Alistar Darling, our Chancellor of the Exchequer is not known for giving interviews to the press. Indeed he is one of the quieter types in the Cabinet choosing to speak when he has to and when he does talk it has usually been very factual rather than fiercely opinionated. So it was with surprise that I read his interview with the Guardian this weekend. The content surprised me even more.
He had invited a journalist to spend two days with him at his Scottish retreat. You would imagine that a journalist given that length of time with one of our leading political figures would have had some sort of relationship with him but Decca Aitkenhead had only met him the once. To give someone that amount of access you either had to trust them not to do a stitch-up job on you or you were to be prepared for a 'warts and all' feature. True, the Guardian is a left-wing, Pro-Labour broadsheet so maybe Darling felt that by giving this searingly honest and opinionated interview he would get sympathetic coverage.
In fact Aitkenhead did her job. She reported what she heard from the Chancellor's mouth and the subsequent article sent the media into overdrive. Darling had declared that the economic times we are facing are "arguably the worst they've been in 60 years. And I think it's going to be more profound and long-lasting than people thought." To compound his gloomy outlook he said that he had had a terrible time since he took the position, went into detail about Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs losing two disks containing the personal details of just about every family in the country and his wife cheerily chipped in saying it had been a "crisis a week".
I'm not sure what Darling was hoping to achieve from giving this interview. In fact I don't think he can have thought about his objectives or messages at all. It was all 'me, me, me'. I get the impression that he just went along with it. His wife, an ex-journalist, Maggie was reported as cheerily streering everything and even his press adviser (another former journalist) was quoted as saying; "Now Alistair tell her everything. Make sure you tell her everything." The result of Darling 'telling her everything' was that the markets went into freefall on Monday. Sterling plunged to a historic low: the pound slumped to 1.23 euros, its lowest level since the launch of the single currency in 1999, and $1.80, its worst rate against the dollar in two years.
The Tories accused the Chancellor of having 'talked down' Britain's prospects with his suggestion that it faces its worst crisis in 60 years. And, even worse, his estimate was wildly inaccurate anyway as Management Today pointed out in its analysis of the effect of this single interview: "Back in 1948, there were about 3m people out of work – about twice the current total – rationing was in force, and inflation was running at about 25%. Unless the Chancellor knows something we don’t, we’re a long way off that."
Now I am all for giving journalists good access to senior player but there has to be a reason for it. If you are not ready with clear objectives and messages in line with those objectives then the results can be incredibly damaging. This interview has not only damaged Darling's reputation but it has had a direct affect on the economy that he is supposed to be working, on our behalf, to stabilise. 'Making matters worse' is an understatement. The Labour party has been made to look less than credible and his good friend the Prime Minister Gordon Brown doesn't appear to have taken any action to rectify this mistake. A lot of people are calling for him to be sacked because of his ineffectual performance as our Chancellor. I think this is in some part unfair because a lot of what we are suffering is down to World forces. But in giving this interview he has shown a grave error of judgement and for that he should be reprimanded at the very least.
