| The political standing of Vince Cable May 24th 2012, 17:17 Praise from a Tory (high praise, in fact) for the Lib Dem Minister http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...Coalition.html Quote:
His body language has spoken volumes. The notorious Cable scowl has occasionally cast a dark cloud over Prime Minister’s Questions. In a government of chums he is not a chum. Part of the problem is age. The four members of the so-called “Quad” who run the Coalition and get on so well – Cameron, Clegg, Osborne, Alexander – are all in their early to mid 40s. Mr Cable was president of the Cambridge Union in 1965, before any of them was born.
Some of the briefing against Mr Cable has been merciless. One Conservative minister told me that “he just doesn’t like or understand business,” accusing him of failing to listen to Britain’s largest companies. Others accuse him of blocking pro-business reforms. This insidious line of attack finally came out into the open yesterday when The Daily Telegraph carried an interview with the Tory donor and private equity boss Adrian Beecroft...
...Mr Cable deserves the bulk of the praise for the recent small surge of inward investment into Britain, though characteristically he has not tried to grab all the credit...
...Mr Beecroft has responded by labelling Mr Cable a “socialist” and a danger to good government. The language is intemperate, but more importantly Mr Cable is right and Mr Beecroft, along with his Conservative admirers, has taken a very dangerous wrong turning. The kind of untrammelled free market capitalism which Mr Beecroft is advocating is inhumane, unedifying and unBritish, and ultimately comes close to the false proposition that the Conservative Party should be the plaything of very rich men pursuing their financial interests at the expense of a disempowered workforce...
...In truth, Mr Cameron, who has stood by his Business Secretary over Beecroft, does not emerge too badly out of this affair. None the less, the man he needs to thank for keeping the Conservative Party in touch with rudimentary human decency is the widely despised Vince Cable...
...There was a time when age was an advantage in British public life. It was recognised that the old possessed qualities that were unattainable for the young. This respect for human longevity helps explain why William Ewart Gladstone, the greatest prime minister of the 19th century, did not enter No 10 until he was 58, and enjoyed three terms of office thereafter. That time may yet come again. Mr Cable is now in that very interesting place: he is the moral centre of gravity for the Coalition and of British public life. If Nick Clegg, as widely expected, steps down as Lib Dem leader before the general election, Mr Cable – should he decide to run – is highly likely to replace him. His best years may lie ahead.
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