What a difference a few weeks makes. The Chancellor Alistair Darling was tipped for the chop after saying in a newspaper interview last month that Britain faced arguably its worst economic crisis for 60 years. His remarks put a cloud over Gordon Brown's autumn fightback. Knives were being sharpened among Brown's advisers ahead of the Cabinet reshuffle, even though Brown had previously assured Darling he would not be moved.
In the end, the threat to Darling passed. The unexpected turmoil in the financial markets meant it was not the right time to install a new man (ie Ed Balls) at the Treasury. And the"60 years" warning didn't look so gloomy after all. Darling looked shaky in media interviews after last month's gaffe but now seems to have recovered his poise. Brown's decision to set up a National Economic Council or "war cabinet" to handle the crisis has been seen by some as a criticism of the Treasury. However, I'm told that Darling was impressively calm and reassuring at its first meeting today. Brown is not the only great survivor in the Cabinet.

Could it be that the introduction of Mandelson has caused a temporary shift in the balance of power in Cabinet to Darlings advantage.
Balls attention may have been diverted from the Treasury towards the returnee.
Posted by: jon dee | Monday, 06 October 2008 at 07:27 PM
Er, excuse me but this really doesn't make much sense. Assuming that GB also knew the extent of the impending crisis he would not have seen AD's comments (made a couple of weeks before publication) as anything more than a statement of the obvious.
Did you mean that his stock by journalists had risen, because that's the only way this makes any sense.
Posted by: Labour Matters | Monday, 06 October 2008 at 07:56 PM
Darling was pathetic today. You are really clutching at straws.
Posted by: Don Logan | Monday, 06 October 2008 at 11:15 PM
Truth is the first casualty of war. Politicians and businesses are pillaging the pockets of consumers to feed the extravagant lifestyles of millionaires and billionaires. Life has never been good for the plebeians who perform the drudgery to keep the wheels of civilisation turning. This phrase: “worst economic crisis for 60 years” is actually an understatement because more people are becoming aware of their enslaved status. Many people believe 9/11 was a hoax orchestrated by the CIA to erode civil liberties. Conspiracy theorists on the Net are suggesting that the “economic crisis” is part-two of the hoax designed to keep people in powerless positions of instability where our foremost thoughts revolve around acquiring enough food to survive. Personally I don’t subscribe to conspiracy theories but I must admit that the Bilderberg Group is suspicious. We live in an age of disinformation where the brains of most people are fogged by celebrity gossip. Naturally politicians are lambasted if they tell the truth because politics is the art of concealing the truth. The purpose of politics is to keep the dumb-hordes in a state of compliant-subservience. Profit for businesses is the overriding motivation for politicians thus we see many businesses being bailed-out. All politicians will survive regardless of what truths or lies they disseminate because politicians never need to struggle in the way that common people do. A politician can accept dodgy loans, misuse his or her expense account, serve a prison sentence and they will still come up smelling of roses. The cash-for-honours-scandal revealed the close links politicians have with powerful businessmen. If Alistair Darling’s career in politics fails he can always resort to a career in highflying business.
http://istealyourmoney.com/UKfinances.html
http://istealyourmoney.com/POLITICS.html
http://istealyourmoney.com/
Posted by: I STEAL YOUR MONEY | Tuesday, 07 October 2008 at 06:08 AM
Well, ISYM--I might have said the same thing--using my own words of course, but it's reassuring to learn that, others have drawn similar conclusions and have not been totally submersed in the mire of disinformation. Problem now, is how to remove those who grind the majorities down--we have lost the basis for creating a different ideology. The UK is virtually a police state congealed in an elitist Establishment, headed by a Mediaeval Mafia-style Monarchic system. When social evolution is manipulated, when is revolution justified?
Posted by: Diogenes | Tuesday, 07 October 2008 at 06:51 AM
Great to hear more and more people waking up to the truth. alot of people still have blind faith in our leaders, Gorden brown is in the bilderberger group who are in turn run by the illuminati, who surprise surprise have the bush family firmly in there grip for generations. Hard to beleive at first, but for every war they sustain, enormous amounts of money go into there organisations, they tend to provoke these wars by falsifying catalysts then twisting the truth around in the name of national security, they also own the media so have full control of the brainwashed masses, as well as there money. The next bit i found even harder to believe at first but the signs are all around when you start to look closer...they, the powers that be want to competely take over and gradually completely crush all public rights and create what our leaders keep quoting as..."THE NEW WORLD ORDER"...i suggest you all research into all this, then tell everyone you know to tell everyone they know. If everyone knows the truth, that we basically are being run by ruthless facists who at any minute now will fake another 9/11 or similar so they can declare martial law on the streets and strip us of all rights, get rid of anyone who gets in the way, and chip the useful clueless ones to be slaves, i think power will be restored to us if we unit in this knowledge. David Icke & Alex Jones are not as mad as i previously thought, it's all coming out of the woodwork now and the powers that be are going to have to work hard to keep us all down for much longer...also look into the united states HAARP project in Alaska, greatly underestimated at present but this Weapon can be used in many ways, one of which is mass brainwashing through manipulating brain frequencies...
Posted by: mario hayo | Sunday, 23 November 2008 at 01:48 PM