From last night’s Newsnight:
* Mark Pack is Party President and is the editor of Liberal Democrat Newswire.
Subscribe
-
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
-
Like us on Facebook
-
Subscribe to our feed
-
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Most Read
Search
Op-eds
-
What’s going on with party strategy? (Caron Lindsay)
-
We do have a two-tier system (Neil Hickman)
-
Observations of an Expat: NATO Irony (Tom Arms)
-
What really happened? (Simon Banks)
-
Why community politics matters (Mark Corner)
-
Lib Dems are reviewing policy and strategy says PoliticsHome
-
From Norman settlement to a civic square
-
Northern Ireland debates the future of its railways in 1957
-
"The old savage England": D.H. Lawrence visits the Stiperstones
-
Church Green video
-
Doing my bit at Whickham Church Green
-
Have a goat day tomorrow!
-
Pride inside instead
-
Replacing a one party state with another
-
Thinking of standing for election or re-election next year? Helpful questions to consider
Recent Comments
Simon Robinson
Lucy Connolly was jailed because she directly called for people to set fire to hotels housing asylum seekers. Nigel Farage said he felt a sense of cold rage. ...
Tom Arms
Thank you Mohammed...
Andrew Ducker
The idea that we put too many people in prisons is in no way equivalent to encouraging people to riot....
David Evans
David & Mick, I remember (just) a Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968 which arose because Idi Amin, the Ugandan military dictator, chose to expel all the India...
paul barker
This is the 6th contest since May 7th & the first Reform gain, way too soon to draw any conclusions. This ward is the Posh end of Barrow & a typical Co...
3 Comments
Vince has hardly distinguished himself as business secretary having been the architect of the tuition fees policy, failed to get a grip on his department and completely failing on growth and supporting business. He makes his predecessor (Peter Mandelson) look like a business genius (no mean feat!).
Not to mention that he demonstrated that he is happy to abuse a position of power in government for his own personal vendettas (and his inability to keep his mouth shut and not try to impress when in the presence of an attractive female).
Quite why anyone he thinks he deserves to be promoted after his performance in government thus far amazes me. It exposes the real dearth of talent in the Lib Dem party that some are even talking about him taking over from Nick Clegg as leader when he steps down.
This is certainly a lesson in spin!
For “we got it wrong”, substitute “the economy is to blame: it has massive problems”
For “out timetable has slipped two years, and may slip more”, substitute “we are flexible”
For “these figures are awful” substitute “it’s the construction sector’s fault: their contribution is down at lot”
Etc, ad nauseam.
Let’s hope this guy never gets to be Chancellor. If by some surprising chance he was appointed and succeeded in turning the economy round, LibDems would take the credit and the Tories would lose the next election. If he was appointed and failed, DC would be blamed unless he could show that his hand was forced. So if this guy does get to be Chancellor, it means the future is far worse than anyone is so far admitting.
Vince has made mistakes of course. He now admits that he was “miserable” in the early stages of Coalition. This engages my sympathy, because there was a lot to be miserable about! However, this self-confident interview demonstrates that he is now back at the top of his form and raring to go.
As Vince himself said, Vince taking over as Chancellor is not what is going to happen right now. However – if we have to choose between a potential party leader who sometimes makes mistakes, and a leader who makes a mess of everything he touches, I know who I’d go for!