Alistair Darling/Timelines
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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]
- 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]; suspension of the code for fiscal stability.
- 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].
- 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]
- budget speech [16]
- February 2010: The Fiscal Responsibility Act[1] - 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[17]