The Horsell's Mouth Politics, pedantry and personal interests

It's Yoda from Star Wars - no, not really, it's Vince Cable

Just a few words about Vince Cable. I watched the Chancellor’s debate the other evening and I’m not going to claim that George Osborne wiped the floor because he didn’t.

But given that he was being ganged up on by both Alistair Darling and Vince Cable, I think he came across well enough for me not to be persuaded of the case for him being replaced by Ken Clarke. The party is lucky in Phillip Hammond and Clarke to have two minds with plenty of economic experience to back George Osborne up and Osborne himself is made of far sterner stuff than I believe is immediately apparent.

Darling, on the other hand was an utter bore. His budget speech was more interesting and yes, although he did land a hit on the Conservatives over the NI part-reduction, subsequent events may  be more significant in this regard. He wasn’t nearly commanding enough for the man holding all the aces.

Vince Cable won the debate and that’s easy enough to understand. He was able to stand in the middle and come across as the voice of reason, hopping (albeir deftly) onto the “plague on both your houses” feeling that currently pervades. But did anyone notice a policy in there? At least Darling and Osborne were discussing whether or not an extra 0.5% on NI was a good thing to do – Vince was only bashing the other two. The debate may be politics; but politics isn’t necessarily the debate.

Frankly, anyone could have done what Vince did. And I think underneath it Vince doesn’t have any more in the way of policy than anyone else. Which is less forgiveable because the Lib Dems aren’t constrained by having to say things that will ever come to pass.

Standing in the middle with nothing to lose isn’t difficult (and will no doubt be repeated by Nick Clegg in the leader debates). But sooner or later, the waiverers that the Lib Dems are hoping to attract will catch on.