Vince Cable stood, and was elected in Twickenham, on a manifesto commitment to hold an In/Out referendum on Europe yet today he will say such a ballot will “weaken Britain’s ability to deliver more reform inside the EU”. He is planning on slamming the Tories for encouraging “uncertainty” with a vote. Another smashed LibDem promise. And they wonder why everybody hates them…

Vince Cable has gone off Coalition message during his LibDem party conference speech, not wasting the opportunity to twist the knife into Andrew Mitchell. Cable’s speech was almost identical to the copy given out to hacks by LibDem press shortly before, except for one cutting line:

“I’m told jokes about social class are not good for the Coalition, but as a mere pleb I couldn’t resist it”. 

With friends like these…

Business Secretary and obvious shoo-in for the next LibDem leader Vince Cable is on the lookout for a new spinner. His department is advertising for new comms man and are offering a generous £80,000 per year to the successful candidate. Apparently “personal credibility, political nous and sound judgement will be essential“. Someone should tell Vince…

Just days after Nick Clegg flew the rainbow flag and declared a “new era of pride” in Britain, Vince Cable has announced that he considers changing the law to allow gay marriage “unnecessary“. Despite committing to voting for the government’s proposals, Vince told a constituent: “on the issue of same-sex marriage, my own personal view is that the status quo is fine, with same-sex couples being able to commit in a civil partnership.” Free vote for the Tories, whipped for the LibDems…

Vince Cable consistently counter-attacks whenever the Tory right bangs on about an EU referendum. Following Dave’s bewildering Sunday Telegraph piece at the weekend, Cable said that talk of a referendum was “horribly irrelevant“. Odd then that back in 2007 before the Eurozone meltdown got going Vince was rather more positive about the idea:

“We see a referendum as an opportunity to have a proper debate about the future of Britain’s relationship with the EU. No-one under the age of fifty – including the current Foreign Secretary – has had a say on Britain’s membership of the EU. An in-out referendum would give people a vote on the broad issue. We trust the people to make a decision about whether we should stay in or get out. We must flush our opponents out of their bunkers and challenge them to make clear their positions on this fundamental issue for the future of our country.”

From a “fundamental issue” to “horribly irrelevant” in just a few years. A LibDem abandoning their principles once they’ve entered the corridors of power – fancy that…

See also: Cable Flip-Flops, Guy News : Cable’s Flip-Flop Smackdown

Credit where credit is due: Chuka may not be so hot on polling, but he has ruined Vince Cable’s week. The Social Market Foundation website has a heavy trail for Cable’s speech tomorrow lunchtime on reforming executive pay. So heavy that you might wonder why such an announcement was not being made to Parliament first. Well now it will have to be, as Cable’s shadow has been granted an Urgent Question forcing the Business Secretary to bring the announcement forward to this afternoon and give it to the proper audience – parliament. There goes the grid…

Ed Balls told the Fabians that one of his most precious material belongings is a first edition of a Keynes pamphlet, “The Economic Consequences of Mr Churchill”. Keynesianism is the chosen intellectual mantle that Balls is trying to use with the Labour base to justify pivoting towards the voters and away from union demands for ever more deficit spending and borrowing. Already the Labour left are screaming “sell-out“.

Earlier this year Vince Cable argued that Keynes would not support the demands of latter day über-Keynesians. Cable reminds us that the politicisation of Keynes as a heavy spender is misplaced because Keynes was a liberal, not a socialist and he was writing at a time when the level of state spending in the economy amounted to half of today’s level. Keynes was not a friend of socialism, his policies were intended to save capitalism. Would Keynes have believed government deficit spending at twice the share of GDP as in the 1930s was desirable or sustainable? Cable thinks not, does Balls?

The proof will be in the policy pudding, Labour politicians reflexively oppose every reduction in welfare spending, they are conditioned to do no other. Even when senior Labour politicians know it is electorally toxic, for example opposing the £26,000 housing benefit cap, the “progressive” logic of maximum welfarism that grips their activists brooks no reason. Ed Balls can’t command credibility until he accepts that the deficit is a problem that has to be addressed rather than just acknowledged in theory. In interviews he now says vaguely that he wants to bring down the deficit, yet he is on the record during the Labour leadership election, where he ran from the left, as opposing even Alistair Darling’s modest deficit reduction proposals. Balls ideologically opposes as “too fast, too far” spending restraint by the Coalition. It is hard to believe that Balls isn’t now repositioning towards the centre again for purely electoral reasons, rather than some Damascene rejection of deficit denial.

When doorstepped this morning, Vince Cable ruled out resigning saying: ”I’m just getting on with my job as I always do.” So he limps on to fight, and lose, another day, but that’s not to say he hasn’t been banging his steel mug against the bars of his cell this weekend. With Clegg initially saying he was behind the national interest, Cable’s voice on the outside, also known as the spectacularly irritating Matthew Oakeshott, was deployed to stir things up.

The Observer reported: “One of Vince Cable’s closest allies, Lord Oakeshott, has refused to rule out a possible resignation by the business secretary. Cable’s comrade Will Hutton had clearly had a direct earful too: “He will speak out aggressively against Cameron’s veto; his decision is whether to resign to do so or say so in office, courting his sacking.” Will Hutton being wrong about something comes as no surprise, but him making something up would. Yet again Cable has clearly threatened that often cited nuclear bomb, yet failed to push the button. When push comes to shove, he’s yellow to his core…

According to Will Hutton in the Observer, after being ignored in Cabinet, Cable was “furious when he learned what had happened. He will speak out aggressively against Cameron’s veto; his decision is whether to resign to do so or say so in office, courting his sacking.”

See ya, mind the door on the way out…

UPDATE: Vince’s office now saying he has no intention of resigning.

So latest denial means Hutton's article is mistaken or Cable is telling different things to different people. He wouldn't do that would he?—
Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) December 11, 2011