Today's newsletter was going to focus on Matt Hancock, who is appearing in front of the Covid-19 Inquiry, to discuss his role as health secretary during the pandemic. But events have superseded that.
Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2007 to 2010, has died after a short illness. He was 70. Darling, like Hancock, was no stranger to crisis, having overseen Britain's response to the global financial crisis before later heading the 'No' campaign during the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. But unlike Hancock, Darling secured widespread respect from across the House.
A cartoonist's dream with those eyebrows that refused to go gracefully white along with the rest of his hair, Darling began his political career as a left-wing firebrand (and something of a heartthrob). Having migrated to the centre-left over the years, he would no doubt have delighted his younger self at the idea of nationalising great swathes of the UK banking sector during the crash.
Handpicked by Gordon Brown as his replacement in the Treasury, many thought Darling would be something of a lackey. Not for the first time, they underestimated the man. The new chancellor would go on to warn in August 2008 – this was post-Northern Rock but before the collapse of Lehman Brothers – that Britain was facing "arguably the worst" economic turndown in 60 years. To say this annoyed the prime minister would be something of an understatement.
Years later but still in government, Darling would reveal that Number 10 had unleashed the "forces of hell" on him following those comments, pointing much of the blame on Damian McBride and Charlie Whelan, two key Brown aides. Rumours routinely swirled that Ed Balls was being lined up to replace him.
In a sign of the cross-party respect that Darling commanded, the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, today called him "One of the great Chancellors" who will "be remembered for doing the right thing for the country at a time of extraordinary turmoil." David, now Lord Cameron, said he valued Darling's "immense contribution" and that we owe him "a huge debt of gratitude for chairing the Better Together campaign."
The British economy has been so buffeted by crises over the last two decades that it is easy to forget just how bad things were – and indeed how much worse they have been – had the right people not been in 2008. Just one example: on 7 October that year, Darling was on a call with the Royal Bank of Scotland. When the chancellor asked how long the bank had left, the chairman replied that it would run out of money in a couple of hours' time.
That the UK banking system didn't completely collapse, taking the entire economy down with it, is in large part thanks to Darling's crisis management. And that's the thing about crises – you never know exactly when they will hit or what form they might take. Which is why it helps to have the right people in critical departments, just in case.
'It could have been worse' is not everyone's idea of a fitting epitaph. But somehow, I think from Darling – a survivor of the Blair-Brown psychodrama, the great recession and the near-breakup of the Union – it would draw a wry smile. Proof, if needed, that it is possible to achieve much in political life and still be taken too soon.
In the comment pages: rape, murder and mutilation on an industrial scale — Rachel Johnson explains why she had to watch the film of Hamas’s atrocities. Robert Fox calls Henry Kissinger a globe-trotting diplomat superstar who headed off World War III. While Jonathan Prynn says Tottenham's shiny alien spaceship of a stadium is turning a corner of N17 on its head.
And finally, the one you've all been waiting for. Ross Lydall tracks down the Good Samaritan who found Susan Hall's wallet on the Tube.
