Who's in charge?

[Kathyan]

It's been reported in the press that Alistair Darling refused to move from the postition of Chancellor. I thought Gordon Brown was in charge, but I must be wrong! Is there a reason for letting him stay?

[rov1200]

When Blair was in charge he often considered moving Brown from the treasury. But behind the scenes Brown put up stiff resistance to a move and won the day. Now that Darling is chancellor he has also put his foot down about a move so Brown must know how he feels and what damage he can cause.

[sqad617]

Kathyan.......if he had moved Alistair Darling, then he would have resigned from the Cabinet and that would have brought down the Government. Alistair Darling and Brown were not the "big mates" that was made out.

[Kathyan]

You can't believe anything Gordon Borwn says these days. He said that Darling was a personal friend the other day!

[jno]

They are quite close. Sacking your chancellor in the middle of a recession is always going to be seen as a sign that the government doesn't know what it's doing economically; you'd only do it if you had an obviously better candidate, and the only one around is Ed Balls, whose record as a minister isn't great.

[sqad617]

jno.......general opinion among Political journalists is that Brown and Darling are NOT matey.

[paraffin]

The fact is that Brown couldn't afford losing such a close and loyal ally as Darling in favour of Balls whose promotion would allegedly and reportedly have created seismic waves of protest within the rank and file.

But to try to redress the balance, Brown instead installed his buddy Balls as Children's Secretary and his (Balls's) obnoxious wife, Yvette Cooper, to Works and Pensions Secretary.

He had to steady his floundering ship somehow and has done so by closing ranks surrounded by some of his most trusted cohorts. He'll be building a bunker next!

[jno]

I meant not so much matey as allies, sqad. Brown's matey with Balls.

I look forward to seing his ship in a bunker; quite an engineering challenge.

[jno]

actually, I just spotted this in the Observer today, sqad: we may both be wrong

Alistair Darling is - or, at least, was - a close friend and ally of Gordon Brown. His wife, Maggie, often helps to look after the prime minister's children. The chancellor may have had a charisma bypass, but he has kept his head when many others would have been driven insane by the combination of the worst financial crisis since the war and outrageous briefing against him by the poisoners in the prime minister's gang.

Early on Thursday evening, Mr Brown attempted to bully Mr Darling into leaving the Treasury. Then and again on Friday morning, Alistair Darling pushed back and the prime minister was finally forced to abandon the idea of installing Ed Balls at Number 11. It was a retreat that made him look very weak, but by then he had no alternative. The sort of resignation speech that Alistair Darling could deliver would be fatal to Gordon Brown. The chancellor's hand was strengthened by the terror caused by the Purnell resignation which also made it too risky to try to move David Miliband from the Foreign Office. In sacrificing his job, James Purnell inadvertently helped to secure them in theirs.