Cable shows his true colours

‘[Capitalism] takes no prisoners and it kills competition where it can’. ‘Markets are often irrational or rigged.’ A snob would describe those as the ravings of a chippy provincial university lecturer. In fact, they are the considered thoughts of Vince Cable, the business secretary, the very man tasked with selling Britain to international markets.

Cable will address the Lib Dem conference later today, vowing to shine the ‘harsh light into the murky world corporate behaviour’. Limiting short-term speculation when linked to high pay is government policy, but Cable will go further than a spot of banker bashing. Much further. He will say:

‘Why should good companies be destroyed by short-term investors looking for a speculative killing, while their accomplices in the City make fat fees? Why do directors forget their wider duties when a fat cheque is waved before them?’