Tag Archives: vince cable

Issan Ghazni

Opinion: we can not allow ourselves to be used as scapegoats by the Tories

By Issan Ghazni | Wed 18th April 2012 - 3:25 pm

It was an amazing coincidence that Lady Warsi’s interview on BBC2’s Newsnight spoke so lamentably about the state of the coalition the evening before YouGov put the Tories 11 points behind Labour. The Conservative Party chairman without hesitation accused us of being immature and failing to accept collective responsibility within the coalition.

Patrick Wintour’s article in yesterday’s Guardian  highlights the despicable manner in which Lady Warsi, as a cabinet member showed no loyalty to her coalition partners by putting the boot in as soon as the going got tough and the Tories started struggling in the opinion polls.

The whole episode …

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Mark Pack

Why election candidates shouldn’t have to publish their tax returns

By Mark Pack | Wed 11th April 2012 - 9:25 am

Remember all the stuff Liberal Democrats such as Vince Cable have been saying for years about how our tax system catches too much income and not enough wealth? You know what – I believe that, and I haven’t suddenly forgotten it in the last few days.

So the idea that somehow getting people to publish their tax returns really gives you a sense of how well-off they are is as flawed as the idea that the tax system those returns illustrate manages to catch how well-off you are. For the same reason that the tax system is out of kilter, so …

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Stephen Tall

Clegg: “no objection in principle” to publishing his tax return

By Stephen Tall | Sun 8th April 2012 - 11:45 am

Today’s Independent on Sunday reports:

Nick Clegg has “no objection in principle” to publishing his tax return, aides said yesterday, after senior politicians scrambled to respond to calls for greater US-style openness from public figures.

After the four main candidates for London’s mayoral elections revealed their personal tax affairs, the Chancellor, George Osborne, yesterday said he was “very happy” for his own details to be published. The disclosures from Boris Johnson, Ken Livingstone, Brian Paddick and Jenny Jones were seen as a turning point, with some warning that they were succumbing to the “Americanisation” of British politics.

An aide to the Deputy

…

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Joe Bourke

Opinion: Getting radical with the money supply

By Joe Bourke | Tue 3rd April 2012 - 1:34 pm

Last week the OECD forecast that Britain was about to experience a double-dip recession, for the first time since 1975. Vince Cable in his Centreforum paper Moving from the financial crisis to sustainable growth asks “How far should monetary policy now be expanded further in the UK to boost demand and head off a period of poor growth?

He goes on to say “There is no possibility for further meaningful interest rate cuts – real short term rates are now minus 4 percent. That means further recourse to quantitative easing.

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Stephen Tall

In other news… Jo on Easter eggs, Brian interviewed, Dr Pack post-budget wallchart, and more…

By Stephen Tall | Sun 1st April 2012 - 4:45 pm

Here’s a round-up of stories we haven’t had time to cover on the site this past few days…

Confectionery giants ‘not doing enough’ to reduce Easter egg packaging (Daily Mail)

Easter egg manufacturers have been criticised for not doing enough to reduce packaging and improve how much can be recycled. Currently, an estimated 3,000 tonnes of waste is produced in the UK every year just from Easter egg packaging alone. And an annual survey by Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson has found the percentage of Easter egg boxes actually filled by chocolate was 38 per cent – the same figure as

…

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Caron Lindsay

Liberal Democrats block David Cameron’s plans to erode workers’ rights

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 28th March 2012 - 10:55 am

Another glimpse into what a Tory Britain would look like comes in today’s Independent which reports that the Liberal Democrats in the shape of Business Secretary Vince Cable have fended off an attempt by the Prime Minister to erode the rights of employees. Adrian Beecroft, a venture capitalist who has donated almost £600,000 to the Conservative Party, produced a report last year which has so far not been published, which is believed to include proposals to allow employers to fire unproductive workers and cut entitlement to maternity leave.

The Tories, says the Independent, from David Cameron down, wanted to implement this …

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Nick T

LDVideo: The sage of Twickenham returns

By Nick T | Sun 25th March 2012 - 2:15 pm

During the financial crisis and subsequent recession it was rare to go a weekend without Vince Cable making an appearance on our television screens to share his thoughts on the latest piece of economic news. Since entering government as the coalition’s business secretary, though, he has kept his wider economic analysis more-or-less to himself, concentrating instead on the important task of running his department.

However, yesterday Vince took part in a talk at the Guardian Open Weekend, in conversation with Observer columnist Will Hutton, where he shared his thoughts on the economic recovery, the future of the banking system and – perhaps most interestingly – on changing the focus of the Bank of England. Here are the highlights, courtesy of the Guardian:

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Donna Richardson

Independent View: IGEM makes a splash at the Liberal Democrats Spring conference

By Donna Richardson | Sat 24th March 2012 - 10:42 am

The Institution of Gas Engineers & Managers (IGEM) exhibited at the Liberal Democrats Spring 2012 Conference, which took place at The Sage centre in Gateshead from 9th – 11th March 2012.

It is the first time IGEM has exhibited at a political party’s conference and it gave the organisation a chance to raise its profile with senior Liberal Democrats holding key posts in the Coalition Government. IGEM met Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg, Vince Cable (Business Secretary), Danny Alexander (Chief Secretary to the Treasury) and Ed Davey (Energy Secretary).

During visits to IGEM’s area, the ministers …

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Sean Davey

Liberal Youth storm Spring Conference

By Sean Davey | Wed 14th March 2012 - 10:56 am

Last Friday night Liberal Democrat conference was blown away by 19yr old Londoner Yahaya Kiyingi’s heartfelt and incredibly delivered rally speech about Liberalism, opportunity and the next generation.

Yahaya talked about his family moving from Uganda to London, growing up in one of the poorest areas of his borough, but aspiring to where he is today through the principles of opportunity and empowerment which define our Liberal identity.

Everyone, starting with Nick Clegg wanted to meet him and sing his praises afterwards, and as Simon Hughes told conference “You are why we are in politics Yahaya”.

But Yahaya’s narrative wasn’t just a …

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Stephen Tall

In other news… Vince, Telegraph inaccuracy, Lembit, Eastleigh, Boundary Commission, site news

By Stephen Tall | Sun 11th March 2012 - 5:15 pm

Here’s a round-up of stories we haven’t had time to cover on the site this past week…

Vince Cable on that leaked letter to No. 10 (and other matters (The Guardian)

“We’re no longer arguing about fiscal policy – monetary policy’s now taking on most of the heavy lifting anyway,” he says as he notes that Labour has now accepted the need for fiscal discipline. “So the argument has shifted into a debate around how active government should be in promoting the recovery. Is it getting out of the way or is government being proactive and positive? That was the purpose

…

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Mark Pack

The 50p tax rate is not for dropping – the leadership’s line

By Mark Pack | Sat 10th March 2012 - 12:46 pm

Given some of the recent speculation over the 50p tax rate, the speech from Stephen Williams (Co-Chair of the Parliamentary Party Committee on the Treasury) opening the debate on tax policy was significant:

Now is not the right time to drop the 50p tax rate.

The full context left open if there might ever be a right time, but unlike speculation in The Times a few days back, there was no offer of trading off the 50p rate against the introduction of a mansion tax.

His comments also reflected the text of the motion passed, which included:

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The Voice

LDVideo: Jo Swinson’s Political Slot: The Liberal Democrats are in government on your side

By The Voice | Mon 5th March 2012 - 1:07 pm

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Caron Lindsay

What’s on at Scottish Liberal Democrat conference this weekend?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 29th February 2012 - 1:55 pm

This weekend, Scottish Liberal Democrats gather in Inverness for their annual conference. This is the second most important event to take place in the city this year, next to  my sister’s wedding in the Highland Capital on 8 April.

Every Council seat in Scotland is up for election in May so the Conference will be a good launch pad for the campaign. It’s also new leader Willie Rennie’s first Spring Conference speech, a chance for him to map out where he wants to take the party over the next year and remind us of how the small but strong Liberal Democrat …

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Nick T

Government win in human rights tuition fee challenge

By Nick T | Fri 17th February 2012 - 5:25 pm

The government has today successfully defended a judicial review challenge against its decision to raise university tuition fees. The case – brought by two students – alleged that the government acted in breach of various provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights and/or numerous pieces of equality legislation when it took the decision to raise fees. On virtually all the points, the government – and Vince Cable as the relevant minister – were vindicated, both on the substantive effects of the policy and the way in which the decision was made.

You can read the full judgment in the case here (pdf) (and it’s worth doing so to read the arguments of both sides and conclusions of the judge on the likely impact of the tuition fee increase). However, here are a few key from Lord Justice Elias’s judgment:

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Tim Leunig

Opinion: Vince Cable right to abandon penalties on early student loan repayments

By Tim Leunig | Fri 17th February 2012 - 10:20 am

Vince Cable has done the right thing, for the right reasons.

The new student loan system requires well off graduates to pay a higher rate of interest on their loans – up to three percent above inflation. This helps to cover the government losses on loans to graduates who end up on low incomes – overwhelmingly women working part time after having children – as well as making the system more progressive.

Cable was worried that well off graduates would pay off their loan early, to avoid paying the interest charges. He commissioned his department to look into creating early repayment …

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Stephen Tall

Lib Dem members back Vince’s ‘mansion tax’ – but views differ about whether on house values of £1m or £2m

By Stephen Tall | Tue 14th February 2012 - 7:45 am

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 570 party members responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

81% yes to mansion tax – but pretty even split on £1m or £2m levy value

LDV asked: The ‘mansion tax’ would levy a 1% annual charge on properties above a certain value. Would you support or oppose this new tax?

    7% – I support: for houses worth more than £5 million
    39% – I support: for houses worth more than £2 million
    35% –

…

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged | 21 Comments
Stephen Tall

In other news… Vince upsets Tories, Liverpool to choose mayor, Radcliffe hexes Clegg, and Hughes settles with Murdoch

By Stephen Tall | Sun 12th February 2012 - 5:27 pm

Here’s a round-up of stories we haven’t had time to cover on the site this past week…

  • Cable sticks by Les Ebdon as his choice of ‘university tsar’ – the Lib Dem business secretary is opening up a rift in the Coalition:

    Business Secretary Vince Cable is standing by his candidate to head the university fair access watchdog, despite a rejection by MPs. Les Ebdon had been put forward by ministers as their preference for director of the Office for Fair Access. But MPs on a select committee have voted to try to block the appointment. However ministers are not backing

    • …

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    David Thorpe

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

    By David Thorpe | Thu 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

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    Mark Pack

    Nick Clegg returns to income tax

    By Mark Pack | Thu 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.

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    Stephen Tall

    LDVideo: Vince unveils changes on executive pay

    By Stephen Tall | Tue 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:

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    Stephen Tall

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

    By Stephen Tall | Sun 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.

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    Andrew Wigley

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

    By Andrew Wigley | Fri 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 …

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    Prateek Buch

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

    By Prateek Buch | Fri 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 …

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    Daniel Furr

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

    By Daniel Furr | Thu 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 …

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    Stephen Tall

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

    By Stephen Tall | Thu 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:

      1. Vince Cable — 67 votes
      2. Danny Alexander

    …

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    Mark Pack

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

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

    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.

    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 …

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    Mark Pack

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

    By Mark Pack | Tue 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,

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    Posted in Op-eds and Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged , , , , and | 35 Comments
    David Thorpe

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

    By David Thorpe | Thu 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 …

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    Prateek Buch

    Vince Cable – “we’re reforming UK’s banks, and we’re getting on with it”

    By Prateek Buch | Mon 19th December 2011 - 10:34 am

    Liberal Democrat Business Secretary confirmed yesterday that the Government would accept, in full, the recommendations of the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) Chaired by Sir John Vickers (see this video to see for yourself).

    Anticipating Chancellor George Osborne’s formal announcement today, Vince told the BBC’s Andrew Marr that the  separation of retail and investment banks –  ‘something I and the Liberal Democrats have pushed on for a long time’ – will go ahead, indicating that the ‘angry heckling by banks’ (Marr’s words) had failed to blow the Government off-course.

    Indeed Vince went as far as  to …

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    Nick T

    Nick Clegg leads business fightback in Europe

    By Nick T | Thu 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

    …

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