The Guardian’s Michael White kicks off his series of ‘Politicians of the Decade’ with Vince Cable:

At the start of the decade he was Liberal Democrat MP for Twickenham, a well-regarded if relatively unknown trade and industry spokesman.

By the end of the decade he was the party’s Treasury spokesman and deputy leader, the best known and most well-respected Lib Dem MP. …

When the Lib Dems’ “Orange Book” was published in 2004 Cable was more clearly identified with the pro-market wing of the party, denounced by the more state-minded left. He has since made “fairer taxes, not higher taxes” his talisman, urging greener taxes and – in some instances – taxes on the better off that would help lift the high marginal tax rates suffered by many low-paid people. …

he was given free rein as acting leader for two months between October and December 2007 to show what he could do. One example was make dry jokes at PMQs; he famously accused Brown of changing “from Stalin to Mr Bean” in a matter of weeks after he fluffed both the 2007 election plan and the early stages of the financial crisis.

Cable had prepared the way for this interlude by speaking with growing authority about Britain’s overheated economy. … he was articulate and clear-sighted, as well as having the authority of a man who had been warning of some form of financial catastrophe for five years.

To no one’s real surprise Cable emerged clean, the 568th highest claimant out of 646 MPs. Though his high-handedness on issues like the “mansions tax” plan made him less popular with Lib Dem colleagues, he ended the decade in a rare place for a minor party politician: well-known, liked and respected.