Alistair Darling/Timelines

1997 to 2007

(from the biography page of Alistair Darling's website[1])

• 1978 - 82: Solicitor
• 1984: Admitted to Faculty of Advocates
• 1982 - 87: Councillor, Lothian Regional Council
• 1987: Elected as MP for Edinburgh Central
• 1988: Opposition spokesman for Home Affairs
• 1992: Opposition spokesman for Treasury Economic Affairs and the City
• 1996: Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
• 1997: Chief Secretary to the Treasury
• 1998: Secretary of State for Social Security
• 2001: Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
• 2002: Secretary of State for Transport
• 2003: Secretary of State for Scotland
• 2006: Secretary of State for Trade and Industry
• June 2007: Chancellor of the Exchequer

2007 to 2010

• February 2008: The Northern Rock bank is "nationalised" [2]

• March 2008: Budget[3][4]

• April 2008: Bank of England announces its Special Liquidity Scheme to allow banks to swap some of their illiquid assets for liquid Treasury Bills for up to three years [5].

• September 2008: The Bradford and Bingley bank is "nationalised" [6], and the Halifax/Bank of Scotland bank is rescued from bankruptcy by a bid from Lloyds TSB [7]

• October 2008: A £20 billion fiscal stimulus including a temporary reduction in value added tax (amounting to about 1 per cent of GDP)[8]; and suspends the code for fiscal stability.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer announces unlimited support to all UK banks and undertakes to inject capital or take equity in banks and to guarantee interbank lending [9] [10].

• January 2009: The Bank of England is to set up a Treasury-financed Asset Purchase Facility to buy high-quality assets for the purpose of quantitative easing operations [11].

Interviewed by Jeff Randall [12] [13] "forces of hell".

• February 2009: Launch of the Government's Asset Protection Scheme[14] - under which firms are offered protection against banking losses in return for a fee.

• March 2009: Budget [15]

• February 2010: The Fiscal Responsibility Act - imposes a duty on the Treasury to ensure that by the financial year ending 2014 public sector net borrowing as a percentage of GDP is at least halved from its level for the financial year ending 2010, and to make continuing reductions thereafter.

• March 2010: Budget[16]