Don’t knock the rich

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’.