Make your excuses and go

Politicians, like novelists, are obsessed by posterity. Practitioners of the here and now — tomorrow’s headline, the latest poll, the next electoral hurdle — they nurse secret and often vainglorious hopes that their greatest plaudits will come in the future. Before New Labour swept to power in 1997, senior Blairites used to joke about the need to get ‘their betrayals in early’. Now, 11 years later, as the government disintegrates painfully and publicly, Cabinet ministers are rushing to get their side of the story across, to make excuses, and to pass the buck.

Few political interviews have been parsed so closely or caused such an instant storm — financial and political — as Alistair Darling’s cri de coeur in Saturday’s Guardian. It has been argued by the Chancellor’s champions that he was only speaking the truth (if so, why didn’t he speak the truth on Budget Day?) and that his remarks were those of a commendably frank politician relaxing on holiday and unaware that what he said would whip up such a frenzy.