Vince Cable has given an interview to the Guardian this morning. Some of it seems to be Vince trying to reclaim his mantle of old. I fear that's tarnished.
This is why:
He predicted the impact on people's lives will not come primarily from government spending cuts, but the squeeze in living standards caused by world prices and a 20% devaluation of sterling against other major currencies.
Oh come on! So it's all someone else' fault now he's in office. That is absurd. If there's one over-riding characteristic that the Cabinet of which he's a member shares it is their absolute lack of willing to give any indication of why they wanted to be in office.
Cameron accepts responsibility for nothing.
Lansley wants to strip the Dept of Health of its responsibility for health.
Hammond wants to devolve trains to local government.
And now Cable says if people are going to badly off it's anyone's fault but his - and there's nothing he could do about it.
That's gross irresponsibility.
It's also a great line of attack. If these people really don't want to be in office because they don't think they can do any thing when they've got it why on earth did they want it - except for the ego trip? The moral is simple: kick them out.
Of course there are some things government can't do a lot about. The incompetence of business and its refusal to invest. The refusal of bankers to bank. The lack of demand in the economy. The fact that the exchange rate was over valued and no isn't. They can't stop these things. I'm not saying they can. But dammit, it's their job to manage the consequence of these things - not just shrug their shoulders as Cale is doing and say 'bad luck'. Very politely - that's nonsense.
The Condems did not need to increase VAT to increase inflation and decrease demand.
They don't need to make hundreds of thousands redundant to fuel fear and keep the savings ratio high.
They don't need to let bankers carry on, unregulated.
They could - as I have suggested - require that pension funds invest 25% of their contributions in new employment creating activity.
They could promote a Green New Deal.
It's utter nonsense that the cuts won't impact people. It's utter nonsense that we just sit back and take the crap that might flow our way.
The state has a role.
A powerful role.
And if Cable doesn;t know it (and he clearly doesn't) then he needs to retire soon and let those who believe that the state is an essential component in getting us out of this mess get on and do the job.
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All too easy to stand on your soapbox and fling criticism and insults left, right and centre.
Isn’t it high time you put yourself forward and put some words into action.
As you believe the state is the country’s lifeblood, why don’t you do your civil duty and stand for public office – all of your readers are no doubt impressed with the fact that you consistently believe you and your associates are the only people who have a viable plan for the UK’s problem.
Brilliant post ! It should be nationally required reading for every LD activist and member.
Cable’s useless, unless you count providing cover for a conservative government’s attempt to drag Britain back to the Victorian era. He’s also rather vain, which explains why he clings to office long after he’s been completely discredited, and how the Daily Telegraph found it so easy to nail him.
Vince Cable is of course a neoliberal and that was quite evident from a brief conversation I had with him on his book tour at Ely a couple of years ago. I suggested that we were witnessing the demise of neoliberalism and he replied that the problem was that there was no alternative model. This is partially true or at least the main political opposition is currently not projecting a credible alternative. We have to move away from the Washington Consensus model which has already been discredited in many developing countries, and move forward in a manner which will provide a more equitable distribution of the rewards of capitalism. If we do not, we will be committing vast tranches of our fellow citizens to permanent unemployment or ever more low pay and all the social problems resulting from this.
Agree
Entirely
Cable’s purpose is to push forward the privatising/liberalising free trade agenda. He is hard-core in this regard – not the ‘softening influence’ of Lib-Dems.
And he lies to the UK parliament and public.
He failed to mention, even on a hgih profile, highly publicised trade delegation to India last year, that an EU/India Free Trade Agreement was being fast-tracked.
And, recently in giving oral evidence on trade to the Select Committee overseeing his Department BIS he failed to mention the commitments being made in Brussels to open permanently to transnationals bringing in cheap labour – Mode 4, even when this is the central plank of the EU/India Free Trade Agreement, and is aimed almost totally at the UK, within Europe.
Treason.
He, take-my-points Huhn and Bilderberg’s shut-up-about-rape-and-have-a fag Clarke should also go.
Cable also spoke against a motion opposing the Multilateral Agreement on Investment at the Lib Dem conference in autumn 1998. Fortunately it was passed overwhelmingly