Alistair Darling
Use attributes for filter ! | |
Gender | Male |
---|---|
Age | 70 |
Date of birth | November 28,1953 |
Zodiac sign | Sagittarius |
Born | Hendon |
United Kingdom | |
Spouse | Margaret Vaughan |
Office | Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom |
Books | Saving for the Future |
Hubris: How HBOS Wrecked the Best Bank in Britain | |
Dialogues Concerning the Banking Crisis | |
Back from the Brink: 1000 Days at Number 11 | |
Children | Anna Darling |
Calum Darling | |
Party | Labour Party |
Education | Loretto School |
University of Aberdeen | |
Chinthurst School | |
University of Aberdeen School of Law | |
Parents | Thomas Young Darling |
Anna MacLean | |
Previous position | Member of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom (2015–2020) |
Nationality | British |
Date of Reg. | |
Date of Upd. | |
ID | 416115 |
Alistair Darling Life story
Alistair Maclean Darling, Baron Darling of Roulanish, PC is a British politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2007 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party, he was a Member of Parliament from 1987 until he stepped down in 2015, most recently for Edinburgh South West.
Alistair Darling: Gordon Brown says briefings against ex-chancellor unfair
...By Joshua Nevett Political reporter, BBC NewsFormer Prime Minister Gordon Brown has told the BBC that any political briefings against the late Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling were " completely unfair"...
Alistair Darling: Steady hand in an economic crisis
...By Sam Francis & Faisal Islam, BBC Economics editorBBC NewsAs a radical student, Alistair Darling hoped to reshape the world...
Former Chancellor Alistair Darling dies aged 70
...Alistair Darling, the Labour chancellor who steered the UK through the 2008 financial crisis, has died aged 70, a family spokesperson has said...
Budget 2023: Why more parents face losing child benefit
... And that £100,000 threshold has not changed since it was introduced by the then Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling...
Laura Kuenssberg: Glastonbury for weirdos, yes, but party conferences matter
......
No 10 denies Boris Johnson has lost control after raft of resignations
... Dan Rosenfield joined Number 10 as chief of staff in January 2021, and had worked in the Treasury for former chancellors Alistair Darling and George Osborne...
The inside story of the Barclays study
... the then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, Alistair Darling is concerned that, if you don t force the banks to beef-up dry up their threadbare finances would as a matter of urgency, more would follow Northern Rock-style bank runs and cash machines...
Bank of England: Who will be the next governor?
... Alistair Darling, the former chancellor, tried to bar her from Treasury meetings during the financial crisis amid growing tensions at Downing Street...
Laura Kuenssberg: Glastonbury for weirdos, yes, but party conferences matter
By Laura KuenssbergPresenter, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg
" Glastonbury for weirdos. "
I'm afraid that as a fully paid-up political nerd myself there is an element of truth in that comic description of party conferences from a Labour Party insider.
Twenty years ago I went To My first " season" and was gobsmacked that so many of the clichés I'd grown up with seemed true.
At the Conservative Party conference there really were Young Men in pin-striped suits or tweeds, as well as women of a certain age wearing pearls.
At Labour there were harassed-looking sharply dressed special advisers - But also plenty of placards and CND badges.
Lib Dem activists really did wear sandals and a " Glee club" was the hotly anticipated event of the week.
Party conferences are a display of our Political Tribes like No Other and when things go right, they can create a sense of common purpose for the activists who knock on doors and deliver leaflets.
We're in Aberdeen This Week as the SNP gathers for its first conference In Person since 2019.
SNP leader and Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon - who is on Our Show this Sunday - has enjoyed years of extraordinary political success at the ballot box.
The First Minister will be lauded here, But conferences can sometimes provide tricky moments too, where party activists' beliefs clash with their leaders' approaches.
Ms Sturgeon has had to grapple with calls from members to Go Further and faster towards its push for independence.
In 2019 she rejected calls for more radical option - a " Plan B" if the UK government kept saying no to a second referendum - which was booed on the conference floor.
Three years on, some of The Most ardent independence enthusiasts have gone to former SNP leader Alex Salmond 's Alba Party which advocates a more aggressive approach.
But now Ms Sturgeon has outlined an alternative where her party will treat The Next general election as a referendum.
There are question marks about whether such a plan is feasible, yet she is not expected to face too much internal pressure This Week .
And it's interesting that with Labour soaring in the polls, the SNP opened its conference by attacking Sir Keir Starmer 's party. But it is clear Ms Sturgeon wants to use the Tories' travails to make the case that chaos in the UK is more of a risk to Scotland than the many uncertainties of leaving The Union itself.
And as we have all just witnessed in gory technicolour, party conferences can act as both magnifying glass and megaphone for any party's woes.
In a few short days in Birmingham, the Conservatives put on one of The Most unedifying displays of political breakdown ever seen.
To end the week with The Cabinet in open dispute, and the polls crashing, was a disaster. It raised the question, As One insider put it, as to whether the government could run a bath let alone the country.
One former No 10 staffer told me conference can " give The Leadership a chance to set out deeper policy ideas and provide the conditions for a few people to have a snog or be lobbied".
But This Time " a lot of The Public tuned in for the First Time to hear this Conservative government unhelpfully speaking in Red Meat top lines beloved by some of the membership But tin-eared and undetailed in a time of crisis for normal voters".
It wasn't just that the opportunity to talk to the country was wasted, it was squandered, and turned into a few days that Made Things even more difficult for Prime Minister Liz Truss .
At The End of her conference the question is not " was The Event a success or failure? " it is instead " what kind of political miracle will there have to be for her to recover? ".
Labour, in contrast, grabbed the opportunity conference season provides to get media coverage it doesn't always attract.
Starmer's party this year was determined to appear organised, competent, and show a break with its recent past.
Activists on The Left of The Party barely got a look in and it's almost unimaginable that The National anthem would have been sung on the conference floor before Starmer's tenure.
His team knew they could create a powerful visual moment that would be lapped up by the cameras as well as being an important mark of respect following the death of the late Queen.
Labour benefitted too from what was going on in the markets and in Westminster. Or, as the former No 10 staffer put it: " Labour could have smiled and waved their way through theirs like the Madagascar penguins, and still come out brilliantly because the government was making such a hash of things by themselves. "
It is just a few weeks each year. The Events are attended by only a few thousand people. Yet these gatherings are important way-markers for our politics.
They are health checks on the parties that seek to govern us and show us moments when flaws are horribly exposed or progress revealed.
What happens at these events does shape The Conversation that ultimately decides who runs the country.
So, yes, party conferences may indeed be " Glastonbury for weirdos" But they give millions an insight into the parties who seek to govern us.
Source of news: bbc.com