Taking the attack to Vince

With Cable’s and Clegg’s personal ratings being so high, the trick is to play the ball not the man. Ken Clarke and George Osborne achieved that at this morning’s press conference. Clarke said:

“(Nick Clegg’s father was) a very nice, very wise guy, he was a very successful City guy, but he wasn’t a flashy guy… he was a Tory. It would have been better if Nick had stuck to the political principles of his father. (Nick Clegg) must regret going into the strange wastelands of Liberal Democrat politics.”

He added that whilst he agreed with “70 percent” of Vince Cable’s analysis on the financial collapse, Cable’s solutions left him “bewildered”. Clarke’s objections pare down to the dangers of a hung parliament: if government will not or cannot reduce the deficit then the “IMF will have to do it”. Clarke and Osborne could go further to expose Cable’s singular view of the universe, but at least the Tories are making clear