Cable’s latest embarrassment

“None of this will stop me talking out against tax avoidance.” So says Vince Cable, rather hilariously, in response to being fined £500 for failing to pay £25,000 of VAT on his media work. You’ve got to hand it to the Business Secretary: it is an ingenious, if convoluted, way to top up the public finances. Although there are questions about whether other people would have got off quite so lightly.   

You might say, as Vince’s people are this morning, that this is the sort of mistake that can befall anyone — particularly someone so busy as a Cabinet minister. But this isn’t just anyone. This is Vince Cable, who has staggered between embarrassment, inconsistency and insubordination ever since the coalition government was formed. On the day that Chris Huhne takes a set-piece swipe at George Osborne, there will much Tory resentment at their Lib Dem colleagues.