Under pressure?

Prepare for the next round of one of Westminster’s favourite parlour games of the past few months: “Will Alistair Darling get the sack?”  After all, our Chancellor’s hardly excelled himself over the past few days — his statement to the Commons yesterday was less-than-inspiring and did nothing to reassure the markets, whilst his behind-the-scenes work seems to amount to little more than dithering — and the thinking is that Gordon Brown will be looking for scapegoats should anything undermine his “serious people for serious times” mantra.  So who’s waiting in the wings?  Three Line Whip’s Iain Martin highlighted one potential candidate earlier, by asking: “Could Peter Mandelson be Chancellor of the Exchequer by Christmas?”  Certainly, stranger things have happened.  Mandelson’s recent return to Government among them…