Confused Old Socialism
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…
Old and confused, indeed.
What does the mad old loon think he can achieve by this deranged outburst? Is he a glove puppet for Simon Hughes?
They’ve got elections to win. The delegates may give a bit of a toss about effective governance but the possibility of getting hammered in the locals & the provincials is a scary prospect. There’s no reason for them to state a Tory agenda but simply to allow that agenda to be driven.
Politics & economics are completely different beasts.
Coo ee!
Remember me?
I just got let out!
Socialist arsehole wants more scrounging immigrants, more jobs for immigrants, give more powers to the EU, make the country defenseless, attack businessmen and thinks that he can then afford to reduce taxes for the poor. Where is the arse going to get the money from?? Cameron ought to sack him post haste before he derails the coalition.
the public loved the speech
because the public depise the casino bankers and spivs and always will
Oh no.
So what part of the speech is Cameron briefing against Fawkes ?
Take your time.
And to think I jumped into bed with these mongs.
Ah, shit. Oh well, I prefer them to my own party’s team.
Joining Labour was obviously out of the question for this loony…….too right wing.
Although I do agree that most multi-nationals fit his description, I prefer to side with Douglas Carswell who says we need to restrain ourselves from more Government interference.
Government should run the embassies and the Army, The Local government the roads and the police, and everything else locally by the people.
And all leasehold property where the initial lease was over 10 years should revert to the leasee!
Did you read about Carswell’s Banking Reform Bill, Ampers?
Makes sense to me – if only we could stop government d*bt being used to create money out of thin air as well, this might be a winner…
“… most multi-nationals fit his description.” Er, what description is that then?
Comrades eh? Extreme Left wing stuff, little wonder Vince is finding it hard to work with the Torys.
It’s religious. Many of us overthrow the indoctrination of our youth as we mature and begin to see the world as it is. Cable remains a believer, but because he is Business Secretary he deeply conflicted — and a danger to our prosperity too.
He should see a doctor.
Vote Labour!
He used to advise Brown for goodness sake. The muppet
Brown is a spiv, Cameron as well, so is the twat Cable.
They’re all spivs – I bet most of you reading this blog is one too.
Fuck you!
The ‘Old Fart’ has farted!!
And it’s one of those noisy, but deadly ones.
I wrote a couple of little limmericks for Alphaville:
Oh how we abhor old Vince Cable
As he enlightens the LibDem faithful
His ideals in a tangle
With his balls in the mangle
Being all things to all men, he’s unable
and
Oh how we adore old Vince Cable
And enjoy his Marxist fables
At the conference he spoke
Forgetting we’re broke
Let\s consign him to gaze at his navel
The insufferable Marxist Vince Cable
So keen to be thought of as able
So sad that he’s fickle –
His hammer and sickle
Are now plainly displayed on the table.
Beautiful. Congratulations.
At least yours rhymed, unlike the first two.
We cant afford socialisim !
Wrong!
Or maybe he is just saying what the audience wants to hear ?
Yes! he has no credibility in the real world where the rest of us live.
Actually, I live in a fantasy world !!
Maybe he had his speech switched ?
You’re comparing him to the legend that is Ron Burgundy?
“capitalism … kills competition where it can”
So what, is he suggesting that it takes some lessons from the public sector and becomes a more efficient competition-killing machine?
Vince certainly needs to “shine a harsh light into the murky world of his own department, particularly Companies Investigation Branch which is home to some consummate crooks and liars.
Get your own house in order Vince before spraying criticism around at other operations.
Clueless fucker. It is Corporatism that kills competition in the never ending drive towards monopoly.
Marxism does the same by a different route.
Of course it does. Capitalism is survival of the fittest in the truest Darwinian sense. All successful businesses kill competitiors by offering better products, better services at lower costs. The weak go to the wall and the strong prosper.
Tyrannosaraus didn’t get big on government handouts and sitting in the dole office (that was Brontosaraus the fat bstard)
Where it’s unacceptable is when bribery and corruption come into play. Didn’t someone associated with F1 racing once donate millions to the Labour party followed by a swift change in cigarette advertising rules for F1. FGS thats so blatant its a laugh.
I’ve never trusted Vinny Cable. One minute he’s a Socialist, next minute he’s the brain of Britain then a top class commedian – all things to all nutters. I hope he buggers off to Russia or where-ever he wants to go – silly bastard.
I hear that Kim Jong-Il is about to name his successor. Perhaps Mad Vince is trying to pitch for that?
No, North Korea’s already a model socialist state. I want to apply the same socialist thinking to our country, so we can be the envy of the world, too.
And have a starving population.
Only capitalist imperialist fools would deny that evil nasty capitalist pig-dog farmers cause 120% of our environmental pollution. Eat not from their gangrenous hands, comrades! Feast instead from the glorious hand of Marxism! Comrades, ho!
“a starving population”?
They is well fit, lean and mean. Just how I like my men.
I believe Dr Cable sat on Glasgow City Council as a Labour Councillor in the 1970s. He is simply reliving his youth.
If Kapitalsmus kills competition, perhaps the Monopolies’ Commission should be abolished as useless…. I wont hold my breath.
It seems good politics to me – let the mad old fool pontificate occaisionally (bu dont give him real powers though) – it will keep the loon-libs happy and wrongfoot labour
Just listened to Vince. I think he is possibly the most dangerous man in Britain at the moment with his long list of daft ideas. I have voted LD in the past but never again.
Calm down Mr/Mrs Grr. He’s just doing a gig and they’re all shitting themselves about May. I’d defo vote Lib Dem any day than Labour.
How can we achieve continuous economic growth with finite world resources?
Answer: Invest in property, housing and shares, banks, loans, and other imaginary things.
Make money out of money and nothing will ever go wrong.
You get 24 hours per day of the ONLY wealth creating resource.
The sun is only up on your side of the equator for 12 hours……
Air is around you 24 hours though.
I don’t know what he’s on about either.
PS: the sun is always visible on my side of the equator.
Property, housing, banks and loans are not imaginary. Conversely, the world’s resources are not worth anything by themselves. They only become valuable when human work and ingenuity render them so. Fortunately there appears to be no limit to human work and ingenuity. (Unfortunately there is no limit to human stupidity, either).
There seems to be no limit to those who don’t want to work either.
“But one ten thousand of those men in England That do no work to-day!”
Shakespeare must have miss-counted.
Loans are not imaginary, but the credit you are loaned is, until the moment you sign an agreement to repay the capital plus the NEVER invented interest, with the fruits of your hard labour.
The bank only had to find 10% of that loan, and the rest is created out of thin air as soon as they credit your account with it!
Slight was the thing I bought,
Small was the debt I thought,
Poor was the loan at best-
God! but the interest!
And let’s not forget that the bank gets its 10 percent imaginargy money at 0.5 percent Bank of England interest rate, and loans to you and me from the bank e.g. mortgages, start at 5.0 percent. No surprise banks are solvent – on paper. Surprise is they are not lending more . . .
Postle
Whilst it is never a bad idea to bash left-wing thinking, we must also remember Capitalism has limits as well.
But the constant quest for ‘economic growth’ in a finite system is very rarely questioned.
So thanks for making others here aware of it.
Hullo.
I’m confused.
http://tinyurl.com/39sg6gg
Goodbye.
Whilst the speech was a bit if a damp squib, his line
‘Labour lacked foresight and are now showing they lack even hindsight’
was rather good.
Vince has 20-20 hindsight.
But never when it counts. Here’s Vince in full support of the Iron Chancellor in 2003 after the IMF had raised its first concerns about public spending — perhaps if he’d done the right thing we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3333125.stm
“But the Treasury spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, Vincent Cable, said the government should not rush into any changes.
“I think it is a bit premature to call for tax increases or cuts in public services,” he said.
“The chancellor is right to say that we have to wait to see how the Budget position evolves over the full economic cycle.
“We should not be panicked by the IMF into early tax increases or expenditure cuts, which would be damaging in the short term.”
but vital in the long term, which is why we are where we are.
Correct. Was he really suggesting that we should “wait and see”? And then get a time machine when it all went wrong, perhaps.
Nope, keep charging towards the cliff.
Are we there yet? No. In that case keep running towards it.
A lot has changed since 2003. As Nick said in his speech, the Government aims to get spending back to 2006 levels. Remember, 2003 was only midway through Labour’s second term.
Love at first hindsight.
http://tinyurl.com/2c5u6pe
Yeah, and “Labour’s got a Plan-B but no Plan-A”
As long as it’s Labour that’s getting the kickin’, I don’t care who’s wearing the Bovver boots
“Capitalism takes no prisoners and it kills competition where it can” is perfectly true and was foretold by Adam Smith. Part of any Government’s job is to enforce a free market and prevent monopolistic practices and cheating. Part of any PLC director’s job is to try to rig the market in his company’s favour.
Capitalism is a horse to be ridden. You don’t get anywhere by hobbling it, but it needs a bit of direction.
It needs a field but not a rent-seeking rider.
Sounds like you’ve been on the saddle again your sirship.
Why did no one read my theory of moral sentiments?
Pick and choose; spin and lie.
Aye and ye don’t leave the stable door wide open like that fecking former prime mentalist did with his light touch, otherwise it will bolt off with all your hard earn pennies.
Capitalism is a process not an actor in that process: logically it can’t be both. The process consistents of individuals seeking to maximise their outcomes (not all all are profit-seeking). In the absence of Government action the only way those actors can seek to eliminate competition is through force or by offering a superior product/service. A process that permits free entry and exit is inherently fair and moral. However, some actors seek to acheive super-rents through the acquiesence of Government. Laws and regulations put together at the behest of market actors to supervise, improve or ensure the quality of the market nearly always result in barriers to entry and lower competition. Mr Cable should know this better than most and since he is the Business Secretary he should be doing something about it. If he really is concerned about actors seeking to acheive market dominance and super-rents he should be looking remove the regulations and barriers to entry that permit the exploitation of the rest of us. One of the areas he could with looking at is Banking regulations: he should be looking at how new banking institutions could be encouraged to enter the UK market: telling any potential entrants that you will steal their profits if they are any good at their job is probably counter-productive. Unfortunately he probably is a loony.
Yeah like the Renewable Obligation, enshrined in law, which states that energy retailers are obliged to buy whatever renewable energy providers produce at 3–5 times the cost, whether they actually receive any power from renewable sources or not.
more confused old socialism:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11378604
Perhaps instructions will be given to divert his plane to Havana, where he can lecture Castro on Socialism.
Better still would be instructing UK Border Agency Staff to detain him as an undesirable alien and have him sent directly to Broadmoor or Carstairs.
Remind me who was in charge of the Treasury in 2000 and for a full 7 years after that?
in what capacity is he there?
who paid for the flight for him and his wife?
is he dodging the labour party conference?
“Speaking in New York, Mr Brown said he wanted to ‘press, inspire and push’ people to see the virtues of education.”
Inspire? Gordon Brown inspire?
Ha ha haaa haa ha ha ha ha ha ha! Oh, ha ha aha ha hah ha ha ha!
He’s both a comedian and a joke.
i thought he was leaving no 10 to do the most important job “being a father” – well then why doesnt’ he get on with it rather than arrassing thevulnerable and spouting nonsense.
Maybe the people he’s trying to inspire with a love of education are his wife’s children. Perhaps he’s trying to teach them maths. Zero-percent increases, that sort of thing.
Then he’ll try and square the circle of his beloved and much-vaunted ‘zero-carbon economy’ and his first-class return flight to New York City.
I have to say, Guido, that I quite liked old Vince and that avuncular style he portrayed in his temporary period as stand in leader. Unfortunately that made me listen to what he actually said.
I have to say that I think Cable is the turd in the swimming pool as far as the coalition is concerned. He is dangerous and I don’t know what Cameron and Clegg dare to do about him at this stage?
Its the old tent scenario isn’t it?
Personally, if I had a turd in my pool — or indeed, in my tent, I’d remove it pronto with the pooper scooper and flush it down the lav.
Here here!
Hear hear * (correct spelling)
Poor old Vince, confused and shambling.
One of these days, Vincent will be strolling through the HOC and his knees will give way, he’ll hit the deck hard. Unable to bring himself to his feet he will be surrounded by dead eyed folk he’s never seen before, with them will be a large screen.
As Vince looks up through his tired eyes, he will notice that one of the people standing above him will have something in their hand….
….a captive bolt pistol.
What was that magic potion which causes a heart attack which Harry Pearce administered to the ex-Home Secretary in Spooks on Monday — hope it’s not fictional.
There are many such chemicals.
Voting closes at 5pm today — please give Guid Fawkes your 1st preference
?
I’d prefer you to fuck off. Thank you and goodbye.
Cable, Hughes and Kennedy, could the three Hunts organise a piss up in a brewery?
Vince Fable needs to consider how much Corporation Tax, VAT, and Income Tax is raked in from the Banking sector?
Perhaps this silly old sod needs to reconsider the problem of ‘crowding out’, Vince just fuck off and collect your refund at the door as you flounce out to join the watermelons of the Green Party.
I can organise a piss-up anywhere. Just give me the address and a fine single malt. Oh, and a couple of hours’ dialysis wouldn’t hurt. Hic!
And take Chris ‘windmill’ Huhne with you.
Sit on my face and tell me that you love me.
Does he still live of the Mr Bean joke ?
I wouldn’t go living off of writing for a profession thick boy.
Ah well, at least now the people who voted for him here in the Twickenham constituency (many of whom work for rabidly capitalist and corporate organisations and who would never, ever elect Labour) will see what they got for their vote.
I understand Vince’s first job in politics was as a Glasgow Labour Councillor……’nuff said.
You are such a sad sack of old wingnut numpties, are’nt you? Swallowing any old shit about “Capitalism” equalling “Freedom” and getting your old-man’s nappypants in a twist when someone – let’s face it, nearly every economist – starts saying that fiat money, pixel pounds, digital dollars has fucked the whole entire system to a rubble of debt that’s historically only been cleared by world war…
Jesus Lord above! What a load of Tea Party fodder you all are.
See you in the trenches (dodging the Chinese drones).
I believe JFK made similarly persistent anti – business and anti bank jibes, and look what happened to him.
Another reason for not driving around in a soft-top.
Or even open top.
Muffin top?
We need more immigrants in to suppress wages.
And spend our taxes.
Which CallMeDave will send by first class money transfer, with interest, to his mates in Brussels!
leave vince alone he is one of us now, like nick and danny.
Par for the job… Cable is like the rest of the politicos, hypocritical to a man.
It keeps a whole newspaper industry and blogosphere in business to try and tell you otherwise though.
As much as Guido spins that some are different, they are the same old recycled shite and their end game is removing your money.
The mistake he makes is using the term Captialism when he means Corporatism. Corporatism is anti-capitalist, in many ways I cannot distinguish its big stich up between big companies and government (think lloyds HBOS merger) and Nationalisation. It is small business we need to get out of the mess we are in.
Having said all that the fact that Cable could not get this vital (and far too seldom told) message across is a testament to his incompetence.
Corporatism does not give a hoot to shareholders (unless they are other corporates), derides competition, lobbies Governments to ease their way, manipulates regulation and defrauds the tax payer on an industrial scale.
I’m no expert on the terminology, but when you say “Capitalism” are you assuming it contains “free market”?
I take one meaning of capitalism as “the people who have money set up and/or run businesses”. (which includes the corpratism you are talking about).
I don’t think there is a term for the two different things you try to talk about unless its some strange “good capitalism” “bad capitalism” divide. Some of the things you describe happens on the small scale with small businesses lobbying their councils for favourable treatment, esp via their mates.
‘capitalism’ is not an adequate shorthand for freedom and markets, what mises called ‘human action’.
In a sense ‘capitalism’ doesn’t exist at all as a defined philosophy, unlike socialism, which is an -ism.
But Russ is right – Cable got his knickers twisted. He is fumbling about corectly being anti-corporatist, but he neglects to recognise that that is exactly what his brand of leftyism does/is all about.
Sockpuppet has a point but what I mean is that the characteristics of the mega companies are not the same as SME’s. Of course SME’s will do all that they can to secure business (I know as I own one) but they are:
Not too big to fail.
Have to be very responsive to their customer base.
Are regulated to the same levels as the bigger entities, with proportionately higher overheads in complying.
Have to live on their own capital base or be very, very attentive to any investors needs.
These dynamics make them genuinely reactive and responsive. The bigger entities are far, far more similar to Nationalised companies.
VINCE CABLE NEARLY BANKRUPTED SHELL THAT IS WHY THEY OFFLOADED HIM.
Remind me how long he was there!
what sort of stupid deluded fuck addresses people as “comrades”?
unless these shit for brains middle class academics get their shit together there is going to be civil unrest
Sounds like a good idea. They’d call it “trolling” online, and “attention seeking” otherwise.
You provide a perfect example!
Thanks.
I remember Tony Robinson at a Labour conference using the term Comrade in nearly every sentence. But then he does work for the BBC.
Channel 4 I think you mean. At the BBC he was Baldrick:
He likes a joke?
………..and finally Corporatism doesn’t give a stuff about the customer either.
Is Vince the new Bonkers Brown ?
No. Not even close. He has Castro, The Korean bloke and Mugabe ahead of him before he is anywhere near Brown.
They’re good mates from LSE days. Now we see what Cable was doing lurking at the Labour Party conference last year.
News 25
The sequel – this time it’s serious
Gill spills milk and it’s gone everywhere!
Hello there! Drew Colgate here, spoon-feeding you ever-breaking news in the third person. But don’t assume that I’m a wanker for speaking in the third person. Assume that I’m a wanker from my botoxed brow; my surgically-enhanced upper-lip; my ludicrously jet black bouffant, subtly accented with fluorescent blonde highlights; my t-shirt, skinny-tie, and aviator Rays ensemble; and my periodically impenetrable transatlantic enunciation.
This week, a story that’s so huge, it’s off the chain: Claire crafty butcher Balding and A A Gill at war! More from our bullet-proof vested Sexual Deviance Correspondent Carlton Knobs.
Good evening from outside the posh West London pad of Claire Balding, television star, equestrian connoisseur, and raving homosexual. Back in July, when Balding was presenting her BBC4 series ‘Britain By Bike’, journalist and critic double-A Gill penned the most disgusting newspaper review of Balding’s show in The Sunday Times. Balding objected to Gill’s richly imaginative and dangerously avant garde observation that she was a ‘dyke on a bike’. In a eureka-style epiphany ordinarily reserved for the likes of Newton and Galileo, Gill revealed to us that the word ‘bike’ rhymes with the word ‘dyke’, and thus constitutes another inspired column inch.
But Balding couldn’t find it in herself to acknowledge Gill’s literary genius, and got all gripey about his so-called ‘pejorative’ and somehow ‘offensive’ use of the word ‘dyke’. This week, the Press Complaints Commission upheld Balding’s whinge.
We tried to contact Mr Gill, but he was unable for comment. However, he did offer the olive branch with the release of the following heartfelt statement: ‘I write this paragraph with just an ordinary plastic biro, but also with profound regret at the upset that my careless conduct has caused Claire. I apologise unremittingly. I want it on the record that I now agree unconditionally with everything that Claire said. Because I’m not stupid enough to argue with a butch crinkly swindler who’s twice my bodyweight.’
Meanwhile, I asked Ms Balding if there’s any truth in the rumour that the next series of Britain By Bike will now be called Humourless, Hypersensitive Grouser On A Bike – but Claire was too busy on the campaign trail, fighting the cause of discrimination against massive lesbians in the jockeying industry. This is Carlton Knobs, reporting, and revelling in it, for News 25.
Thanks, Carlton. Now time for the ads. But don’t go anywhere. Surrender to the enticing allure of box, allow the stream to submerge your sedentary, thoughtless, and vegetative self; but don’t forget to send us your valued, brooding, and meaningful contributions via SMS and Twitter. See you in 3.
To see other episodes of News 25, follow the link: http://thecurrerball.wordpress.com/news-25/
Too long.
Ah, its capitalism that kills competition is it, somebody should have a word in his Shell like.
I’ve just seen a comment on the Guardian website describing him as a right wing libertarian! Can you believe it?
He’s really just a populist nutter with an over inflated ego, but very dangerous. Cameron really needs to sack him.
Wavey couldn’t possibly do that. The coalition might crumble.
Might not be such a bad thing…
Doddering dimwits like Cable are supposing that the healing process (the recession) is the disease, rather than the process whereby the disease is healed.
The disease, was the state previous to this ‘recession.’ This so-called ‘recession’ is an attempt towards healing the disease itself (too much easy credit, government profligacy, etc).
Before the financial crash, the economy under Brown was not in a good state: consumption was higher than production, low savings, loans handed out willy-nilly regardless of their ability to pay back, you get the picture… What we are seeing now is the system attempting to heal itself through cuts in public expenditure, increases in production, restraints on banks etc, and should be welcomed.
The trouble is, though, that the average voter is like a three year old in a supermarket who can’t understand why mummy won’t buy the whole sweet counter, and whinges loudly when their demands aren’t met.
Very few people understand that the kind of behaviour that led to the banking crash isn’t sustainable – they are far too interested in whether their house has risen in value, so that they can borrow that few grand for the essential trip to Barbados or wherever, upgrade their German car, get that nice Japanese TV, etc. etc. – all of which causes wealth to flow out of our economy and into those of others.
Unfortunately, people are very short sighted when it comes to wish fulfillment, and this won’t change until the pain really starts in a few months time.
One thing that Cable did allure to was that Labour had no Plan A or B – this should be expolited when Miliband is elected.
Cable keeps blaming the Banks though. The economy was fucked well before they needed support. As I recall money would be available to bail them out if required, but none was given. the UK now sits on Banks shares that will eventually be valuable.
The UK debt is due, not because we bailed out the banks, but because the last Govt spent more than it earnt – until this message is understood then the Coalition will be blamed for everything.
Debt is part of business and is good, except when the compound interest repayments are in danger of exceeding even the rosiest economy growth forecasts. Then you are in the shit if you do nothing. We have been there since 2002. Not only doing nothing, but actively making it worse. Economics of the brain dead.
Does your bonus depends on other people’s debt for you to regurgitate such nonsense?
Agree wholeheartedly with this. I had been in banking and finance all my working life before I emigrated in 2007. (My reasons for doing so were a bubble in property prices and another in the value of the pound, both of these coupled with a Labour government and I got out of both markets – those who want to flame me can contemplate this first.)
I do not see how the UK can actually get out of the clag now. Even with an evil Ceauşescu-style government, it appears to me that the tipping point was reached long ago.
The debt run up is more than we, or our children, or our grandchildren can possibly pay off. And we have not even started yet.
Indeed.
This puts the oft misunderstood line ‘if it isn’t hurting, it isn’t working’ into its proper context.
They are all fucking scum anyway.
AYE SURE YOUR OUR COMRADE, PAL, BUDDY, MATE……
Yes with your generous fucking expense claims, free office, free perks and everything and getting paid to come on tv cause your an MP.
As soon as an MP or union baron or anyone of these scum claim to be the ordinary joes friend then you know they are about to pull your pants down and rape you in some way or another.
‘Cable’. New euphemism for ‘Hoon’?
No. ‘Cameron’ is the new euphemism for ‘Hoon’, because Cameron appointed a brainless Marxist (sorry, oxymoron) as his business secretary – right after the nation’s finances had been obliterated by another brainless Marxist.
What a fucking Cameron.
I would say that ‘brainless Marxist ‘ was not actually, an oxymoron. I would say that it was in fact, a tautology.
I stand, Sir, duly corrected.
I think you’ve got your oxymorons mixed up there my friend. An oxymoron is a juxtaposition of contradictory notions e.g defeaning silence so there’s no wat that brainless marxist is an oxymoron – perhaps you meant synonym.
Here’s Shakespear using oxymorons to good effect
“O heavy lightness! Serious vanity!
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!”
Oh do fuck off. You are confusing me.
Anyone who has seen “The Corporation” knows that actually Vince is right.
Even Adam Smith admitted that Capitalism can at times be immoral and can lead to even more hardship for the poor.
Look life will always pick out the weak, it’s natural selection. Alot of poor people are that way through their own actions. You can lead a horse to water…….
Cable has no idea how business really works. He has never had front line business experience – only academic posts and backroom roles (Shell). He is completely out of his depth when it comes to business.
Economists can say any old crap – and most of the time it doesn’t really matter.
Cable talks crap most of the time – but is sadly in a role where it does matter. He is a political accident waiting to happen.
I wonder how long it’s going to take before Cameron wises up and dumps him before he does some damage.
I think it has happened.
“UPDATE: Cable is rightly coming under fire for describing those in the financial services who prop up the entire economy as “spivs”. Having such an anti-business Business Secretary is disaster waiting to happen.”
I don’t think Cable is actually anti-business. He is attempting what many modern politicians do in saying what his immediate audience wants to hear and will later insist he didn’t mean it or he is being quoted out of context. He is lying to his party members and he will by lying to the rest of us later today. This is because he has no values or credible ideas on how to sort the problems out and nor does his department.
Reminds me of the first Welsh Assembly Minister for Agriculture – who was a vegetarian. She didn’t last long.
Agriculture = vegetables.
Sheep & Cows. Lamb and Beef. Big Welsh exports.
Does the EU allow us to export these?
Workers of the world unite you have nothing to lose but your chains; Walmart, B&Q, KFC, McDonalds, Starbucks, Tesco and Primark..
Wot, no Argos?
Ancient Argos had logistical problems with fish paste, olive oil delivery etc, could take up to 18 months (that’s if the ship didn’t sink), how things have improved with the centuries, ?.
‘Cable is rightly coming under fire for describing those in the financial services who prop up the entire economy as “spivs”.’
Blimey. If British capitalism is depending on the financial ‘services’ spivs to ‘prop up the entire economy’ it’s in an even worse state than I imagined. Their work isn’t that far removed from what my Uncle Tom does most of the day – hang around the betting shop trying to guess what horse will win.
Exacatly the whole of the West is fucked until we get back to basics and even then we can’t do too much without riskng war with Russia or China or India.
We are on the road to oblivion.
Oh shit. And I was just going to cut the grass. I won’t bother now.
There are people who prop up the british economy by doing useful stuff.
And other people who claim that they’re doing useful stuff by just lending money to the first group.
‘Lending money’ as in conjuring it out of thin air and then charging interest on it.
The whole thing’s an utter farce. And to be stupid enough to build an entire economy on this lunacy is the biggest farce of all.
Come over to my place (N.Korea) and watch the competition being shot.
Notice how people never posts the whole clip where he points out the unproductive fat cats milking the company dry just like the public sector bosses milk the public sector dry.
I love Gordon….
I just don’t care what the silly old fool says.
Cable has one overwhelming redeeming quality: he’s not Gordon Brown.
Yet ……..
What’s this got to do with the Pope?
He was wrong to call them spivs. He should have called them their true names – fooking, greedy crooks!
O/T England win toss and bat first
A nods as good as a wink, Knew that yesterday.
Lol
Mr Singh at the newsagent says there will be two no balls in the 12th over, followed by a wide.
Her majesty the Queen says the commonwealth games have always been dear to my heart, I however will not be attending this year along with Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, England and Belize, Walkway fucking collapsed.
So what, cricketers are crooks. Shame they weren’t practising under the weight lifting arena at the Commonwealth Games.
Did he discuss his use of the word ‘spivs’ with Christopher Murray Paul-Huhne? http://notasheepmaybeagoat.blogspot.com/2010/09/chris-huhne-and-taxation.html
Tim Lovejoy is not a legend in fact he is a loser !!!!!!!
Hels bells is a legend
Especially in Torquay
That twat is joining the shamed cocaine taking ex-BBC numpty for his ‘flagship (?)’ ITV4 ‘show’.
Saw a trailer last night. I’d be surprised if the shamed non-star was ever off the white stuff.
Its started folks old guy goes out for a walk comes back to his council house finds a family of Lithuanians have moved in.
Police say its a civil matter!
Like breaking into your house and stealing your property is a civil matter?
Only in the UK would this be allowed.
Brits second class citizens in their own country.
Welcome to the Vince Cable world..
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1314169/Pensioner-takes-dogs-walk-returns-family-living-home.html
Mr Caine, you left out the bit that the family were themselves duped into thinking they had legally rented the house, that they are now gone and that the “old guy” is back in his home.
Who says scaremongering is only for politicians!
Britons should start forming action squads as the police seem so unwilling to uphold the law.
Fucking scum, never go to the police either.
I know a police man and he is a friend but a right number of work at the same time.
Laughs at having the easiest job in the world and the odd time he has to stroll about or is on a lads night out thinks he is God with his warrant card.
Corrupt bastard would be the kindest thing i could say. Glad he is a friend rather than an enemy though.
It’s not often I read the comments (mostly pointless comments calling someone a c*nt), but most of these are rather good.
The general concensus is Vince is mad as a hatter, however he may have made a valid point that capitalism does indeed try to destroy compitition, but does not then explain why this is necessarily wrong.
I will now put on my mad Vince hat and answer that for him, and indeed take it to it’s logical conclusion that capitalism will end the world.
Capitalism is about destroying the compitition, namely success is measured by how much growth the business does, but inevitably (with a few exceptions) this growth is only possible at the expense of the compitition. One of the main exceptions is if the population increases, and therefore leads us to conclude that capitalism causes overpopulation and will ultimately lead to the demise of the planet and end the human race.
I thank you and claim my five pounds.
Schumpter said that Captialism was a system of creative destruction. Competition is the method by which both the creation and the destruction is brought about. Creation is where new ways of doing things or creating things can be brought to the market and the destruction is the result of these new methods or products being utilised. Competition is destructive per se in that something or some new method is always seeking to replace the old. The exception is where Government uses laws and regulations to prevent competition or permits force to be used to prevent competition. So competition and capitalism aren’t destructive in a self-immolating way but only respect of out dated methods, products and services: the system allows a multitude of competing actors to constantly to improve with the new and hence destroy the old.
Hopefully the Mad Hatter read Schumpter.
Ooops! missed out an e in Schumpeter. Sorry!
mad or Sad – But he is right!
It’s prats like Cable, Hughes and Huhne who seem to believe that politics = real power. They really haven’t fucking a clue. How many very useful people does Cable want to antagonise?
If they could just look beyond the rhetoric for a moment they might understand that there’s more than one way to get things done. What they actually need is a high level of co-operation with the money men. Calling these guys spivs is not going to open their wallets – most of which happen to be abroad anyway.
Cable et al are going to have to spend a lot of their time in mending and creating bridges now, directly as a result of their own stupidity. Do the beardy sandalistas seriously believe the City will simply cave in to their crass demands? Probably they do – and that’s the measure of the mountain they’re going to have to climb, willingly or not. It’s quite extraordinary that they haven’t yet understood even these simple truths.
When Cable has to go to the bankers – and he sure as hell will have to in due course – what’s his pitch? “Sorry, I know I slagged you off but I didn’t really mean it”? What a fucking moron.
Old man in a hurry and trying to forget his past.
Also looking for historical heritage but the way he is going he will be lucky to be a footnote in Liberal politics.
Silly and also sad that his vanity can make him such a disappointment in proving he cannot walk the talk.
it’s the speech Cameron and Osborne would have made but for the fact that their unreconstructed right wing nutjobs would shit themselves in anger
the bankers and spivs are going to get a kicking by Osborne and Cable very soon
It’s a brilliant piece of politics by the coalition. Dave and Nick play good cop/bad cop or vice versa. If vince says something popular then they take the credit, if it sinks then it’s just vince being vince. Through him they can pick and choose their battles. Aside from the banker bashing and bearing in mind he’s having to win over hardcore beardie weirdie activists, seemed quite restrained. A return to long term capitalism is needed before the Chinese take us from behind. A bit of strategic protectionism can be a good thing occasionally. Our economy needs fixing. Fit for purpose in the 21st century. Strong, resilient, competitive and not owned by Arabs/Chinese/Russians/etc (delete as appropriate…)
The banks had it too easy. There’s a difference between making a guest welcome and comfortable to letting them f#ck your wife. Gordon Brown was the host, the banks were the guests, and they f#cked his wife. And the economy too probably.
Or I may have that the other way around.?!
Don’t be silly. Approval doesn’t mean that they would have made the speech, it just means they’re content for Cable to stick his head above the parapet, make the speech – and get blown away.
Cable is the unwitting fall-guy in this case. Still, cabinet reshuffles are very useful.
@GuidoFawkes – i have a lot of time for your blog and i subscribe to your RSS feed but you have got it very wrong this time.
Look beyond the populist name calling and childish labels and understand the economic model Cable endorses.
He IS NOT anti-business but ANTI-MONOPOLY
Perfect competition is an unattainable economic model but getting close to it is much better than unbridled capitalism.
The efficient allocation of resources is what macro-economic models aspire to achieve. A monopolistic big corporation puts up barriers to competitors, in order to preserve their market share, which artificially raises prices – Cable references this in his speech.
Your writers’ labels of socialism etc are way off the mark. I feel they are out of their depth with economic understanding and misinforming the readers of what is otherwise a hugely enjoyable blog.
I hope such misinformation isn’t repeated in future blogs because although i respect the opinion; it is apparent that the crux of the economic matter were not correctly understood.
Otherwise, keep up the good work.
Good point well made.
Next ruddy thing you know, the bunch of loonies who comment here will be confusing President Palin with Adam Smith and chanting USA! USA! USA!
I thought he was joking. Difficult to tell as he’s such a sour faced so-and-so. Taking the piss out of Militant Bob Crow was funny though.
“An old socialist hates nothing more than other old socialists…”
Cable is known to be dreadful to deal with and prone to tantrums. He is totally unfit – in demeanour and perspective – to be the minister representing and fighting for British business interests overseas.