FROM THE DAILY MAIL Online, accessible on the INTERNET at 0730 Hrs GMT Wednesday 20 April 2011
We stopped the Tories putting
'offensive' policies into action, says Vince Cable
By TIM SHIPMAN
Last updated at 7:58 AM on 20th April 2011
Fresh outburst: Vince Cable
Vince Cable has launched another assault on the Tories, saying he felt ‘revulsion’ at Conservative policies.
In an astonishing attack on his Coalition partners, the Business Secretary boasted that the Liberal Democrats have ‘stopped’ the Conservatives from doing ‘many of those things that people found offensive’.
Mr Cable made his remarks in an interview with BBC Scotland in an effort to drum up votes for the local elections north of the border, where the Tories are still seen as toxic.
They comprise the latest in a string of outbursts by the Lib Dem Cabinet minister, who appears to be trying to goad David Cameron into firing him.
Mr Cable boasted that he was part of the ‘very strong anti-Tory aggressive tradition in Scottish politics’ when he ‘led and was active in Labour politics in Scotland in the early Seventies’.
He said: ‘I very much understand the tradition and I do understand the kind of revulsion that people had, from some of the policies of the 1980s and the poll tax and the massive run-down of the manufacturing industry.
‘What we have done in this government is stopped a Conservative government doing many of those things that people in Scotland found offensive, and we have concentrated, for example, in lifting low-earners out of tax, not cutting taxes for the very wealthy.’
He also claimed the Lib Dems secured a renewal of the link between pensions and earnings – a policy of Mr Cameron’s for years before the election.
Yesterday the Prime Minister dismissed Mr Cable’s dissent as ‘noises off’ and praised him as one of the ‘big beasts’ of the Cabinet.
He said: ‘Everyone has their own way of expressing things. We [the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives] are two separate parties, but the reason for having a coalition today is as good as it was a year ago . . . two parties came together in the national interest to deal with the legacy of debt and deficit and deep economic problems that we inherited.’
Coalition 'tensions': David Cameron
He added: ‘I feel as Prime Minister that the Coalition work well together. Of course, coalitions have their tensions and difficulties and noises off and the rest of it, and you have to be a bit relaxed about that.’
However, even Lib Dems are privately expressing disquiet at Mr Cable’s recent pronouncements.
The Business Secretary raised eyebrows with an attack on Mr Cameron’s recent speech on immigration, calling his comments ‘very unwise’ and accusing him of ‘fanning the flames of extremism’.
He compounded his troubled position by boasting this week that he could double his salary outside of the Cabinet. It has also emerged that Mr Cable urged a constituent who runs a private college to launch legal action against the UK Borders Agency.
In December he angered Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg after he told female reporters posing as constituents he had the ‘nuclear’ option of bringing down the Coalition by walking away from the Government.
He also bragged that he had ‘declared war’ on Rupert Murdoch over the tycoon’s plans to acquire BSkyB – which saw the Prime Minister strip him of all responsibility on media policy.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1378730/Vince-Cable-We-halted-offensive-Tory-policies.html#ixzz1K32wA44y
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