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Does anyone have encouraging news, of any kind, for Alistair Darling?

Comments

1. At 01:10 PM on 20 Nov 2007, wrote:

   No.

2. At 01:20 PM on 20 Nov 2007, wrote:

   Misery loves com pany?
   

   xx
   ed

   Why did the Roman Empire collapse? What is the Latin for office automation?

3. At 01:25 PM on 20 Nov 2007, Cake Maker wrote:

   I hear Australia is on the look out for a new PM .....

4. At 01:33 PM on 20 Nov 2007, Charlie wrote:

   
   I most certainly do...

   * he won't live forever although, his humiliation will seem to

   * he can only be castrated once
   

5. At 01:36 PM on 20 Nov 2007, Rob Cotterill wrote:

   He won't get any greyer.

6. At 01:37 PM on 20 Nov 2007, Fanny Marshall wrote:

   And this government is trying to convince us that ID cards are a good idea. There's no way I want to entrust my personal details with an organisation that doesn't even stick to its own rules on data protection!

7. At 01:45 PM on 20 Nov 2007, Dee Watson wrote:

   How can anyone think banning supermarket carrier bags will have much impact on the prevention of climate change? Surely we will simply have to buy more plastic bin liners rather than using the free bags from the supermarkets. If there is a biodegradable bin liner acceptable to the council rubbish collectors I would love to know. Until then the choice seems to be between picking up free bags with the shopping or buying them!

8. At 01:45 PM on 20 Nov 2007, Big Sister wrote:

   I think he'll be glad of an excuse for an early exit.

   Alistair Darling: The natural successor to Dennis Healey's eyebrows.

9. At 02:00 PM on 20 Nov 2007, Fiona wrote:

   Nope, but if it helps I'm happy to throw a few more cliches his way..

   How about "things can only get better"

   Or "the only way is up"

   or the old favourite "there's always someone worse off than you" (although this is a finite one, after all if there is always someone worse of than you than eventually you get to the very last person in the world who is the most worse off in the whole world as there is no-one else to be worse off than them left......if you see what I mean!) Anyway I wonder who that poor person is??
   

10. At 02:09 PM on 20 Nov 2007, wrote:

    We accept that being a government minister is just ‘on-the-job-training’, however having watched Alistair Darling’s sidekick Andy Burnham, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, totally out of his depth in the Commons on Monday (19 Nov) it is clear that even training is beyond the capability of certain people.

11. At 02:11 PM on 20 Nov 2007, Perky wrote:

    At least he won't have to unpack the last of those removal boxes at Number 11.

12. At 02:41 PM on 20 Nov 2007, Simon Worrall wrote:

    Hmm, a complex and tricky question.

    A department of the Treasury under his new Chancellorship gave Northern Rock the go-ahead to permanently increase dividends back on July 25th, despite the already-looming credit crunch which the Northern Crock noted in its trading update that day.

    /blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2007/11/rock_needs_1bn.html

    Never mind Northern Rock, personal borrowing has become more expensive, if you can get a loan/mortgage at all in the current climate. Thousands of supposedly 'preapproved' credit card applications are being declined each week.

    Remortgaging will become difficult, if not impossible, with a recession in the housing market now expected by experts. Thus the principle source of cash which has propped up the retail sector for years is about to be kicked away by lenders.

    With house prices in decline and the aforementioned housing recession expected millions may be caught in negative equity. Just like the recession of the early 90's.

    Lack of personal liquidity will depress discretionary spending, thus damaging or destroying small businesses all over the country.

    This sounds like another cycle in the boom-and-bust British economy. Only it can't be so, because the previous Chancellor has told us for ten years that he has ended that cycle.

    So having inherited a pretty good fiscal position from the Tories in 1997 and maintained it fairly well (apart from the Enron-like status of PFI deals) Gordon Brown has managed to escape the Treasury just as the crisis was about to strike. Lucky man!

    Darling made his deposit guarantee too late to stop the run on the Crock. That run led directly to the position where the Tripartite bodies (FSA, Treasury and Bank of England) have had to lend an excruciating sum of taxpayers money with no assurances of getting it back.

    His misjudgements have brought about the predicament. Everyone knows that his scripts are written next-door in No. 10 (as are those of David Miliband, it would appear). He commands no confidence and should tender his resignation forthwith.

    Guess that's a 'No' then?

    Oh, hang on a mo. I've thought of something. He can 'spend more time with his family'!

    Si.

13. At 02:45 PM on 20 Nov 2007, JimmyGiro wrote:

    @ 9

    ...hello!

14. At 03:00 PM on 20 Nov 2007, Aperitif wrote:

    Blimey. It's not looking good, is it?

    Fiona (9), tee hee.

15. At 04:24 PM on 20 Nov 2007, wrote:

    Yes
    Apparently there are 600,000 job vacancies in the UK - I'm sure he'll find one that'll suit....

16. At 04:31 PM on 20 Nov 2007, Chris Ghoti wrote:

    How many of us here are among the 25 million people who want someone's head on a plate? Darling's for a start?

17. At 04:36 PM on 20 Nov 2007, AndyR wrote:

    Fiona, #9: Presumably that's an AIDS orphan in Sierra Leone or somewhere then?

18. At 05:07 PM on 20 Nov 2007, wrote:

    Did someone complain about theis?
    

    And why?

    Salaam/Shalom/Shanthi/Dorood/Peace
    Namaste -ed

    When you die, you lose a very important part of your life.
    -- Brooke Shields

19. At 05:10 PM on 20 Nov 2007, Dr Hackenbush wrote:

    Hello, Darling.

20. At 05:23 PM on 20 Nov 2007, Frances O wrote:

    Staggering incompetence over the loss of the two disks with child benefit information. Mind-boggling.

    Er - so no.

21. At 05:38 PM on 20 Nov 2007, carlo wrote:

    whats her name just said that we have nothing to fear for id cards because the computer system it uses is bang up to date not like the antiquated one used for child benefits.....ehm....excuse me here we go again .......?.....the data that was lost was stored on CD discs...! no matter how reliable the new top of the range system is, its pointless if you put all the data on a disc and then lose it.....like they just did.....

22. At 06:04 PM on 20 Nov 2007, Frances O wrote:

    Oh, Eddie, how prophetic!

    (Oh, minister, how pathetic)

23. At 08:00 PM on 20 Nov 2007, Ynda wrote:

    At least the pound is heading south the same way the dollar is currently doing. Plenty of scope to cut interest rates in the future...

24. At 09:31 PM on 20 Nov 2007, mittfh wrote:

    OK...

    1) He's still alive
    2) He's still got his home
    3) He's still got his job (for the time being, at least)
    4) Gordon still likes him
    5) His reputation can't get any worse...can it?!

    Tried to post, got a Content Submission Error, so I can add one more to the list:

    6) He isn't plagued by 502s or Content Submission Errors.

25. At 11:34 PM on 20 Nov 2007, wrote:

    And he isn't FORBIDDEN (yet)
    xx
    ed

26. At 09:10 PM on 22 Nov 2007, Chris Ghoti wrote:

    Ed @ 25, and he isn't compulsory either...