Tag Archives: vince cable

Opinion: Labour’s embracing of economic liberalism is to be welcomed

By David Thorpe | Published 9th February 2012 - 9:28 am

The first sign that man is moving from the reckless abandon of late youth to the windswept comfort of early maturity can be found in his reaction to the sight of falling snow. Where once it would have been an excuse to declare the days schedule defunct, this year it signalled only the onset of boredom.

Consequently I dusted down my new year’s resolution to ‘laugh a lot more’ and began thinking about Labour’s attitude to economics. I propose to look at the Labour leadership’s deeper economic instincts to provide a guide as to how they might actually run the economy.

Ed Balls

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged economic liberalism, economy, ed balls, ed miliband, orange book | 21 Comments

Nick Clegg returns to income tax

By Mark Pack | Published 26th January 2012 - 7:34 am

Later this morning, Nick Clegg will be giving a speech to the Resolution Foundation (word cloud here) in which, after recent talk about wealth taxes, he is returning to the topic of income tax cuts. More specifically, speeding up the progress towards a basic income tax allowance of £10,000 whilst keeping the 50p rate.

This is of course closely linked to wealth taxes as they are a way to raise the funds to pay for the income tax cuts.

Posted in News | Also tagged nick clegg, resolution foundation, tax, tax cuts (Lib Dem) | 2 Comments

LDVideo: Vince unveils changes on executive pay

By Stephen Tall | Published 24th January 2012 - 10:45 am

As we reported here on LibDemVoice yesterday, Lib Dem business secretary Vince Cable yesterday announced to the House of Commons a number of measures to curb excessive boardroom pay:

(Available on the BBC website here.)

Here’s how the BBC summarised the proposed measures:

making firms’ remuneration reports easier to understand, and requiring them to explain executive salaries in relation to the earnings of other employees

increasing transparency by requiring the publication of all directors’ salaries

giving shareholders a binding vote

…

Posted in YouTube | Also tagged boardroom pay | 9 Comments

Vince pushes the ‘mansion tax’ – could the Tories yet be persuaded to take tax reform seriously?

By Stephen Tall | Published 22nd January 2012 - 2:15 pm

Shock! Horror! Lib Dem business secretary Vince Cable advocates Lib Dem manifesto policy!

The Telegraph today reports that Vince’s policy — which would levy a 1% annual charge on all properties valued above £2 million — is still on the table as the Coalition writes its second budget:

Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat Business Secretary, is pushing for a mansion tax to be introduced on properties worth more than £2million in this year’s Budget. While the policy is likely to be opposed by George Osborne, the Chancellor, Mr Cable said that he had spoken to Conservative MPs who backed the plan.

“A mansion tax is still very much on the agenda – it is a very good idea,” Mr Cable told The Sunday Telegraph. “It is good for two reasons,’’ he said. ”It would constitute a tax on wealth rather than income, which we believe to be right, and also in economic terms it creates the right sort of incentives for the property market.”

Mr Cable added that it was “perverse” that rich “foreigners” could buy expensive properties in Britain and contribute just £1,000 a year in council tax towards the public finances.

3 ways of reading Vince’s comments

There are a couple of ways of interpreting this fresh pitch.

Posted in News | Also tagged mansion tax, mark reckless, tax, tim montgomerie | 18 Comments

Opinion: Water – time to see it as a national interest?

By Andrew Wigley | Published 20th January 2012 - 4:01 pm

News that one of China’s leading wealth funds has taken a 9 percent stake in Thames Water is significant. The investment comes quick on the heels of a Gulf sovereign wealth fund taking a similar size stake in Thames Water’s parent company, Kemble.

It’s a measure of confidence in Britain’s infrastructure technology and role in the world as a safe haven for long term investment crows George Osborne. Liberal Democrats may be inclined to take a different view.

What Osborne fails to mention is that because of increased water-scarcity throughout the world – including the UK – water is set …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged china, chris huhne, invest, utilities, water | 7 Comments

Labour’s stance on high pay leaves the ball firmly in Vince Cable’s court

By Prateek Buch | Published 13th January 2012 - 1:30 pm

The appearance of cross-party consensus in politics usually makes me welcoming and wary in equal measure – welcoming as it signals a weakening of the fierce discord between political tribes, wary because the sheen of consensus often betrays a deep underlying suspicion of the ability of any party to take on the challenges they face.

Excessive remuneration appears to be the latest issue on which the three main parties appear to agree – it apparently unites the hitherto unlikely trio of Vince Cable, Ed Miliband and, latterly it seems, David Cameron around the recognition that extremes of …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged chuka umunna, high pay commission, inequality, ippr | 7 Comments

Opinion: Why I’m backing the Occupy Movement as my Liberal Voice of the Year

By Daniel Furr | Published 5th January 2012 - 6:27 pm

Yes, it is true. I, of all people, did indeed recommend The Occupy Movement as the Liberal Voice of the Year. My health is perfectly fine and operating at sufficient capacity; but regular readers of my blog are fully aware of my support for these protesters. Overt Marxist language and anti-capitalists rhetoric is, of course, not very liberal but the ability to comprehend the true nature of corporate welfare and its relationship with government is something liberals should be aligning with.

Free markets and capitalism are not the problem – corporatism is. Corporate monopolies deny competition and prevent new competitors …

Posted in LDV Awards, Op-eds | Also tagged liberal voice 2011, occupy movement | 15 Comments

EXCLUSIVE: Party members vote Vince Cable Lib Dem minister of the year

By Stephen Tall | Published 29th December 2011 - 6:50 pm

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 564 party members responded, and we are publishing the full results here over several days.

Vince, Danny and Chris: the Lib Dems’ top trio in government

LDV asked: In your opinion, which Lib Dem government minister has had the best year?

Unusually for our Voice surveys, this question allowed an unprompted, free-text response, which 408 of our respondents rose to. And here’s what you told us:

…

Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged chris huhne, danny alexander, featured | 7 Comments

Which four Liberal Democrat ministers have most improved their standings in 2011?

By Mark Pack | Published 28th December 2011 - 11:55 am

Jeremy Browne, Vince Cable, Ed Davey and Lynne Featherstone are the four Liberal Democrat ministers to have significantly increased their standing in the eyes of party members over this year, according to the surveys of party members carried out by Liberal Democrat Voice four times in the year.

When asked how satisfied or dissatisfied they are with a range of party …

Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged alistair carmichael, chris huhne, ed davey, jeremy browne, lynne featherstone, tim farron | 3 Comments

Get your skates on and submit a motion to Liberal Democrat conference about wealth taxes

By Mark Pack | Published 27th December 2011 - 9:25 am

Nick Clegg’s recent ‘open society’ speech confirmed that increases taxes on wealth in some form is very much on the political agenda. However, the default party policy option – a mansion tax – was highly controversial in the party when it was introduced (which is rather a polite term for the rolling lesson in how to bungle a policy launch, annoy MPs, irritate party members and feed negative stories to the media all in one fell swoop).

In other words – now is a very good time for the party to be debating what form of wealth taxes it favours, especially after the opportunity was missed at the party’s autumn conference. As I wrote at the time in Tax: The missing ingredient from the Liberal Democrat conference agenda,

Posted in Op-eds, Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged david laws, featured, land value tax, nick clegg, tax, tim montgomerie | 35 Comments

Opinion: Lib Dems Must oppose Labour’s ideological cuts in 2012

By David Thorpe | Published 22nd December 2011 - 2:56 pm

If I were a cleverer person than I am, I would try to create a joke with a punch line to fit the following set-up: What’s the difference between a cut in government spending and an ideological cut in government spending?

That I’m not clever enough to create a pithy punch line is of no consequence, as it is no laughing matter.

Labour have sometimes tried to trail the line that the coalition’s cuts are avoidable, that there are the product of ideology rather than necessity.

This line lacked some credence because even as they …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged alistair darling, deficit, ed balls, ed miliband, george osborne, haringey council | 22 Comments

Nick Clegg leads business fightback in Europe

By Nick Thornsby | Published 15th December 2011 - 6:55 pm

The FT reports:

Nick Clegg yesterday made a very public display of engagement with business over Europe as the deputy prime minister convened a business breakfast with Business For New Europe, a pro-single market group. Mr Clegg, flanked by Vince Cable, Danny Alexander, Chris Huhne David Laws, wanted to get the message across that he had dusted himself down and was ready to begin work on rebuilding relations on the continent after a bruising week for Britain.

But beyond the photo shoot and crafted media message lines, was a second, more exclusive meeting between Mr Clegg and the director-generals of key lobby

…

Posted in News | Also tagged business, chris huhne, danny alexander, david laws, europe, nick clegg | 2 Comments

Opinion: Individuality on EU is the start of the Liberal Democrat recovery

By Callum Morton | Published 14th December 2011 - 8:55 am

Lib Dems would have winced when the news broke about Cameron’s EU veto, but it’s the biggest chance yet to express our party’s individuality.

Since the tuition fee rise and EMA’s abolition, I haven’t liked Nick Clegg. Although I agreed with the coalition being formed, I didn’t agree with the coalition negotiation team he chose. I haven’t agreed with a lot of what he’s done as leader. And I’ve sat grumbling about it for months. But over the past few days my respect for Nick has significantly improved.

Why? Well I’m starting to see something different from Nick and our party. I’m …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged eu, nick clegg, paddy ashdown, sharon bowles, tim farron | 36 Comments

Europe: what Liberal Democrats have been saying today

By Mark Pack | Published 9th December 2011 - 7:02 pm

Nick Clegg:

I have said for months that it would be best to avoid arcane debates about treaty change altogether and if we had to proceed down that road, it would be best to do so in a way that did not create divisions in Europe.

The demands Britain made for safeguards, on which the Coalition Government was united, were modest and reasonable. They were safeguards for the single market, not just the UK.

There were no demands of repatriation of powers from the EU to Britain and no demands for a unilateral carve-out of UK financial services.

Posted in Europe / International, News | Also tagged chris davies, david cameron, european union, nick clegg, sarah ludford | 101 Comments

Tag Archives: vince cable

3 ways of reading Vince’s comments

Vince, Danny and Chris: the Lib Dems’ top trio in government

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