The Spectator on the Liberal party conference
We appreciate that Nick Clegg and Vince Cable had a gallery to play to during their party’s conference — a gallery of left-leaning Liberal Democrats baying for attacks on the wealthy. The two ministers are in an awkward position, having joined a government that is attempting the first real cuts in government spending since the war. But denouncing capitalism and growling at the rich is no way for those now in power to conduct themselves.
We have become accustomed to ignoring what the Lib Dems say at their conferences. Until now, it didn’t matter. But Mr Cable is now Business Secretary, and when he says that capitalism ‘takes no prisoners and kills competition when it can’, it is worth listening. He might claim to be quoting Adam Smith, but he knows what message such language sends out. It seems utterly at odds with George Osborne’s claim that Britain is ‘open for business’. A foreign company considering a move to Britain would see a Business Secretary claiming that bankers are a greater threat to the economy than trade unions — and stay away.
The Deputy Prime Minister, for his part, talks about the rich as if they were a blight. ‘We all agree that it’s wrong when people help themselves to benefits they shouldn’t get,’ said Mr Clegg in his conference speech. ‘But when the richest people in the country dodge their tax bills that is just as bad.’ We do not hear from him a distinction between tax evasion, which is against the law, and tax avoidance, which ought to be practised by anyone with a good accountant. Does he really see a moral equivalence between keeping money earned and fraudulently claiming what someone else has earned?
It would be reassuring to think that Mr Clegg and Mr Cable were simply letting off steam.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in