With Tim Farron stepping down as leader of the Liberal Democrats, it’s time to look for a new leader. Enter: Vince Cable. Yes, the former Business Secretary from those heady coalition days is the first to throw his hat in the ring for Lib Dem leadership.
Which begs the question: exactlywho is Vince Cable?
For a lot of young voters, the 2010 General Election was lost to the stress of school exams and trips to the park with mum and dad. For Vince Cable, it provided a moment of glorious opportunity.
With the election resulting in a hung parliament (not unlike in 2017), the Lib Dems held the power. Cable was instrumental in the coalition agreement between the Lib Dems and the Conservatives. He was rewarded with the role of Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.
It was a role he was more than prepared for. Cable studied Economics at Cambridge and earned a PhD in the subject from the University of Glasgow in 1973. He worked in both the public and private sectors before being elected as MP for Twickenham in 1997.
So was he a good Business Secretary?
Cable’s great error (because every top-level MP will have one) was the sale of the Royal Mail, which was considered a right royal cock-up by a lot of people. In the privatisation of the Royal Mail, Cable and his team were accused of undervaluing the company, setting share prices at 38p when within a year they were selling for 70p - this potentially lost the tax-payer billions of pounds.
He did try, at least in the beginning, to curb Tory policies. When it came to the Tory plan to sell laser-guided bombs to Saudi Arabia, Cable refused to sign off on the deal until he received assurance from the Ministry of Defence that the Saudis would not be allowed to use them on Yemeni civilians. It turned out the MoD were in no position to promise this, but the good intent was there.
It’s also important to highlight his attitudes to big banks: he’s not their biggest fan. Calling bankers a bigger threat to the UK than trade unions (the arch nemesis of the Tories), Cable consistently criticised banker bonuses after the 2008 crash as ‘rewards for failure’.
Too bad it didn’t hold him back from agreeing to 5 years of Conservative-determined austerity and pushing the £9000 uni fee cap through the House…
What do you think? There are many who think the Lib Dems would do better to distance themselves entirely from the vote-killer that was their coalition shambles, but who knows. Could this 74 year old Yorkshireman make a good leader?
