A humble rift

Rhoda Klapp

Darling needs to quit, if he can't be the chancellor without interference. If he happened to make a Geoffrey Howe speech on the way out, I wouldn't mind.

Or is he clinging to a pension prospect? I wonder whether the rank/time based pension rights of ministers aren't having a distorting effect on resignations.

Chris lancashire

Darling appears to be a basically decent human being totally overwhelmed by events for which he is unfitted to cope with.
Contrast with the unhealty coterie of Brown, Balls and Mandelson. No surprise the two camps don't mix.

C Powell

Darling should do a Geoffrey Howe-style resignation speech. He's been given the mother of all hospital passes by Brown and is now being kicked in the teeth as well. Why do none of the Labour Cabinet grow a pair and do what needs to be done?

RW

I don't understand why Darling, who seems essentially decent if a bit dim, continues to inflict on himself the gross humiliation of just turning up for work every day, as the pretend Chancellor of the Exchequer.

He can't be short of money or financial contacts - why doesn't he just tell Brown to go to hell, and get himself out of this horrific shambles of a Government?

michael m

Can someone please explain why the German, French, Spanish, Canadian Banks with only one or two exceptions have not gone through the horrendous problems faced here- the answer surely is that they all at least had some form of effective regulation

TrevorsDen

Darling is a doormat for Brown.

A pathetic jelly of a politician.

All recessions have a global context. 'When America sneezes the world catches a cold'
The point that Brown should apologise for is that Britain is totally unprepared for the crisis with 2 banks totally, one bank virtually and another practically nationalised.
Key industries (like car assembly and component manufacture) have fallen off a cliff with the govt immobile when it comes to help.

Mrs Campbell

The answer michael m is lending levels - anyone noticed the Government bailout of the PFI companies, anyone heard the suggestion that a lot of HBOS' commercial lending was PFI? It's not lack of regulation the Government should be eating humble pie over it's spending and borrowing like tomorrow will never come...read Hamish McRae in the Independent this morning

GJTory

I agree that Darling should resign if he cannot run the Treasury without being undermined.

But this government's ministers never seem to resign. Maybe if all MPs regardless of rank, from the PM down, earned the same we would see a greater willingness on the part of ministers to speak their minds and do what is necessary.

councilhousetory

You need to add Vadera to the top team. She's still influential, just skulking since the 'Green Shoots' gaffe.

Mike, Brighton

If Alistair Darling is essentially decent as many people suspect then he should resign as chancellor asap as he clearly disagrees with the governments approach. Get those memoirs out quickly, before the forthcoming election!

jon dee

Brown's cliche driven rhetoric, now simply boring,is an insult to the electorate and no longer disguises his inability to handle the recession.

His failure to apologise only illuminates his failings, while his cabinet colleagues clearly distance themselves from him and who can blame them.The rats analogy does come to mind though.

Brown's political myopia coupled with his delusionary personality will unfortunately cause further damage as his costly economic initiatives accelerate.

The next government have a thankless task clearing up Labours mess but the sooner they are in power the better for all of us.

The Bellman

I agree with RW. It is painfully obvious Mr Darling's heart is not in it. He knows the whole plan has been rumbled, and at least he has the decency to look embarrassed when he repeats McSnotty's distortions. I'd feel sorry him, but for the fact that he knew the score when he took the job.

michael m: Australian banks are in relatively good shape also.

Johnathan Pearce

From the impression I get, Darling is basically a good man but out of his depth. He should resign. Mind you, who would replace him?

Comparisons with Howe are not quite right, though. Howe was, for all his dull public manner, a much underestimated chancellor who took a brave step of dragging inflation down in the teeth of opposition from the chattering classes and the economics profession. Alas, he later became beguiled by the EU juggernaut.

Susan Hill

@CHRIS LANCASHIRE. Your judgment is spot on. Darling is not in the same league for mendacity and self-serving, power-grabbing and patronising. He is a decent human being. But Chancellor is never an easy job and these days it requires far greater grit, competence, nerve and sheer brain power and grasp of the detail than Darling has. He is way out of his depth and I wouldn`t be in his shoes for all the pension pots in the world - nor, I suspect, would he.

strapworld

Iask you! Top Team, Ed Balls and Mandleson!! How this once mighty nation has handed it over to the bloody asylum!

Come one. How many of you would employ Ed Balls ? If so in what capacity?

Who trusts Mandleson?

Darling has always struck me as a middle manager who has foud himself in the senior executives dining room and dare not ask for permission to leave!

He has never been allowed to act as Chancellor. Brown still holds that office. In fact Brown holds every office.

What we do have is a cabinet of cowards, putting themselves before country and their party before country. Utterly useless individuals.

But, Balls, Mandleson, Brown a top team? I support Leyton Orient and Brown and his crowd are in a very similar position facing relegation!

Hereford

"From the impression I get, Darling is basically a good man but out of his depth. He should resign."

Can we please stop this. I remember similar statements about Brown early in his premiership i.e. "I may not agree with him, but he is a man of principle..."

Brown is not, and has never been a man of principle. He is a nasty venal man who will happily sell all of our children into slavery to cling to a job he is not competent to do for another day, or hour for that matter.

Darling, if he is a "basically good man", will stand up to Brown and deliver an ultimatum. Let me do my job without hinderance or I will resign a la Geoffery Howe.

If he continues to soldier on, he is showing himself to be the same as Brown. Unprincipled and wicked.

Don't waste time offering this nasty pair any sympathy. They both deserve nothing but our contempt.

Wilhelm

''From the impression I get, Darling is basically a good man ''

Are you kidding ? he reminds me of a serial killer. you've always got to watch out for the quiet ones.

Carrie

I can't hate Darling he seems a genuine guy and actually appears human unlike Brown Mandelson etc. Most of what Darling has said has turned out to be true. If you ask me the Tories should be exploiting the Brown-Darling emerging rift situation using the dark arts of politics. Or as Bob Quick would say "Tories and friends in the media". Getting Darling to do a Geoffrey Howe would finish Brown.