Commisar Cable rouses the faithful

When the Treasury and No. 10 say they are “supremely relaxed” about Vince Cable’s revolutionary rhetoric it’s code for “there’s much less to this than he’s making out.”

“Vince is Vince,” one Lib Dem ministerial colleague said, in an echo of Tony Blair’s “John is John” quote after his Deputy Prime Minister thumped a voter in the 2001 election.

Vince Cable isn’t thumping anyone but he is beating a drum. He passionately believes in the anti-trust cause and in the weaknesses of unregulated capitalism … but that doesn’t mean there’s a drastic re-think on business regulation ready to come out of the laboratory any more than there is a bonus-bashing tax ready to unveil. Vince Cable is signalling his heart still beats where it did while his Cabinet colleagues are giving him a bit of lee-way.

All very cheering to the sort of Lib Dems who were at the annual Conference Glee Club last night singing The Twelve Days of Coalition at the top of their voices … here are the lyrics:

On the first day of coalition
The Tories gave to me,
A referendum on AV.

On the second day of coalition
The Tories gave to me
Absolutely zilch
And a referendum on AV.

3rd day – “Sweet FA”
4th day – “a very small amount”
5th day “BUGGER ALL”
6th day “very little really”
….you get the general idea.