Alistair Darling Quotes

As I said, there are two approaches-first, a strong economy, stability and helping families or, secondly, the Tory cuts, the undermining of stability, and a return to the boom and bust of the 1990s.

On top of that, we have a healthy and stable economy and an end to the boom and bust that characterised the Tory years.

I told the Icelandic prime minister that it appeared that large sums of money had been taken out of the UK from the Kaupthing branches, which was a serious breach of FSA regulations. The FSA had to find out by the end of the afternoon whether or not that breach had taken place. If it had, they would close the bank. He asked whether the money was needed today and how much it was. I said it was about £600 million, small beer for us but a huge amount for him. It was urgent, I said, that he look into it immediately. His response rang alarm bells. He asked if there was any chance that the amount could be negotiated down. I said there was no chance and that the money had to be returned before the end of the weekend. I suspected we would end up having to close the banks the following week.

We can't be in the business of carting fresh air around the country.

The Bank [of Scotland] had tried to sell itself to a company run by TV evangelist Pat Robertson. That deal fell through, perhaps because it transpired that Mr Robertson believed that Scotland was 'a dark land' where 'homosexuals ruled the roost'.

The question is not whether Scotland can survive as a separate state. Of course it could.

Tory plans to cut 'further and faster' would wreck recovery and roll back Labour's many successes.

The key thing that went wrong was that a culture was allowed to develop where the relationship between what people did and what they got went way out of alignment, especially at the top end.

The global economy is spluttering back into life. The Tories would have left it to choke to death.