The answer is "No".
The answer, that is, to the question I posed earlier today when I asked "Has Alistair Darling announced a policy that he has previously accepted will 'lead to a slow lingering death for the jobs of the Northern Rock workers, its assets and Britain's reputation as a major financial services centre with... the chancellor cast in the role of undertaker'?"
This quote has been discussed and debated all day - on my blog, when John Humphrys interviewed Alistair Darling this morning and in my question at this morning's Prime Ministerial news conference. It was deployed by the Tories at their news conference and in the House of Commons.
The words were those of , the Labour MP for Newcastle Central (home of Northern Rock) who condemned the Lib Dems' policy of backing nationalisation for Northern Rock in a question to the Chancellor in November last year:
"Does my right hon. friend accept that the policy of nationalisation would lead to a slow lingering death for the jobs of the Northern Rock workers, its assets and Britain's reputation as a major financial services centre, with my right hon. friend the chancellor cast in the role of undertaker鈥攁nd that only by finding a successor business to grow on those jobs, assets and reputations can we offer any real prospect of the taxpayers getting their money back?"
Source: Hansard, 19 November 2007
According to Hansard (the official record of House of Commons business) the chancellor replied:
"I agree with my hon. friend" before continuing "It is regrettable and surprising that the Liberal Democrats never seemed to support our earlier proposals to keep Northern Rock open. It would also, however, be a mistake to shut off all other options and simply go for one at this stage; that does not seem to me to make any sense at all."
Except he didn't quite say that. The tape of the exchange has been on my blog for some time but I've only just had time to listen to what some of you have clearly heard for yourselves. Hansard does not - for once - accurately reflect what was actually said. What Mr Darling actually said was:
"I agree with my honourable friend that I think it is regrettable that the Liberal Democrats who never actually seemed to support the proposals we made earlier to keep Northern Rock open and I think that's regrettable and very surprising but I think it would also be a mistake to shut off all other options and simply go for one at this stage that doesn't seem to me to make any sense at all."
In other words, he was agreeing with the attack on the Lib Dems and not the characterisation of nationalisation as "a slow lingering death" with him as "undertaker".
No-one from Team Darling's complained that their man's been misquoted but he has. So, let me say sorry.
Of course, had he been actively considering nationalisation at that stage he would, I suspect, have responded rather differently and in a way less open to misinterpretation.
"An economic calamity has taken place". So claimed the Tory leader today drawing, he said, on his own experience of working at the Treasury on Black Wednesday. Yet somehow, at least in Westminster, it's not felt like that sort of day.
Of course, nationalising Northern Rock is something this government did not want to do.
Of course, Gordon Brown hoped that the 鈥楴 word鈥 would never again be used in the same sentence as 鈥楲abour government鈥.
Of course, the risk ministers are taking with vast sums of taxpayers money is still there.
That, though, is the point - the risk is STILL there - as it was last week and as it would have been even if ministers had today announced not the nationalisation of the Rock but its sale or, as the Tories recommend, putting it into administration.
There is clearly political damage to a government that's constantly proclaimed its capacity to deliver economic stability and reputational damage to Britain as a financial centre but the scale of this will not become clear until we know the answer to what is now the 拢100 billion question - how much, if any, of this unprecedented subsidy will actually be lost.
In other words, unlike on Black Wednesday, we do not know that billions have been lost. If they are, though, David Cameron will not be alone in using the word calamity.
So, has Alistair Darling announced a policy that he has previously accepted will "lead to a slow lingering death for the jobs of the Northern Rock workers, its assets and Britain's reputation as a major financial services centre with... the chancellor cast in the role of undertaker"?
That was the suggestion that led to a lively exchange between Darling and John Humphrys on Radio 4's Today programme this morning. It all stemmed from a quote I put on my blog last night which dates from the time the Lib Dems were being assaulted for daring even to think about the possibility that the Rock might have to be nationalised.
Listen to the exchange or read below the fuller transcript of the question from the Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne, Central, Jim Cousins, and Alistair Darling's reply:
鈥淛im Cousins MP:
鈥楾he whole House will have noted that the Liberal Democrats have as much regard for the 5,500 employees of Northern Rock in the north-east - and the 6,500 nationally - as they had for the job of their former leader.
[Interruption].
鈥楾wo or three faces in public, 10 in private - that is the policy of the Liberal Democrats.
鈥楧oes my right hon. friend accept that the policy of nationalisation would lead to a slow lingering death for the jobs of the Northern Rock workers, its assets and Britain's reputation as a major financial services centre, with my right hon. friend the chancellor cast in the role of undertaker - and that only by finding a successor business to grow on those jobs, assets and reputations can we offer any real prospect of the taxpayers getting their money back?鈥
Alistair Darling MP: 鈥業 agree with my hon. friend. It is regrettable and surprising that the Liberal Democrats never seemed to support our earlier proposals to keep Northern Rock open. It would also, however, be a mistake to shut off all other options and simply go for one at this stage; that does not seem to me to make any sense at all.鈥欌
Source: Hansard, 19 November 2007
So, Darling was careful not to rule nationalisation out but not at all careful about appearing to agree with a savage description of a policy he has now been forced to adopt.
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