Darling's comments are very similar. A year later, Ronald Reagan swept to power on a wave of optimism. He exuded it. There's a lesson there for British Conservatives today. Optimism wins elections. Gloom and doom doesn't.
27 comments:
As I have said elsewhere, darling looks like a decent bloke who has just realsied what a total cock up his current Boss made when in the post that he, Darling, now holds.
It's all very well for New Labour to want a poitive message, but if one just does not exist under their current profligate and wealth destructive policies....
And I disagree that doom and gloom does not win elections. What might enhance the Tories poll lead now would be a bit of reality. As in "we've been living above our means for 11 years and it's going to take a big effort by all of us to sort out the mess. But if we all buckle down and do that then the future for the UK will be very bright indeed."
I cant believe I'm saying this but!
I dont see what the problem is with him repeating what many of us know already!
Britain is going into hard times which will last for about three years from when America come out of their, as good as, recession!
What should he be saying?
Everythings fine & dont worry you go & borrow & spend!
I believe it is those who talk up the economy when it is going down who are leading those, not so wise, into trouble.
The world is slowly slipping into recession, go on! Tell me I'm wrong!
ok! You believe that all is well & I'll continue to cover my bum like I have done so far with the knowledge a Britsh recession was on the way.
One last thought!
Maybe a good way to help Britain at the moment would be to keep the nine billion & not have the olympics!!!!
Reagan was optimistic because he had a plan (to cut taxes and state intervention massively).
Labour instead plan to raise taxes in the long term (more borrowing now, more taxation in the next Parliament to pay for it and yet more regulation and state intervention).
In the circumstances, Darling's pessimism is entirely justified. Unfounded optimism just pisses people off even more.
So now we know the truth. The "Darling Rebellion" was just a kack handed attempt to play the bad cop, good cop routine, and therefore was a load of bollocks. First you paint a picture of gloom, then the good cop Brown comes to the rescue. Of course NuLab made a fist of it, because in his original interview Darling did not emphasis the global impact enough, so that's why he was sent out again to repeat it ad nauseum. They can't even get the spin right, let alone anything else. Darling is still Brown's puppet and always will be.
The problem with Darling right now is he is stating the basically true- the economy is in trouble- but not offering any real solutions (Ian- quite right- he is not producing the policies). More generally he is clearly not up to the job.
The more general problem is he is telling a different story to Brown, the Bank of England different again, etc- basically the UK authorities sound totally confused.
I agree with lola- correct Tory response/ policy now is to say- Govt and individuals have been spending and borrowing too much, time to tighten belt, so we will be OK long term.
Iain / Anyone - How long do we have to put up with this incompetent Government? Must we really wait another two years?
Another two years of ... i) me ranting / moaning about them is going to drive my wife mad; ii) of me ranting / moaning about them on blog sites like this
Maybe there's a support group I can join? Can anyone help me?
Disagree Ian. Darling has become one of the few Labour MPs that I can feel a certain amount of respect for.
I would much rather have the truth than a pack of lies. Once we recognise a problem then we can go about dealing with it.
That quivering lip clip you linked to yesterday only went to prove that unlike many politicians he is not able to easily lie.
Agree with anon @ 1.35. Darling has gone up in my estimation over the last few days. Whether by accident or design he does appear now to be saying things that aren't based in cloud cuckoo land, unlike his boss and unlike so many politicians on all sides.
Looks like the old spin of 'its very tough/tight at the moment' followed by a small positive performance with 'look how well we have done'.
In buisness budget terms its called kitchen sinking when you throw everything into a bad year and tell people everything is terrible to make it easier to have a positive one following it.
So obvious its laughable.
Optimism wins elections. Gloom and doom doesn't.
Thats as maybe, but dishonesty encourages the common people to make bad short and long term choices. This can NEVER be a good thing.
The fact that everyone LOVES a liar is well know, but it does not help an individual to keep their home when the truth comes out.
What Cameron must now consider is how to solve the UKs problems without riots hitting the streets before he has even got his feet in the No10 slippers. Expectations therefore would be best kept as low as possible as the medicine in going to taste like shit and have to be administered for two terms at best.
A swift venture into stark reality ASAP is needed. If fact it was needed ten years ago when the media were still sucking TBs flaccid plonker.
A better and clearer example of a deliberately contrived and conspiratorial, 'biggest boom possible followed by the biggest bust possible,' has not been seen since 1929.
One has now to come to one of two conclusions IMO.
The central banks and therefore their owners are criminally incompetent and certifiably insane.
OR
The central banks and therefore their owners are very very clever indeed, criminally evil and certifiably insane.
Make your choice. However it will make absolutely no difference now what conclusion you come to. As we are only allowed to know the truth from our ruling elites media, when there is NOTHING we can do about it.
Atlas
Darling's interview on World at One was ghastly, as was the Blears woman's this morning. These guys are being entirely dominated by events and the cretinous Brown.
when was the last time a Labour govt dealt with an impending recession?
I only remember the Tory recessions of the eighties and nineties, when they did indeed tighten the purse-strings and make sure the fecless lazy losers were shaken out of the system.
The Conservatives plan to reduce taxes during growth, and cut spending during downswings. What is different from their previous approach?
Is Boom and Bust now back on the agenda? Have the electorate realised there is no alternative?
We've gone from 'Things can only get better.' to 'Things can't get any worse can they?? Oh b****r! Here's 60 quid anyway.'
Poor old Darling can't win any which way.
When he’s optimistic the gloom mongers cry him down, when he's pessimistic the gloom mongers cry him down. What's up with you all? Things aren’t good. He's agreeing with you. He's turned the tables and now you're all furiously backpedaling?
Today he's offering help to families in difficulty with their mortgages, and assisting young people to get onto the housing ladder.
Meanwhile Cameron tries to upstage the announcements by opportunistically visiting the troops, and looking after those at the top with IT.
Stand by for wailing that the leader of the opposition isn’t getting enough coverage of his visit from the beeb, and pictures of Cameron bravely staring into the sunlit distance.
If I was Darling, I would be hugely pissed off by now and feel well within my rights to tell the truth.
1) Every paper of every colour and ilk are publishing headlines, editorials and commentaries saying how bad the economy is - if I was Darling I would feel ridiculous continuing to deny that in the face of overwhelming evidence.
2) Every "good" bit of economic news is announced by Gordon Brown (as per today's "housing rescue" mess), whereas Darling is expected to take the blame.
3) Is telling the truth such a crime? Everyone is always (correctly) on Brown's case for burying his head in the sand, so surely the same people should applaud Darling's honesty.
4) If the global markets hadn't realised what a mess the British economy is in, then (a) they've been living in a cave (if markets can do so....note to self: change analogy next time) and (b) they're stupid.
5) In conventional wisdom, acknowledging the problem is the first step on the way to curing it - ask any alcoholic.
I may be in the minority, but I was under no illusion as to how bad the current situation is, and therefore I was pleased to hear some sense spoken.
If facing up to the true extent of the problems we face in this recession is a sackable offence in Brown's eyes, then that says more about his government than Darling.
And Iain, whilst I agree that pessimism doesn't win votes, it is surely not Darling's fault that the entire country is pessimistic about our economy. The only benefit is that it will allow Cameron to sweep to power, hopefully with a strong majority which will allow him to carry out his plans with or without the grouchy right wing of the Tory Party.
Alex - if you are the Telepgraph's alex currently on holiday in Suffolk I can offer you liquid succour and a sympathetic ear in that locale. But we'll have to go and sit in the shed to drink it, otherwise my lady wife will fetch me a hard one with the dustpan.
mr "we are a broken society" cameron had better get his happy pills out.
Atlas I completely agree with your two alternatives re insane bankers, but doesn't the engineered "young first time buyer lemmings" quick march to the cliff edge by Lawson in 1989 compare?
We then had a free market solution to Bust.
Now we have an Interventionist solution, albeit rather weak-looking.
I'm enjoying the wait while our Great Narrators decide what we should think, and prove it to us with reference to opinion polls.
For the past year I have been saying that Darling is just a cardboard cutout, a tape recorder has more freewill than Darling! Captain Courage has been doing both jobs at Nos 10/11 and Darling is just window dressing and a disposable patsy, he doesnt even write his own speeches FFS.
Brown chose Darling as frontman to present policies but nothing else,he was even kept out of the loop between the treasury/BoE/No10!
We can speculate about the reasons for the Darling interview but Darling let a clue slip when he said that he only read about a problem in the paper, that would have never happened if he were a real chancellor would it? Perhaps this was deliberate on his part to make clear that the terrible mess is nothing to do with him?
A clever move by Cameron would be to offer Darling asylum within the conservative ranks, a safe seat and a job fitting his talents, yes he is talented but in no way is he chancellor material, Captain Courage has been using and abusing him, his only hope is to break free of Brown soon.
I would love to see Browns face if Darling got up during PMQs and walked across the floor and sat down by Cameron, that would be priceless!
Leadership wins elections.
That's what Labour cannot get their collective heads around. Whatever the problems of Blair he got that. Talking down to us like Brown does constantly just irritates. It's even more irritating when he says he has a plan, but keeps it to himself. Darling is of course slightly different in that he does not really want to be a leader of any kind. He's just another of the dead men walking; as opposed to the wannabe young dog soldiers like Balls, Millibland and co, who are neither dogs nor soldiers really.
The 6th form common room mentality that is labour these days just cannot hack it. This is real life not a sophisticated debating society or an elaborate game of political monopoly
Richard Havers - Leadership. Dead on. Brown is no leader. NL annointed him because they had been caught in the headlights of his 'brilliance' at No 11. Not only has this 'brilliance' been shown to be a chimera but also his leadership skills have been shown to be non existant. NL therefore have to accept two errors. One that their economic 'policy' aka tax and spend is completely flawed and two that Brown is just NBG.
They just can't bring themselves to do it. Beacuse they know that in doing so they would lose the rest of their already shredded credibility.
Whatever they do they are toast.
Surely speaking openly and honestly about something that has been palpably obvious for some time is a refreshing breath of fresh, honest air - I would have thought voters would prefer straight talking to being treated as if they can't handle words like 'recession', 'crisis' or 'downturn'.
Hmm, Reagan swept to power on a tide of optimism? Nothing to do with the American hostages in Iran then...
Carters legacy, in the long term, is so much more optimistic than the nutter actor who wanted to bomb Russia "until it glowed".
I thought the death of John Smith aimed to stop the ping-pong of fibs and exaggeration. And the resignation of Alistair twathead Campbell was meant to cement that.
If Darling say's "it's going to be a tough few years - so batten down the hatches and prepare for seven lean years after the seven fat years" then fair play to him.
Better that than more balls about "where there is discord, let us bring harmony" by that Grantham Witch before closing down industry after industry and leaving millions of working men and women and their families to suffer the indignity of economic poverty. I can't imagine half of Wales felt very harmonious after that deft touch.
Carl Eve
Jimmy Carter is unique. His is a first class asshole who is totally clueless about everything he pontificates on.
Well anon, that hardly makes him unique....
This is completely stupid. I want politicians to be truthful even when if offends our sensibilities.
It's well known in economic circles that this financial crisis could be worse than 1929. What use is sticking your head in the sand when it's just going to mean even more pain in the future?
I can't believe the shit Darling is getting for this. As usual it's starry eyed Neo-liberals who are the most offended when someone points out the inconveniance of reality.
The point you must surely accept Iain is that Darling was talking up the challenge in external economic facts and also talking up UK's ability to get through this. Obviously managing expectations is part of that and while "for 60 years" seems a bit rich even for the world economy where 30 years might be more like it, "for 60 years" is ridiculous for the UK economy which had worse, mismanaged by Tories incidentally, 15 and 25 years ago.
But the Darling interview has been thoroughly misrepresented for days on end now. He said the same at the Mansion House. Terrible world factors, robust economy here to get through it. But city boy gangs has been and will make fortunes taking the piss in the currency markets.
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