Mac's Musings
The Darling bids for mayhem
17/09/2007Who on earth is advising the Government on how to handle the banking crisis?
Whoever it is, they should be shot.
As long queues formed outside Northern Rock branches early on Monday morning, Chancellor Alistair Darling went in to bat for the Government on BBC Radio 4's flagship Today programme. There was only one question that they were ever really interested in asking: 'Are you going to underwrite Northern Rock and guarantee savers' deposits?'
But when the question came, poor Darling was almost taken by surprise. He ducked and dived, hedged and havered and seemed to come up with a 'maybe'. Unbelievable! And this at prime time on the BBC's most important opinion-forming news and current affairs programme, listened to by politicians, the City, captains of industry and other journalists.
What was the Chancellor thinking of! You could almost hear the slamming of doors as Northern Rock savers who were not already queuing left their half-eaten bowls of cereal and made a dash for the High Street. Senior figures in banks and building societies up and down the land must have been reaching for their aspirins in horror. And directors at the Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley would surely have been preparing to fall on their swords.
So who exactly is (was?) the No 11 spin doctor who sent Mr Darling to the crease without pads, visor or even a bat? Every GCSE economics student and cub reporter knew what the question was going to be and could probably have successfully coached the Chancellor on the only correct answer: 'Yes'.
Yet Mr Darling fell at the first fence - a performance every bit as inept as jewellery tycoon Gerald Ratner's classic gaff at the IoD's televised conference a few years ago when he told the world his products were 'crap'!
Mr Ratner's and Mr Darling's performances had one thing in common: the relevant share prices tumbled. But there was one major difference: Mr Ratner had probably never been through a media awareness or media training course in his life. Mr Darling, on the other hand, has had 10 years in Government - most of it at the Treasury - and has had the benefit of some of the best media advisors in the land. Allegedly.
