Alistair Darling, 1953-2023

A politician of uncommon decency who helped save the country not once, but twice

Few politicians are required to save the country and even fewer to do so twice. Alistair Darling was an improbable member of this select group for however much he might reject such hosannas, the historical record demonstrates that at two pivotal moments he played a part in hauling the United Kingdom back from the brink of complete, irrevocable, calamity.

The first such occasion came in 2008 when, as a newly-installed Chancellor of the Exchequer, he oversaw the government’s response to a worldwide financial meltdown few people saw coming. The second was in 2014 when he led the Better Together campaign to victory in the referendum on Scottish independence.

Darling’s role in the first of these episodes helped ensure life could continue without a total meltdown; his part in the second helped preserve the United Kingdom’s existence and saved Scotland from at least a decade of punitive austerity and tax increases on a scale not even the realities of post-Brexit Britain have approached.

Gord…