Vince Cable: I Would Work with Labour to Increase Tax on Wealthy

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Vince Cable has admitted that he is of the 'centre left' as he appeared to welcome Labour overtures to work together on increasing taxes for the wealthy.

Sitting side by side with Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, on a television studio sofa, Mr Cable laughingly dismissed as "flattery" the Labourman's call for him to become leader of the Liberal Democrats.

He said that he would be happy to work with Mr Balls on issues such as raising taxes from the better off, including the imposition of a "mansion tax" on the most expensive properties.

But the Business Secretary, who is far more popular than Nick Clegg among grass roots Liberal Democrats, denied that he had ambitions to become leader. And he insisted that he was working well with Mr Clegg and his Conservative Coalition colleagues.

Asked about his idea for a mansion tax, which Labour now supports, he said: "I was delighted that Ed Balls has signed up. I have not been embarrassed to call myself a person of the centre left. » | Rosa Prince, Online Political Editor | Sunday, September 09, 2012

Vince Cable Tells Shareholders: Throw Out Bank Cheats

THE GUARDIAN: Bosses preside over 'moral quagmire', says business secretary, as Barclays chief Bob Diamond is summoned to face MPs

Vince Cable has urged shareholders in UK banks to rise up and purge their companies of corrupt executives, who he says have allowed "systemic abuse" to take root in the banking system.

The business secretary, writing in the Observer, says it is now clear that no one at Barclays Capital, the investment bank that triggered the market-rigging scandal, is prepared to take responsibility for endemic corruption, so the ultimate owners of banks must take matters into their own hands.

Describing the problems in UK banking as "a moral quagmire of almost biblical proportions", Cable says the government is taking urgent action, including creating a clearer separation between "casino-style investment banking" and retail banking on the high street. Ministers will this week begin a review into the libor system under which banks lend to each other and Cable hints that US-style criminal sanctions, such as the threat of prison terms, could be considered against those who abuse it.

But he says shareholder power will be crucial. "Regulators are a backstop: they don't own banks," he writes. "The governance at the top of our leading banks has been shown to be lamentably weak. No one at the top of Barclays will take responsibility for systemic abuse.

"Shareholders, the owners, have a major responsibility here. I am bringing in legislation to strengthen their control over pay and bonuses, through binding votes, but shareholders have to get a stronger grip on weak boards and out-of-control executives." » | Toby Helm, Jamie Doward and Jill Treanor | Saturday, June 30, 2012

'Socialist' Vince Cable Not Fit for Office, Says Adrian Beecroft

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Vince Cable is a “socialist” who should never have been put in charge of business policy, a Downing Street adviser claims today.

Adrian Beecroft, who reviewed employment law for No 10, says that Liberal Democrat objections to plans for removing red tape are harming the economy and preventing companies from creating jobs.

In his first newspaper interview, the venture capitalist tells The Daily Telegraph that entrepreneurs are going abroad and that unemployment is rising because of the Coalition’s failure to help business. The impact on the public sector of outdated employment regulations is even more damaging, he says, with taxpayer-funded services “hugely less efficient than they could be” because of the legal difficulties associated with dismissing under-performing workers.

He concludes that the economy will grow by five per cent less than expected – the equivalent of more than £50 billion – because of the Government’s failure to push through radical reform of employment laws. » | Robert Winnett, Political Editor | Tuesday, May 22, 2012

My comment:

Cable has talked sense; Beecroft has talked nonsense. And I'm no socialist. I'm a lifelong Conservative voter. Go eat ****, Mr. Beecroft! Your suggestions are ante-diluvian. – © Mark

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Vince Cable Calls Sacking Plans In Beecroft Report 'The Wrong Approach'

BBC: Business Secretary Vince Cable has condemned proposals to make it easier for firms to sack under-performing staff as "the wrong approach".

A report commissioned by the prime minister is also expected to call for shorter periods of consultation over compulsory redundancies.

But Mr Cable told the BBC it was not the job of government to "scare the wits" out of people.

Many Tory MPs back the plans as a means to boost the UK's businesses.

The economy re-entered recession in the first quarter of this year and the coalition government is looking for ways to encourage growth.

The report, which is expected to be published later this week, was compiled by Conservative-supporting venture capitalist Adrian Beecroft.

Its proposals are expected to include:

• An end to a mandatory 90-day consultation period when a company is considering redundancy programmes. Instead it will suggest a standard 30-day period and an emergency five-day period if a firm is in severe distress

• A cap on loss-of-earnings compensation for employees who make successful unfair dismissal claims

• Reform of the rights that workers are allowed to "carry" to new employers when their companies are the subject of a takeover

• Scrapping provisions in the Equality Act which make employers liable for claims from employees for "third-party harassment", such as customers making "sexist" comments to staff in a restaurant

• Shifting responsibility for checking foreign workers' eligibility to work in the UK from employers to the Border Agency or the Home Office

The study follows David Cameron's call for British industry to be freed from "red tape", with labour markets altered to encourage greater investment and fluidity among workers. » | Monday, May 21, 2012

THE SUN: Cable blasts Tory zealots: He attacks plan to axe workers’ rights » | Tom Newton Dunn | Monday, May 21, 2012

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Coalition split over employment reforms as Vince Cable dismisses Beecroft Report as 'complete nonsense': Plans to cut employment red tape by stripping labour rights and making it easier for firms to sack under-performing staff have been blasted as "complete nonsense" by Business Secretary Vince Cable. » | Robert Winnett and Christopher Hope | Monday, May 21, 2012

THE GUARDIAN: Scrapping unfair dismissal would affect us all: Where's the evidence that current employment law rules have a negative impact on British business? » | Anya Palmer | Wednesday, October 26, 2011

My comment:

I agree with Vince Cable 100%. It would be utterly ridiculous to get rid of workers' rights like this. Don't forget, the people at the top will continue to get their rights, and multi-million pound bonuses.

This benighted Tory administration will return us to the Victorian model very quickly. The people in the cabinet haven't a care in the world – they're all multi-millionaires. What do they care about workers' rights?

What the Tories want is slave labour for the captains of industry to continue to line their own pockets at the expense of cheap workers. At this rate, we'll soon be returning to child labour, we'll soon be sending children down the coalface to bring up the coal.

In one word: disgusting! More power to Dr. Vince Cable! – © Mark

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Executive Pay to Be Linked to Rank-and-File Salaries
Chief executives’ pay awards should be set partly according to how much they pay their rank-and-file staff under new government rules proposed yesterday.

Read article and comment here | James Kirkup | Monday, January 23, 2012

Vince Cable Warns Economic Squeeze Will Stay
DAILY EXPRESS: VINCE Cable yesterday issued a stark warning to families that the era of ever-improving living standards had come to an abrupt end.

In a speech tinged with pessimism about the economy, the Business Secretary told the Lib Dem conference that the world financial crisis meant households had to accept years of tightening budgets. » | Daily Express Reporter | Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Vince Cable: 'Pay Should Be Transparent'
The Business Secretary tells the Liberal Democrat conference he is consulting on how to tackle escalating executive pay.

Liberal Democrats Party Conference 2011: Vince Cable's Speech to Conference in Full
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Vince Cable tells Liberal Democrat Party Conference in Birmingham: "We now face a crisis that is the economic equivalent of war." This is the full text of his speech.


These are dangerous times for our economy.
There is much uncertainty.

But I am absolutely certain that, at such a moment, the country is stronger for having two parties in coalition working in the national interest.

When I joined up I had very mixed feelings about this coalition, like many of you.
I looked for good precedents.

I thought of Attlee and Bevin working with their Tory opponents – Churchill and Beaverbrook – setting aside their political differences in a common cause.

That coalition unleashed the great Liberal reformers; Beveridge and Keynes.

Now, you could say: that was war; that’s different.

Yes, it is different.

But we now face a crisis that is the economic equivalent of war. » | Monday, September 19, 2011

This man speaks sense! – Mark

Vince Cable: David Cameron's Immigration Claims 'Risk Inflaming Extremism'
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, has accused David Cameron of “inflaming extremism” with his speech on immigration.

The Prime Minister will today claim that uncontrolled immigration has undermined some British communities.

Pledging to cut the numbers entering Britain to tens of thousands, rather than hundreds of thousands, Mr Cameron will say that "for too long, immigration has been too high".

Mr Cameron’s speech, his first major address on the issue since the general election, will please many Conservative MPs and voters.

But Mr Cable, a Liberal Democrat, described the speech as “very unwise” and suggested it could fuel extremism over immigration.

“The reference to the tens of thousands of immigrants rather than hundreds of thousands is not part of the coalition agreement, it is Tory party policy only,” Mr Cable told the BBC.

“I do understand there is an election coming but talk of mass immigration risks inflaming the extremism to which he and I are both strongly opposed.”

The Conservatives and Lib Dems agreed in their Coalition deal to take differing views on immigration, but Mr Cable’s forthright criticism of Mr Cameron may raise questions about his position in the Cabinet. Continue reading and comment » | James Kirkup, Political Correspondent | Thursday, April 14, 2011



My comment:

Doesn't Vince Cable understand that he is in office to serve the people? Doesn't he understand that the people's concerns should be of paramount importance in a so-called democracy? The good British people are fed up of all this unrestrained immigration into our once rather homogenous land. Do the people's wishes mean nothing to this man? If he is concerned about extremism, the one thing he and his colleagues could do to nip extremism in the bud is bring immigration under control. It is precisely in countries where immigration has been allowed to get out of hand that we are seeing the growth of the so-called extremist parties. Now surely you can get that, Dr. Cable! – © Mark

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Bravo, Mr Cable! Bravo! Vince Cable Attacks Bankers as 'Spivs and Gamblers'
THE TELEGRAPH: Vince Cable has attacked the “spivs and gamblers” who he claimed are more of a danger to the economy than militant union leaders.



The Business Secretary told the Liberal Democrat conference in Liverpool that it was right that the public was angry about the bankers’ bonuses.

He refused to tone down his comments, which have angered business leaders, about the “murky world of capitalism.”

He said: “I make no apology for attacking spivs and gamblers who did more harm to the British economy than Bob Crow (the RMT union leader) could achieve in his wildest Trotskyite fantasies, while paying themselves outrageous bonuses underwritten by the taxpayer. There is much public anger about banks and it is well deserved.”

In another move that is likely to anger the Conservatives Mr Cable revelled in the fact that the Lib Dems had forced David Cameron to drop his pre-election commitment to a new inheritance tax limit.

To cheers from the Lib Dem delegates, he said: “You'll remember our Conservative colleagues campaigned in the General Election to lift the inheritance tax burden on double millionaires. But they have dropped that commitment.

“They have gone halfway to accepting our case for equalising income tax and capital gains tax rates. They have accepted in the Coalition Agreement that the priority for cutting income tax is for low earners not top earners.”

He also repeated his wish for a new tax on properties worth more than £2 million.

Mr Cable said: “I personally regret that mansion tax did not make it into the Coalition Agreement but in a coalition we have to compromise. But we can and should maintain our distinctive and progressive tax policies for the future.”

Mr Cable was unrepentant for talking about capitalism's failings.

He said: “The Government's agenda is not one of laissez-faire. Markets are often irrational or rigged. So I am shining a harsh light into the murky world of corporate behaviour. >>> Andrew Porter, Political Editor | Wednesday, September 22, 2010