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]
- March 2008: Budget[3][4] "To strengthen the public finances over the next five years, Labour plans to allow the tax burden to increase by 1.0% of national income (£14 billion) and to cut public spending by 0.5% of national income (£7 billion)" (IFS assessment[5]).
- 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 [6].
- September 2008: The Bradford and Bingley bank is "nationalised" [7], and the Halifax/Bank of Scotland bank is rescued from bankruptcy by a bid from Lloyds TSB [8]
- October 2008: A £20 billion fiscal stimulus including a temporary reduction in value added tax (amounting to about 1 per cent of GDP)[9]; 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 [10] [11].
- November 2008: [12][13] Pre budget report: A reduction in the rate of value added tax from 17.5% to 15% from 1 December 2008 until 31 December 2009.
- 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 [14].
- February 2009: Launch of the Government's Asset Protection Scheme[17] - under which firms are offered protection against banking losses in return for a fee.
- March 2009: Budget [18] Alistair Darling forecasts a return to growth in the 4th quarter of 2009 and growth of between 1 and 1½ per cent in 2010.
- budget speech [19]
- 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[20]- a fiscal expansion of 0.5 per cent, followed by contractions of 0.8 per cent each year until 2013/14, by which time the budget deficit would halved.