Vince Cable convinced lib/dems (incl Clegg and the public at large)that he had good ideas, fair principles and I think he would be greatly releaved to pull out of the coalition mess. The tories are using him as a "fair-face" to promote very un fair dangerous policies.
Lord "snuff-all" developed a plan to put a Tony Blair clone in office, using his money to BUY the marginal seats in the general election.
WHY?
So that our democracy becomes a financial dictatorship. The emergency budget is a "TRY-ON", a fire for effect to see how dumb the public really are, this is backed by far-right Tories, so called political and financial experts, and through the newspapers and tv media.
There are enough people now who can see this dogma as plain writing on the wall, but Tories are weighing up the strength of opposition in the run-up to the REAL BUDGET in Octobber.
I don't know what purpose it will serve for Vince Cable to remain in the coalition up to this date? But he must stop soon before he has a heart attack. He should, for every right and proper reason, resign.
Clegg must follow suit and take the rest of the liberals out with him.
This is the best chance to pull the plug on the Con-artists who are using the global financial crisis for their own ends.
Rejoice the Belgrano is sunk! Mrs. T said. Perhaps Mr Cable can stop the UK economy from going down to join the Belgrano,devestated manufacturing, pole tax, and the miners strike. Alistair Darling was proved right by todays good news that 160,000 new jobs had been created through his physcal support for jobs, not one of those jobs can be credited to the CONS; and Alistair has warned that a second dip into back into recession (depression) will be far worse than Thatchers wildest dreams.

I'm not a financial genius. No such person exists.(Only the brainwashed CONS believe that) The people who did not see this crisis coming are the same fools who are now defending the Tory dogma that now threatens the mass population of the UK.
Of course the benefit system has got out of hand and it must be tackled. BUT, a million people thrown out of work in the public sector, BEFORE a single new job has been created in the private sector; leaves exports to grow at a phenominal rate to take up the slack.
Another But! Europe and the USA are our export markets in the main. They are in trouble, so the weakening of the pound is unlikely to be a magic wand.
Mervin King waffled today, in the pathetic task of trying to back the Tory head-long rush into disaster. Nobody was convinced, he muttered about quantative easing? I believe he's another good chap trying not to panic the public. One tory nit-wit expert, tried to say that people would save more? Which planet did he come from?
Vince you are being undermined and belittled where you are. PLEASE, see that you will drown. Get out and use your party to bring the TORIES DOWN.

God no! I don't live in London! I hope N. Irish villagers are included among the villagers...no wait- they don't even get to vote in the British elections anyway...even though the party in power in Britain decides their fate for the most part...

I nominate Martin L as Troll of the year.

How can you expect a bunch of Tory millionaires to run the country in anybody's interest,but their own?

and by 'one million less immigrants' i mean we will need to let in one million less next year.

personally, i believe that the hard working immigrants (whether vegetable pickers or NHS consultants) deserve to stay here MORE than the long-term unemployed...

I'm honestly not a tory, don't insult me! I'm not shit-stirring either- as I stated I didn't quite understand your post but now that you've kindly clarified all is well!

its nice to see the tories out in force, hello boys, bnp too left wing for you, is it?

dont worry cameron's out soon, though i did read in the daily mail that if duncan smith doesnt get his way over benefits reform, and the treasury is blocking it, he might resign.

its quite disgusting to read these attacks on people on benefits, and to see cameron leading it, isnt this how milosevic started?

at what stage can we take him to the war crimes tribunal?

I do apologise Spiller. many of my comments have been emotional.

I grew up in an impoverished yorkshire pit village.

I had 'feckless' parents, and were surrounded by such people (though obviously there were also many decent, hard working types).

I suppose that I am being harsh. I am sort of a snob (but without meaning to be). I am proud to have become moderately successful, and I am sometimes angry that others wil not do the same.

That notwithstanding, my bark is worse than my bite. I do acknowledge that some people do not have the resources to be 'successful' (whatever that means.

I suppose that indolence really is an issue that cannot be solved (either easily or even at all). That is the frustrating part.

Spiller, EhtchTee,

Cost of bank rescue is £850 billion.

National Audit Office report December 2009

"The National Audit Office has concluded that the public support provided to UK banks by the Treasury was justified, given the scale of the economic and social costs if one or more major banks had collapsed. ... The final cost to the taxpayer will not, however, be known for a number of years.

"Today’s overview of the government’s response to the crisis shows that the purchases of shares by the public sector together with offers of guarantees, insurance and loans made to banks reached £850 billion, an unprecedented level of support."

http://bit.ly/7OMtKZ

Cameron reckons that £5.2 billion of benefit money is lost to fraud and error each year. So, taking his figures as Gospel, if he succeeds in eliminating fraud and error, then in just over 163 years, he would have saved as much as the bankers have already cost us.

Add Thatcher to your list Martin L. No tyrant list is complete without Thatcher.

I do agree with you in some respects though, but in essence power corrupts. Capitalism has been here since the beginning of time but communism hasn't had quite so long to develop and improve. The basic ideas of communism are admirable however of course no-one can argue that the interpretation of these ideas to date has been a disaster.

Cable wont leave power is a funny thing.

@Dave C - in a report published by Citizens Advice Bureaux (http://is.gd/ebx3R), about £16bn of means-tested benefits go unclaimed each year. That adds an interesting further dimension to the government's attempts to reclaim £5bn of overpayments. No doubt they plan to make benefits even harder to get, so by reducing the money spent in overpayments, they further increase the amount of unclaimed benefits...

so now i'm a troll as well, very droll!

The benefits cheats should be targeted, but it was wrong to bail out the banks too. The corporate cheats must be targeted too.

So some people think that benefits dosent cost much? bollocks.

if it wasnt for the feckless in society, how much would we really need to spend on;

education,
health,
social services;
courts, probation, police etc etc etc?

the real cost of idleness is phenomenal.

But in this model all of this industry (mostly public sector) would be redundant, and this country hasn't the know how or gumption to constructively fill the gap......

In the words of Sir humphrey, this country can have as much unemployment as its prepared to pay for.

it could be argued therefore that the use of prison officers etc is 'invisible' unemployment ie wasting scarce resources that could be better used elsewhere.......

Hi Clara.

I fully accept that many tradesmen are struggling to find work at the minute. My point is that Ive known trades people who have worked for 6 months, then not worked for 9 months (or similar), all of their working lives.
It appears that their is an over-supply of trades people. I am suggesting that the ones who have 'had enough' re-train - or move. Where I live we are short of skilled types.

I fully accept that re-training is lengthy and expensive, as is relocating. However, something must give.

My points are meant to be thought provoking, becasue the fact is, something as to give, becasue the situation is getting worse.

Biggest load of rubbish I've ever read, you've excelled yourself Mr Labour mouthpiece

What a shame there are so few great orators left. People who actually speak their mind rather than just take home the bacon. Cable is a true gent amongst a load of apostates, much like the great Tony Benn.

Vince has always looked grumpy hasn't he?

@Alexandra - you're a tool if you think Simon Hughes is going to join you. He made it very clear he wants to kill off and replace your party, not jump into bed with the authoritarian busted flush that is Labour http://simonhughes.org.uk/news/000263/speech_to_special_liberal_democrat...

Why would Vince want to leave the peoples revolutionary coalition party? The public love them and him. He has power and knows that Labour have no chance of getting into power again in his lifetime. Dream on Mehdi. The peoples revolutionary coalition party train has left the station...you have been left standing on the platform....Bye bye

I hope Vince joins the Labour Party - but I really wish Simon Hughes does.

avoid like the plague

we want vince fibre optics

your career is over sunshine

cut benefits and make the f@#kers work!

if they won't work stop benefits, and make them take their children to 'new' schools, ones that actually teach the kids how to read and write, and make sure they get 3 meals a day, regardless of the parents spending all the money on plasma TVS, alcohol and Benson and Hedges (pardon the advertising).

Flog the parents who wont comply and contraceptive implants if necessary - sorry, no government will tackle the problems until the 5's take us over.

anyone who has been unemployed 6 months - take their votes away (labour votes would halve).

is this fascist? not at all - with 2 to 3 million on benefits and 5 million on 'sick' no wonder we've no money - and yes, there are genuine disabled, but most can do productive work.

sadly disability is a social disease these days, and very contagious!

Just that list of the posts held by the LibDem cabinet members tells you how much of a laughably poor deal they struck with the Tories, compared to what the Tories are getting from them. A lightweight deal for a party that looks more and more lightweight as time goes on.

Actually the list of snubs and humiliations that Cable has received from Osborne, Cameron et al since the start of the coalition is much longer than anyone has has reported so far. Just look at all the decision-making committees that he has been frozen out of for a start.

That said, Cable isnt going anywhere. Faced with the disaster of a coalition deal agreed by his boss having to push through dogs dinner policies like Post Office privatisation as well as having to come out and defend Osborne's anti-redistributive gouge, slash and burn policies on taxes and government (anti-) spending, any politician with the courage of their (LibDem) convictions would and should have said thanks but no thanks.

If Vince Cable was going to go he would have either refused to take the job and the portfolio he was offered or would have left after the budget when the full scale of the betrayal of LibDem values was laid out for all to see. He did neither.

Instead he chose to spend his time in front of the TV cameras defending other people's policies, policies that previously he wouldnt have crossed the street to spit on, while his party sleepwalks its way to political oblivion over the next twelve months.

what about scargills brown shirts who beat my neighbours up and smashed their house up- their crime - going to work of course.

but they deserved it didnt they?

etch - get a grip, the miners got what they deserved - and lets not forgett how they swanned around the pit villages like they were the uper class- why? because they had more money than everyone else of course! - absolute proof that money corrupts - the miners (many of them)were little better than Orwellian pigs!

of course, your memories don't reflect that do they?

Max do you have a learning deficit? Most probably you are another totally thick bnp supporter.
I bet you are a benefit scrounger living in a council flat somewhere - this explains why you are so pathetic.