From last night’s Newsnight:
* Mark Pack is Party President and is the editor of Liberal Democrat Newswire.
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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!