It looks like Vince Cable has launched the nuclear option under himself at cost to us all.
He has apparently announced, undercover:
I have declared war on Mr Murdoch and I think we are going to win.
I have blocked it using the powers that I have got … His whole empire is now under attack … There are things like that that you can do in government.
That was plain daft, and a lack of judgement.
If this means Murdoch gets Sky he has also done a massive disservice to democracy in this country.
What was that about Stalin to Mr Bean?
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Richard. For once we are in total agreement
. Vince has shown that he has no judgement. What a crass thing to say “on the record”. He has, single handedly, dealt a fatal blow to any chance of blocking News Corp’s bid for BSkyB.
As my kids would say “Duuuuuuuuuh’
Vincent habit of painting himself into a corner he professes to be against in off the record comments seem to be becoming a habit, or maybe even a tactic.
This may well be the beginning of the end. I don’t see the coalition holding together through 2011. The only question is which month will happen. April/May is my guess, but they might make through to the party conferences.
@RichardSM: Yippee! Let’s hope you are right although the alternative is not that attractive either. But at least a Labour government is concerned about job losses. Let us hope they will have lost their fixation with the City and their supine attitude to business.
@paul
His behaviour was too foolish for it to have been pre-meditated. By the way I wonder how the police investigation is going into the leak from Liam Fox’s department regarding the defence cuts?
How stupid of St Vince to be so candid with a couple of giggling girl hacks.
The Torygraph needs to be careful. By going for the Lib Dems they may break the coalition and force a general election. In the event the Lib Dems would be obliterated and Labour may well take power. Cameron needn’t be so smug (as hard as that can be for him) as he has no outright majority.
On the basis of comments like that, there’s only one thing to say:
VINCE CABLE FOR PM!
Or at least EU President. 😎
Do you really believe Labour would be voted in with a leader who is as much use as a chocolate fireguard (and who wasn’t even chosen by the party members) and a shadow chancellor who is even worse? Perhaps it’s a calculated plan by the Tories? (Although that would suggest the Tories have some brains…which we all know is rather far from the mark).
“If this means Murdoch gets Sky he has also done a massive disservice to democracy in this country.”
it is interesting that the sky bid is subject to regulatory approval – independent of government. Vince’s stated approach to this hardly smacks of democracy.
His behaviour was too foolish for it to have been pre-meditated.
I can’t read minds, but I think it was him washing his hands while the mob (the rest of the coalition) condemn us to even more murdoch.
Perhaps unfair to the cruelly overrated mr Cable, but that’s how I read it.
“This week, the Telegraph has run four columns condemning ‘banker-bashing’, and saying we should ‘get behind’ the banks”.
This, taken from the Next Banking Crisis blog really sums up what the Telegraph is up to. Vince Cable has been openly critical of the banks, and the need to give them, so to speak, a good kicking, and he is one of the few members of the Cabinet to actually think this way.
Surprise, surprise, a right wing newspaper owned by a pair of tax dodging billionaires has used tactics reminiscent of, say, the Murdoch press, to inflict as much damage on him as they can. So now the decision on whether to refer NI’s bid to Ofcom is in the hands of the pro Murdoch, anti BBC Hunt, and Cable’s ability to press for stricter bank regulation and greater taxes on them is diminished.
I think that this post summarises the position perfectly.