Tag Archives: vince cable

TUC to Vince: it’s our ball and you can’t play

By Iain Roberts | Thu 29th July 2010 - 9:20 am

The Trades Union Congress has withdrawn an invitation to Vince Cable to speak at their Autumn conference.

The Financial Times (free registration required) reports that leaders of the big unions are upset about Government cuts (which might raise the issue of how they would have dealt with Labour’s £44 billion proposed cuts had they won the election).

As the FT reports:

A moderate unionist said: “It’s a serious embarrassment, a joke, I don’t know what they’re playing at.”

The TUC struck a conciliatory note, telling the FT that it would find an alternative mechanism to keep dialogue open with the

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Posted in News | Also tagged tuc | 15 Comments

Williams: Coalition has done more for Equitable Life victims in 10 weeks than Labour did in 10 years

By Stephen Tall | Sat 24th July 2010 - 3:25 pm

Here’s an important story that Lib Dem Voice omitted to give the space it deserves this week:

Coalition Government’s announcement

“The Labour Government had 10 years to help the those who had their lives ruined by the collapse of Equitable Life and did nothing. In just 10 weeks the Coalition Government has taken real action to ensure that those who saw their pensions and life savings hit hard get the compensation they deserve.

“Liberal Democrats have long

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Posted in News | Also tagged equitable life | 6 Comments

Opinion: No Need for a Graduate Tax

By Malcolm Wood | Fri 23rd July 2010 - 11:50 am

For a decade or so now governments have been firmly fixed on the idea that students should pay for their own education. So firmly fixed, in fact, that it’s easy to forget that until 1998 Higher Education was funded from general taxation and was, to the student, completely free.

It’s true that most taxpayers are in no further need of Higher Education. But that doesn’t mean they don’t benefit from its existence. Since most tax payers will one day be dependent on a pension (public or private) it’s in their interests that the next generation of wealth …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged graduate tax, higher education, tuition fees and universities | 7 Comments

Graduate tax is the fairest way of abolishing tuition fees

By Tim Farron MP | Mon 19th July 2010 - 5:25 pm

I was one of the lucky ones. When I went to university in the late 1980s and early 1990s I didn’t have to pay tuition fees. I left for the world of work without thousands of pounds of student debt hanging over my head.

I would like nothing more than to be able to abolish fees for good and make universities free for all. But to suggest that it is possible to do so now wilfully ignores reality.

The fact is the higher education sector has changed beyond all recognition in just a few short years. Universities face a funding …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged graduate tax, higher education and tim farron | 17 Comments

Opinion: Why a graduate tax is progressive

By David Thorpe | Sat 17th July 2010 - 6:20 pm

There has been at best, a muted response among Lib Dem members to the graduate tax proposals announced by Vince Cable on Thursday.

There appears to be a general agreement that these proposals are better than the status quo but not really ‘progressive’ and that the only really Liberal outcome is so-called free education.

It could however be argued that this phrase is a misnomer. Nothing is free. It may be free at the point of use, but it still has to be paid for. The suggestion of its advocates is that it be funded through general taxation, and specifically through a …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged graduate tax and higher education | 34 Comments

Vince’s Graduate Tax is no easy win

By Iain Roberts | Fri 16th July 2010 - 11:20 am

Vince Cable yesterday floated the idea of a graduate tax to pay for university funding, as an alternative to top-up fees.

In the early 1960s, around 4% of young people went to university. Today that’s nearly 50%. Undergraduate education has changed beyond recognition over those fifty years and, with money tight, another government is having another attempt to sort out funding. As Vince has made clear, a graduate tax is one option he wants considered.

Encouraging those with the ability

The UK has never quite cracked the problem of getting people from poorer backgrounds into higher education. If you’re in the poorest …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged graduate tax and higher education | 30 Comments

Vince Cable’s speech on higher education funding

By The Voice | Thu 15th July 2010 - 6:24 pm

Vince Cable, Lib Dem secretary of state for business, innovation and skills, today delivered his much-trailed speech on higher education funding. The full text was published on the department’s website, and is reproduced below. A shorter version appears on the Lib Dems’ website here.

This is my first attempt to set out my views on the university, and wider, HE sector and my aspirations for it. The background is a very sombre and difficult one, financially. Without doubt the most serious within living memory. David Willetts and I are working together to find a way of dealing with it.

Much

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Posted in News | Also tagged higher education | 12 Comments

Vince Cable set to propose graduate tax to replace tuition fees

By Stephen Tall | Wed 14th July 2010 - 8:05 pm

The BBC reports:

A graduate tax is to be proposed by the Business Secretary Vince Cable, in a keynote speech on the future funding of higher education. This would mean students in England would repay the costs of going to university through taxation once t hey began working. A review of tuition fees and student finance is due to report in the autumn.

Mr Cable, who has pledged to oppose raising fees, will suggest a graduate tax as an alternative system. This would mean students’ fees being paid by the government to universities – and graduates would then pay a higher

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Posted in News | Also tagged ed miliband, graduate tax, higher education, tuition fees and universities | 60 Comments

LibLink: Chris Huhne and Vince Cable – The green economy is still viable

By NewsHound | Mon 5th July 2010 - 9:45 am

Over at The Independent today, Lib Dem cabinet ministers Vince Cable and Chris Huhne argue that the Coalition Government’s plans to set up a Green Investment Bank, announced in the Budget, are of huge significance for establishing a successful green economy in this country. Here’s an excerpt:

… there is much to be decided about how this might work. Bob Wigley’s comprehensive review of the issue, published last week, sets out one possible model – a commercially independent bank given clear overarching goals for green investment in new technologies and infrastructure. Innovative green financial products could give an opportunity for individuals,

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged carbon, chris huhne, climate change, energy and green investment bank | Leave a comment

The Independent View: The first thing Vince should cut is funding for the arms trade

By Ann Feltham | Mon 28th June 2010 - 1:20 pm

Vince Cable’s new department, the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, was saddled with the heaviest round of cuts in the first round of cuts announced by the coalition government. They will have to find £836m of savings in 2010. Meanwhile the rest of us have been asked to participate in a comprehensive spending review.

There is one candidate for cuts that many in the Liberal Democrats and the country at large would be pleased with – an end to government support for arms exports. One way the government helps arms companies sell their weapons to other countries is …

Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged arms trade and peter luff | 13 Comments

No return to two-party politics, but we need to trumpet our successes

By Iain Roberts | Sun 27th June 2010 - 1:20 pm

A couple of post-budget polls show post-budget combined support for the coalition parties remarkably steady – one at 59% and the other 56%, but with a move from the Lib Dems to the Tories, with Labour also picking up a bit of support and “others” squeezed down.

Unsurprisingly, the budget is less popular with Lib Dem voters than Tory voters. It’s less popular with our activists too. Most Lib Dems recognise the need for tough action to sort out the mess the nation’s finances are in, and Nick and Vince have been talking about it for long enough.

But the measures in …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged budget 2010, mike smithson and nick clegg | 29 Comments

LibLink: Vince on the budget

By NewsHound | Wed 23rd June 2010 - 12:20 pm

Vince Cable writes in today’s Guardian with his thoughts on the emergency budget.

It should be no surprise that this is such a tough budget. Last summer, in pamphlets and speeches, Nick Clegg and I both prepared the ground for these difficult choices…

Now, to put it bluntly, Britain is much poorer than we thought we were two years ago but we have public spending levels that assume we are richer…

For me a key test of the budget is whether it is fair as well as tough. The budget is shot through with commitments my party fought for: a £1,000 rise

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged budget 2010 | 5 Comments

PMQs: Prime Minister’s tennis

By Paul Walter | Wed 16th June 2010 - 5:50 pm

Posted in PMQs | Also tagged alistair darling, david cameron, douglas carswell, harriet baldwin, harriet harman, john bercow, kenneth clarke, Michael Moore and nick clegg | 6 Comments

What Vince Cable doesn’t tell us

By Mark Pack | Sun 13th June 2010 - 6:20 pm

Catching up on some political reading after the election, I’ve been reading (or rather listening to) Vince Cable’s The Storm. It’s an enjoyable and easy to follow account of the economic crash, light on jargon but not dumbed down in quality of argument. It does at times feel like it was written rather in a rush (as Vince Cable himself concedes) and partly as a result is more a selection of interesting accounts of different aspects of what’s happened to the economy laid out end-to-end rather than a book with a clear thread of argument running all the way

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Posted in Books | 7 Comments

Vince Cable tops popularity poll; Clegg ahead of Cameron

By Helen Duffett | Thu 3rd June 2010 - 2:51 pm

A nationwide survey by PoliticsHome shows that Vince Cable, Business Secretary and outgoing Lib Dem deputy leader, has a higher approval rating from the public than David Cameron.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg enjoys a clear popularity gap ahead of the Prime Minister, holding an approval rating of 17, compared to David Cameron’s rating of 11.

While the two men both attract the approval of 39% of the public, fewer disapprove of Mr Clegg (22%) than Mr Cameron (28%).

From the Guardian:

The strong rating for Cable will hearten his fans, who were concerned when he announced last week his resignation as

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Posted in News | Also tagged david cameron and nick clegg | Leave a comment

The Independent View: Will Lib Dem proposals to tackle tax avoidance help save the world?

By Martin Hearson | Fri 28th May 2010 - 12:20 pm

What can we expect from the Government on tax avoidance and evasion?

Cast your mind back to the Liberal Democrats’ manifesto launch in April. A major theme was the plan to raise £4.6 billion by tackling tax avoidance.

This has been reduced to a single bullet point in the coalition’s Programme for Government, a promise to “make every effort to tackle tax avoidance, including detailed development of Liberal Democrat proposals.”

Vince Cable remains committed, telling the Telegraph soon after his appointment as Business Secretary that, “tackling tax avoidance by businesses is essential and this is an area that I …

Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged actionaid, giles wilkes and tax | 9 Comments

Simon Hughes stands for Deputy Leader as “the life and soul of our party”

By Helen Duffett | Fri 28th May 2010 - 11:00 am

Simon Hughes, MP for Southwark and Old Bermondsey has announced his intention to stand for the position of Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats.

From his campaign flyer:

Labour have made it clear they want to rewrite history, ignoring the reality of their time in office. They claim to be the only home for progressive voters. I will not let them get away with it.

My experience representing an inner city constituency tells a different story: of too many broken promises and too many people

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Posted in News | Also tagged deputy leader election and simon hughes | 33 Comments

Vince Cable stands down as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats

By Helen Duffett | Wed 26th May 2010 - 8:19 pm

Vince Cable has stood down as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats in order to concentrate on his role as Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.

The text of Vince Cable’s letter to Nick Clegg is below:

Posted in News | Also tagged deputy leader election and nick clegg | 55 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 13 May 2010

By Alex Foster | Thu 13th May 2010 - 7:19 am

Good morning, and welcome to your super soaraway Daily View on this, the first full day of Liberal government in the UK.

Today in 1958, Velcro was trademarked before going on to applications in haberdashery and space travel.

Birthday boys today include Arthur Sullivan, Armistead Maupin and Stevie Wonder.

2 Big Stories

There’s no doubting from the papers that today is all about the new inhabitants of Downing Street. From a Lib Dem perspective, there’s wor Vince, about to wage war on the banks. Or is he? Does the update to the Guardian’s article, filed 90 minutes after the article itself, herald the first hint of trouble in Paradise?

City is right to fear Vince Cable

Make no mistake, Cable’s appointment matters. David Cameron could have given him another economic job that would have kept him well away from anything to do with City reform. Last night it was mooted that the MP for Twickenham might be made chief secretary to the Treasury, and thus responsible for the delicate negotiations with Whitehall ministries over spending cuts.

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged armistead maupin, arthur sullivan, dave page, george osborne, jackie ashley, jonny wright and stevie wonder | 9 Comments

Coalition ahoy

By Alex Foster | Tue 11th May 2010 - 11:57 pm

News trickling in that the Conservatives have offered the Liberal Democrats a coalition. The Lib Dem parliamentary party and Federal Executives, without whom a coalition cannot be ratified, are currently meeting to consider it.

There’s even talk of an emergency Special Conference this weekend which will mean conference representatives across the country pricking their ears up.

But the rolling news media are considering it a done deal already.

Amongst the headlines are that Nick Clegg will serve as Deputy Prime Minister, Danny Alexander as Secretary of State for Scotland, along with three other Lib Dems in the cabinet and a further …

Posted in General Election | Also tagged coalition, Danny Alexander, david cameron, government and nick clegg | 98 Comments

LibLink: Vince Cable on one liners, air rifles, and Alesha Dixon

By NewsHound | Wed 5th May 2010 - 12:20 pm

Over at ShortList.com, there’s an interview with Lib Dem deputy leader Vince Cable, which notes that his winning appearance on Channel 4’s Ask the Chancellors helped start the Lib Dems’ 2010 election bandwagon. Here are just a couple of the questions asked and answers given:

So, did you enjoy the first chancellors’ debate?
I didn’t enjoy it – that’s not the word I’d use. I felt increasingly confident as it went on. I felt I had the right arguments and the audience was on my side. It is quite tricky, trying to concentrate on the other two and what they’re saying and

…

Posted in LibLink | 1 Comment

LibLink: Vince Cable – The Gaffe: it’s a spectre that haunts us all

By NewsHound | Tue 4th May 2010 - 2:05 pm

Over at the Daily Mail, Lib Dem shadow chancellor Vince Cable takes a look at the hard reality of being a politician during a gruelling election campaign. Here’s an excerpt:

Mostly elections are a punishing schedule of interviews, meetings, encounters with voters and lots of travel. I am often asked if I enjoy it. It seems ungracious to say no but enjoy is not the word I would choose. Perhaps there is a parallel with extreme sports, the same combination of adrenaline and the knowledge that disaster is potentially just seconds away.

Vince then gives us an insight into his last …

Posted in General Election and LibLink | 2 Comments

Tory tax priorities: spend £6 billion on the wealthiest 0.8% in the UK

By Stephen Tall | Sun 2nd May 2010 - 5:20 pm

Small wonder that Tory leader David Cameron publicly rowed back on his inheritaance tax cut for millionaires in last week’s televised debate – Lib Dem research released today shows the Tories’ promise would:

cost £6bn over the course of the next Parliament;
is aimed at the wealthiest 0.8% of estates in the UK; and
would benefit 3,000 of the wealthiest estates in the country every year by almost £250,000

As Vince Cable points out:

At a time when the gap between the richest and poorest is so great, it beggars belief that David Cameron wants to give the

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Posted in General Election | Also tagged conservative party, inheritance tax and tax cuts (Lib Dem) | 5 Comments

What does Vince Cable do on Hounslow High Street?

By Mark Pack | Sat 1st May 2010 - 2:20 pm

The answer to that, and a fair few other questions, is to be found in the interview conducted by ShortList with Vince Cable. Here’s a sample:

What’s your relationship like with your opposite numbers?
It’s perfectly cordial. There’s no personal animosity. We’re not close, but if I meet George Osborne in corridor I’ll say hello. It’s pleasantries – no nastiness.

Who do you prefer: Gordon Brown or David Cameron?
Well, I don’t prefer either of them. They’re both very disappointing in differing ways. Brown’s whole reputation was based upon economic competence, yet we’ve had the mother of all busts. Cameron has charm, but where’s

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Posted in News | Leave a comment

Vince Cable’s speech to the Institute of Directors

By Mark Pack | Wed 28th April 2010 - 6:25 pm

This is what Vince said earlier today:

This building commemorates Britain at the peak of its economic power and glory. We are still an important country with much to be proud of. But that power and the glory have faded. And we are currently in a serious economic mess.

The current economic model is broken. It relied on consumer spending, financed by heavy borrowing and low savings; investment in property rather than production; rapidly expanding public spending based on temporary windfalls from oil, then financial speculation; and growth over-dependent on the fickle fortunes of the banking industry. Any party which does not …

Posted in News | 5 Comments

LibLink: Cable in Mail

By NewsHound | Mon 26th April 2010 - 4:34 pm

Vince Cable’s regular slot in the Mail on Sunday was out yesterday; here’s a brief extract:

I have been going on for ages about the way banks exploit the taxpayer guarantee. One simple step is to make them pay for it out of profits, and I was pleased to see the IMF recommend not one but two taxes: one to fund taxpayer guarantees for future support, the other on excessive pay and profits.

But I disagree with the IMF’s belief we must wait for other states. Britain is much more exposed to the risk of a fresh collapse, and we must

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged daily mail and imf | 1 Comment

Vince on 0.2% growth: “the promised recovery is barely visible”

By The Voice | Fri 23rd April 2010 - 9:15 pm

It’s official: the UK economy has enjoyed a second quarter of growth, as the BBC reports:

The UK economy continued to recover from recession in the first three months of the year, according to official estimates. GDP grew by 0.2% between January and March, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

Here’s what Lib Dem shadow chancellor Vince Cable had to say – in text:

These figures show that the promised recovery is barely visible. There is a real danger of the UK going into a double dip recession. As people deal with their own debts and as the banks continue to strangle good British businesses by starving them of credit the recovery will remain fragile.

“The British economy has had a massive heart attack – it has just emerged from the intensive care unit into the recovery ward. The worst possible action is the Tory proposal to pull out the drip-feed when the patient is still in a critical condition.

“Not only must we tackle the deficit in a considered and rational fashion, we must also ensure that we support jobs and infrastructure as well as making sure businesses get the credit they need to drive growth in the economy.”

And on video:

Posted in News | Also tagged recession | Leave a comment

Factoid: Clegg now more popular than Cable

By Alex Foster | Wed 21st April 2010 - 9:45 pm

Of some passing interest is this little factoid that Politics Home press released last night:

In PoliticsHome’s weekly tracker, Nick Clegg has become the most popular politician in the country

Nick Clegg’s approval rating in PoliticsHome’s weekly tracker has risen by a massive 35 points in the week following the first leaders’ debate.

He has now overtaken Vince Cable to become the most popular politician in the country.

Where to start with the interestingness? Most popular politician in the country? A mixed acolade at best. Yeah, he’s popular, but he’s still one of those awful politicians.

Risen by a massive 35 points? …

Posted in Humour | Also tagged nick clegg, popularity contest and prom queen | 5 Comments

Lib Dem general election manifesto: round-up of our coverage

By Mark Pack | Wed 14th April 2010 - 7:50 pm

The launch of a party’s general election manifesto is a big story, so we’ve been covering it in a series of posts here on The Voice in the last 24 hours. If you’re just catching up on our coverage now, here’s a summary of the posts:

Liberal Democrat manifesto: advance peek – everyone can read the manifesto now, but this post summaries the main points and gives some of the background
Liberal Democrat manifesto by numbers – blogging the manifesto launch
Lib Dem manifesto launch attracts media plaudits – Stephen reports on the very positive response to the LibDem launch

…

Posted in General Election and Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged general election manifesto and george osborne | 5 Comments

A tale of two Shadow Chancellors

By Mark Pack | Wed 14th April 2010 - 1:20 pm

Two party leaders.

Two manifesto launches.

Two questions asking about financial details.

Two leaders turning to their Shadow Chancellor.

One Shadow Chancellor answers the question straight away.

One Shadow Chancellor, er…, despite having advanced warning is still flipping through the paperwork in front of him when the party leader turns to him and can’t answer the question.

Can you guess which was Vince Cable and which was George Osborne?

Here’s a clue:

Posted in General Election | Also tagged george osborne | Leave a comment

Op-eds

The chaos dividend: Why the ultra-rich thrive on an unstable world, and why that’s rational in the short term and suicidal in the long term (Tanya Park)
Vince Cable writes…Labour and Fiscal Rules (Vince Cable)
Josh Babarinde writes…The Lib Dem Summer of Strategy (Josh Babarinde)
Mathew on Monday: “We need to be bold” (Mathew Hulbert)
As a party we must be better defined for the 2029 general election (Chris Bowers)

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Josh Babarinde writes…The Lib Dem Summer of Strategy

Alison Suttie writes: Thank you to our volunteers

What’s going on with party strategy?

A strange but welcome feeling

Tag Archives: vince cable

TUC to Vince: it’s our ball and you can’t play

Williams: Coalition has done more for Equitable Life victims in 10 weeks than Labour did in 10 years

Opinion: No Need for a Graduate Tax

Graduate tax is the fairest way of abolishing tuition fees

Opinion: Why a graduate tax is progressive

Vince’s Graduate Tax is no easy win

Vince Cable’s speech on higher education funding

Vince Cable set to propose graduate tax to replace tuition fees

LibLink: Chris Huhne and Vince Cable – The green economy is still viable

The Independent View: The first thing Vince should cut is funding for the arms trade

No return to two-party politics, but we need to trumpet our successes

LibLink: Vince on the budget

PMQs: Prime Minister’s tennis

What Vince Cable doesn’t tell us

Vince Cable tops popularity poll; Clegg ahead of Cameron

The Independent View: Will Lib Dem proposals to tackle tax avoidance help save the world?

Simon Hughes stands for Deputy Leader as “the life and soul of our party”

Vince Cable stands down as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats

Daily View 2×2: 13 May 2010

2 Big Stories

Coalition ahoy

LibLink: Vince Cable on one liners, air rifles, and Alesha Dixon

LibLink: Vince Cable – The Gaffe: it’s a spectre that haunts us all

Tory tax priorities: spend £6 billion on the wealthiest 0.8% in the UK

What does Vince Cable do on Hounslow High Street?

Vince Cable’s speech to the Institute of Directors

LibLink: Cable in Mail

Vince on 0.2% growth: “the promised recovery is barely visible”

Factoid: Clegg now more popular than Cable

Lib Dem general election manifesto: round-up of our coverage

A tale of two Shadow Chancellors

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Josh Babarinde writes…The Lib Dem Summer of Strategy

Alison Suttie writes: Thank you to our volunteers

What’s going on with party strategy?

A strange but welcome feeling

Tag Archives: vince cable

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