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Name: Vince Cable
Field:
Politician
Productions:
An Audience With Vince Cable
After Dinner Speaker Biography: Dr Vince Cable MP is the oracle, the nation’s favourite guru for the recession. The Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman has risen above party politics. Alan Duncan, the Tory business spokesman, describes him as the “holy grail”. Even Jeremy Paxman treats him with respect.
While Gordon Brown was declaring the end of boom and bust and David Cameron was sledging with huskies, Dr Cable, a former chief economist at Shell, was foretelling dark times. For years he was ridiculed for suggesting that property prices were too high, that household debt was out of control and that the banking system was fundamentally flawed. But now everyone wants to hear his prophecies.
He seems mildly embarrassed to have done so well, politically, out of the downturn. “Most people are very confused about what’s going on. I’ve been willing to take a clear line on what should be done. I’m not sure that’s heroic, but on the basic judgments we have been right.”
Like John Sergeant, with whom he shares a passion for ballroom dancing, he has captured voters’ hearts by being solid rather than flashy. “I dream of owning the latest Aston Martin,” he says. “But in fact I drive a boring Vauxhall.”
"This is Vincent Cable's moment. He has shown himself to be one of the
classiest politicians in the Commons. “
(Leading article, the Guardian).
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