New Business Secretary Vince Cable gets down to work

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 71708.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

New Business Secretary Vince Cable gets straight down to work

Vince Cable was today appointed to succeed Lord Mandelson as Business Secretary and immediately went to his new office in Westminster to start work.

As Treasury spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, he won plaudits from all parties for his respected views on the state of the economy during the recession.

Dr Cable is that rare thing at Westminster - a senior politician whose reputation has been enhanced during the turmoil of the economic downturn.

While most ministers and MPs were accused - along with bankers and regulators - of failing to foresee the financial crisis, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader was credited with raising the alarm earlier than most.

He emerged from the wreckage of the recession as one of the most respected commentators on the economic decline.

Not the slickest of politicians, with his wispy white hair, Dr Cable nevertheless became a media favourite for talking incisively about exactly what was going wrong.

The economist became something of a Lib Dem pin-up, with rumours that even his leader, Nick Clegg, was envious of his popularity.

Some Lib Dems wondered whether Dr Cable should himself have been their choice as leader in 2007 after he took up the role on an acting basis and landed blow after blow on Gordon Brown at Prime Minister's Questions.

He reduced the Commons to gales of laughter, remarking on the premier's transformation, as events ran away from him, "from Stalin to Mr Bean".

But Dr Cable has shown little ambition for the top job and, as the party's Treasury spokesman, annoyed some of his frontbench colleagues in the past year.

Plans to introduce a "mansion tax" for the owners of the 250,000 most expensive homes were angrily received by Lib Dem MPs with constituencies in the South West in particular.

Other were angered that they had not been informed in advance about the proposals, which were instead sprung on the party at its most recent autumn conference.

The scheme was later scaled back after, as Mr Clegg put it, they had been forced to "do some homework".

Dr Cable, who turned 67 on Sunday, was relatively advanced in years when he became an MP, for Twickenham, in 1997.

He was then 53, with an impressive CV in the private sector built on a Cambridge degree and a PhD in economics from Glasgow University.

By the time he was elected to the Commons, he had risen to chief economist at oil giant Shell.

Away from the worlds of business, finance and politics, Dr Cable is known to be a keen ballroom dancer.

He has a "serious ambition" to appear on television show Strictly Come Dancing, he once revealed.

As Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills he will have a series of issues in his in-tray, including energy security, job creation, promotion of trade and industry as well on-going debates about the future of institutions such as the Royal Mail.

[pinstripe]

Does that mean we can't use this any longer? :mfo

[Stormproof]

Does that mean we can't use this any longer? :mfo

I'm sure :mfo will swap parties and become a Tory, he has no loyalty to anyone apart from himself.

[axeman]

'mandy' slipped out the back door i belive

[POSTMAN]

Will look for some small pics of old Vince.............................. :mfo

We'll have to keep :mfo though,it would be rude not to.

[MinisterofCucumber]

Vince Cable said:

"We are told that it will be paid for by increased 'efficiency'. I am all in favour of increased efficiency and less waste. But efficiency has become the new politically correct word for sacking people and cutting services. Some of the wisest words on this subject were uttered by Mr David Cameron. Let me commend them to you. 'The government 'efficiency drive'' - he said - 'is one of the oldest tricks in the book. The trouble is, it's nearly always just that - a trick'. And indeed he is not alone, the IFS was happy to endorse this criticism of our opponents just yesterday."

http://www.vincentcable.libdems.org.uk/ ... ctors.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

All postal workers who live, or work, in his Twickenham constituency should write to Vince Cable with our grievances.