An interview Alistair Darling has given to the Telegraph appears to signal a change in strategy on the part of the Government – or at least some elements of it.
In it, Darling acknowledges that the Government has failed in its regulation of the banking sector:
“There are a lot of lessons to be learnt by regulators, governments, all of us.
“The key thing that went wrong was that a culture was allowed to develop over the last 15 years or so where the relationship between what people did and what they got went way out of alignment, especially at the top end.
“If there is a fault, it is our collective responsibility. All of us have to have the humility to accept that over the last few years, things got out of alignment.”
It looks like the Government now accepts that the electorate haven’t bought the “global crisis” line that Gordon Brown had been spinning for the past nine months or so and has decided instead to try apology and humility as a way of attempting to make its peace.
Darling also appears to rule out changing the law to recover Fred Goodwin’s pension fund and to accept that the money may, indeed, be irrecoverable – directly contradicting Harriet Harman, who adopted a far more bellicose stance in her Andrew Marr Show interview yesterday.
The Telegraph suggests that the pressure is now on Gordon Brown “to offer an apology for his role in the financial meltdown during a visit to Washington this week.”
If such an uncharacteristic thing were to happen, it would be fascinating indeed and proof positive that Labour has decided on a complete change of tack.
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It was Alistair Darling that first admitted that the economy was in a real mess, whilst GB was suggesting otherwise and now, he is suggesting that ministers have made mistakes. An honest minister? Perish the thought.