Friday 22 October 2010

Pol-Eco Profile: Alistair Darling

First of my a new section of the blog were I'll profile Economists and Politicians that I have an opinion on, be that good or bad. Whats really sparked this off is an article in a magazine: management today which is an interview with Alistair Darling by Chris Blackhurt

Back Ground:
Name: Alistair Maclean Darling
Nationality: British (Scottish)
Born: 28th November 1953
Background: Politics
Position: Ex-Chancellor of Exchequer (UK)
Education: Bachelor of Laws at Aberdeen University
Brief History: During University he joined Marxist groups then joined the labour party became MP in 1987 for central Edinburgh, 1997 entered labour cabinet (as Secretary of Treasury) in 2007 became Chancellor of Exchequer

Significance:
Personally I would credit Alistair Darling to the revival of Keynesian theory. The UK lead the world in the fiscal stimulus package and bailing out the banks. Measures such as the car scrappage scheme have a lot of macro economic theory behind them. We are now called George Osborne the one experimenting on the UK economy but the previous Government also banked on their fiscal stimulus working and it did, the UK is out of recession.
Also Alistair Darlings budget before losing the election contained many elements that the Con-dem Government is now taking credit for in their spending review.

My opinions:
I always liked Alistair Darling when he was in power, his air of maturity, the economic decisions and commitment. The media loved to attack Darling, its easy to blame him for the debt, the recession and make fun of his odd eye brows but he did not cause the recession or want to increase the deficit.
My opinions of Alistair Darling have turned some what into respect after reading a recent article, the way he is portrayed as hard working and honourable. Saying himself he did not want an economy dominated by the public sector but wanted to improve services that had been neglected. How he held his ground against Brown at the end and not at all naive in the banking crisis. Of course basing ones opinions on one article is folly but it only conformed my opinions on the man.

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