The problem with blaming the world

Alistair Darling goes into full “blame the world” mode in his interview with the FT today – saying that international coordination will be “crucial” to get credit flowing through the financial system and to help our economy recover from the recession. As Iain Dale noted, similar claims littered Gordon Brown’s weekend interviews; so we’re seeing something of a new Labour spin line – or at least one that’s been reheated since last October.

Now, I would be slightly sympathetic to the claim – after all, the interconnectedness of the world banking system means that local recovery is partially contingent on global recovery – were it not for my suspicions that the Government’s deploying it for two reasons: i) to handily shift the blame should their measures not work, and ii) to push the narrative that they called for the world to act, and – lo and behold, via Obama’s fiscal stimulus – it did!