Dr. Eamonn Butler biographer of Adam Smith says…

“Business Secretary Vince Cable is wrong on capitalism and wrong on Adam Smith. Unfortunately, we have a business secretary who doesn’t understand business and who misinterprets the founder of modern economics too. It is not capitalism that kills competition. It is regulation, and regulated capitalism. Adam Smith was perfectly clear… Where free competition reigns, businesses cannot keep out competitors. Government policy should focus on increasing competition, ensuring that trade is honest – and on reducing other regulation.”

The fallout from Cable’s speech seems to be overshadowing Clegg’s big day out at the UN. Once again “the sage” is the LibDem everyone is talking about. Describing those that work in finance as “spivs” has caused some consternation and outrage in the City, but was lapped up in the hall of course. Sky News gave Clegg a hammering over it and he very clearly did not defend Cable’s words. A better line of questioning would have been whether Clegg thought his brother was a spiv, or his dad, or David Cameron’s late father was a spiv, or LibDem’s donors, or David Laws. The list goes on…

Vince Cable opened with “comrades” as he took to the podium. He is aiming for the room rather than the real world and will no doubt reference the fact he predicted seventeen of the last three recessions. The business world has pricked up its ears at their biggest bashing since the 70s and who can blame them. A cabinet minister saying “capitalism takes no prisoners and it kills competition where it can” is enough to send a shiver down the spine and should serve as a reminder of just how barking and dangerous Cable is. Though funny we never heard the old sage decrying “unrestrained capitalism” and corporate greed when he was cooking the numbers for Shell…

In a move completely out-of-place for someone who can put their head on the pillow confident in the knowledge that they hadn’t relied on information from tortured terror suspects, David Miliband decided yesterday he would return to the FCO to “look over some papers”. But of course he isn’t worried about anything.

The last thing the ailing front-runner would have wanted is to have his murky involvement in this matter splashed across the Guardian, again, but it seems they have decided not to make an enemy of him forever by holding off with their attack until its almost too late for any real impact to the leadership vote. As ever Guido will take a balanced approach and encourage fair play about it dredging up a political figures past. Just as Labour suggest that Andy Coulson should be held responsible for what happened on his watch with their now well-worn line, is David Miliband lying or incompetent?

If as many expect Mili-D wins the MPs’ vote, splits the members vote with his brother, but Mili-E still wins overall because the union vote goes overwhelmingly to him, Guido gets the impression that the few remaining Tory strategists sitting in CCHQ won’t believe their luck. Kevin Maguire can see the danger, Mili-E will he says be “portrayed as the union’s man, lacking a mandate from the Parliamentary Labour Party”.  He will be “Red Ed” – the union baron’s preferred puppet…

Is the Labour Party actually going to reject Mili-D, the only candidate who is attempting to reach out to the centre and hasn’t given into the left, for his younger brother? “They’re skipping Hague and going straight to IDS, in tune with what the party members want, out of tune with what the voters want” says one CCHQ source. Polls show that Labour Party members themselves know Mili-D is more likely to beat Cameron, they still don’t care, emotionally they want a leader who tells them what they want to hear. Soon we will find out if Labour’s heart has ruled over its head…