Pressure mounts on "Saint" Vince Cable

ninky_2

LizEstelle wrote: »

Oh yes indeed - I believe I may well be voicing, if obliquely, a fairly relevant point when I say that possibly the best Tory candidate for Chancellor of the Exchequer is being deliberately sidelined in favour of a weak nonentity because of his views on Europe...

Realising as I do that this matter does not receive too much attention in Tory election handouts, nevertheless I feel obliged to point it out!

is it because of his views on europe or because the tories are trying to 'nu' themselves up and distance themselves from the last failed tory government with all that connotes?

carolt

Not really - I think Ken Clarke's reputation survived pretty well, out of the vaguely embarrassing shambles that was John Major's govt.

ninky_2

nickmason wrote: »

So beyond highlighting a possible irony, you didn't actually have a point....
Incidentally, I wouldn't describe Ken as a rebel. If he's a rebel, what does that make James Purnell, Robin Cook, Kate Hoey?

i wouldn't vote for kate hoey if she was standing in my area. pro hunting and anti gay. no thanks.

LizEstelle

carolt wrote: »

Not really - I think Ken Clarke's reputation survived pretty well, out of the vaguely embarrassing shambles that was John Major's govt.

Vaguely?

As in totally, blatantly and irretrievably - that kind of vagueness, you mean..?

Spartacus_Mills

chucky wrote: »

i'm sure that nick 'butter wouldn't melt in his mouth' mason would be the first to highlight the fact that Osborne has made quite a few mistakes

if his intentions are as honest as he says he'll be along in a minute criticising Osborne for wanting the banks to crash, that he was against QE and when he was lambasted for his run on the pound comments.

come on Nick - these were good calls by Osborne weren't they?

First of all please do not get snidey with me, please save it for your continued tedious flamewar with Graham Devon.

The thread was started about Vince Cable and his less than convincing performance on Sunday. It is not unreasonable to address those issues especially given the favourable press Vince has had.

It is odd that you criticise someone like nick who makes reasonable points and then make a snarky comment about it but ignore the dross that infest these boards. Why do you not pick up the garbage printed by the less than cerebral Labour supporting posters, ninky and Liz Estelle for instance. Why not demand to know about the failings of a certain G Brown and A Darling. After all one got us into this mess and another is struggling to get us out of it.

A certain double standard is being applied by you here.

Spartacus_Mills

LizEstelle wrote: »

Oh yes indeed - I believe I may well be voicing, if obliquely, a fairly relevant point when I say that possibly the best Tory candidate for Chancellor of the Exchequer is being deliberately sidelined in favour of a weak nonentity because of his views on Europe...

Realising as I do that this matter does not receive too much attention in Tory election handouts, nevertheless I feel obliged to point it out!

How is Ken Clarke being deliberately sidelined, except in your fevered imagination, given that he only agreed to come back into the shadow cabinet relatively recently and Osborne was already in the Shadow Chancellors role so there was no vacancy. Gordon Brown dropped the Shadow Shadow Chancellor line 18 months ago as it was not working.

If anyone is being sidelined it is Liam Byrne (who sometimes gets to play in the sandpit) who seems to be giving way to Ed Miliband on matters of finance. A year ago Byrne was regularly on debating with the Lib Dems and Tories on finance. In recent times, such as the debate last week on C4 and BBC News, the Tories put up Phil Hammond, we put up Jeremy Browne and Ed Davey respectively, Labour put up the Climate Change Secretary.

Spartacus_Mills

thor wrote: »

The liberals know that they have the luxury of their policies never being put to the test so they can say what they like.

The Liberal Democrats (the Liberals are another mob - sorry but as a supporter I get a little anal about that) have a great chance of having some of the policies tested if we get into a coalition with either the Tories or Labour. Therefore we do deserve more air time at this election and do need greater scrutiny.

I thought Nick was okay with Paxman last night, not great but he did not crash and burn either.