'I'm Damned If I'm Going Like This - the Job's Not Finished' : Country in the Lurch

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'I'm Damned If I'm Going Like This - the Job's Not Finished' : Country in the Lurch

When Alistair Darling was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in June of 2007 it occurred to him that, unusually, he hadn't been sent to a troubled department in the hope that he'd keep it out of the news. At the time he said: "It's in good nick, both the department and also the economy."But on 7 October 2008, having already weathered the Northern Rock collapse and nationalisation, Mr Darling received one of the most startling phone calls of his life from then-RBS chairman Sir Tom McKillop, who revealed that the bank wouldn't last the day if the government didn't step in with a rescue plan.On a visit to The Scotsman offices, the former chancellor tells me: "It was chilling when he phoned up to say 'We're going to run out of money in the early afternoon'."You think, they're one of the biggest banks in the world, they're the bank that dominates Edinbu...

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