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Vince Cable

On 16 May 2009 at 4:00pm Jon wrote:

Just saw Vince Cable on Lewes High Street. What a hero.

On 17 May 2009 at 3:28am Ignorant wrote:

What has he done to deserve my 5 minutes of attention and appreciation?

On 17 May 2009 at 3:02pm Annette Curtin-Twitcher wrote:

Warned of the credit crunch arriving and tipping the global economy into recession long before it happened. Unusually far-sighted for a politician, and a very clever man imo.

On 18 May 2009 at 6:55pm lewestrousers wrote:

loads of people warned about the credit crunch before VC, but hes done well out of the publicity. how did he do in the expenses, hes not on the BBc naughty MP list.:
7 libs
34 tories
43 Labour
proportionally the libs come out worse, with Tories claiming the most (moats and all) and Labour looking the worst

On 19 May 2009 at 9:37am Mystic Mog wrote:

One of the few MPs who is qualified to talk about the economy and one of the only MPs to challenge the government about the credit crunch before it happened. He was a financier at Shell before being an MP has practical experience. In contrast Gordon Brown is an ex journalist / career politicain and Darling is a lawyer. I know who I would entrust our economy to.

On 19 May 2009 at 10:28am Treasury Civil Servant wrote:

Mystic Mog - They do have economics and financial experts advising them at the Treasury, you know. You don't think they work it all out themselves, do you? Would you insist that the Health Secretary should be a doctor, the Education Secretary a teacher, the Justice Secretary a lawyer, the Housing Minister a landlord etc etc?

On 19 May 2009 at 10:48am Mystic Mog wrote:

Obviously they have many advisors. However the decisions are ultimately made by the ministers. If their experience is alien to their portfolio it makes the minister more reliant upon those experts without having the ability to properly question their advice or select good advisors. Not all experts are right.
The DTI (and its successors) is / was a great example of how successive minister have shown that their lack of knowledge has helped diminish UK industry. I work in UK manufacturing and have seen how DTI ministers without any business experience have caused problems and wasted money.
If a health minister were to be a doctor then that might be preferable to lawyer. Obviously it depends upon the individual, however, those examples that you site are ones that we all have some experience as patients, parents, tenants or pupils. However with the economy most of us have little direct experience in the machinations of banking, tax etc. So when it comes to those portfolios like the treasury and business, direct experience is invaluable.