If Vince Cable has achieved anything, it’s to enliven a Lib Dem conference that had
settled into cosy anonymity after Clegg’s speech on Monday. He has now delivered the address that David blogged about earlier – and all of the firebrand passages trailed in this morning’s papers were present and correct. “Capitalism,” Cable warned, “kills competition where it can.” And he followed that lead to kick the bankers where he could. In between passages extolling the virtues of “pro business, pro market” policy, he set about the “spiv and gamblers” who had triggered the financial crisis.
To be honest, though, I find it hard to get too worked up about this. Sure, the bash-a-banker rhetoric is equal parts lazy and unhelpful. But, then, this is Vince Cable waltzing into what would normally be the party leader’s slot – so what did we expect? And, besides, the rhetoric is mere dressing to the actual policy behind it – and, on the whole, the policy thrust of Cable’s speech was in line with what the coalition has been pitching since May.
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