The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Britain's Finance Minister, is an enigmatic figure. Alistair Darling has established himself as a managerial technocrat, of the type much favoured by the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, yet he also managed to retain a working relationship with Gordon Brown- the the point that Brown trusted him enough to hand over the Finance Ministry to Darling upon his elevation to Number 10. His public image is dominated by his grey hair and seemingly grey personality- hence his nickname of the Badger. This seemingly buttoned-up Morningside personality has, however, been making statements that are so emotional that they show a man at the end of his tether. Spending some part of his holiday on the Western Isles with a Guardian journalist might be seen as an error of judgement, were it not so carefully judged. His complaints that he no longer gets back to Edinburgh, nor goes to the Cinema suggest a man firmly buried by work pressure. What really shows this though
Musings on World events from the perspective of a Social and an Economic Liberal.