Vince Cable
Vince Cable
Sir John Vincent "Vince" Cableis a British politician who was the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills from 2010 to 2015 and the Member of Parliament for Twickenham from 1997 until losing his seat in the 2015 election...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth9 May 1943
party choices tough
Taxes shouldn't be higher; they should be fairer. We must be a party that's disciplined. We must make tough choices.
mps people vote
Quite apart from the problem of the vote, it's bad for the image of Parliament that people take the trouble to come up and are not allowed to see their MP
significant-change fundamentals produce
Fundamental renegotiation is very, very unlikely to produce any significant change
kissing government giving
The government increasingly resembles somebody who is trying to give the kiss of life to a corpse.
shadow banking economic
Much of the shadow banking sector, a major contributor to the economic crisis, was also only possible because of taxhaven secrecy.
running house choices
The food in the House of Commons is fairly good. The cafe in Portcullis House is really very high quality, and you also have a choice of eating in the more traditional restaurants, the Churchill Room or the Members' Dining Room. I don't often eat in them, though, as I'm usually on the run.
skills long growth
The economy has become seriously unbalanced. Its growth has not been driven by investment or by overcoming Britain's long-standing weaknesses in investment and productivity, particularly skills. Instead, there has been a binge of debt-financed consumer spending.
responsibility abuse weak
Regulators are a backstop: they don't own banks. The governance at the top of our leading banks has been shown to be lamentably weak. No one at the top of Barclays will take responsibility for systemic abuse.
government class political
Britain is no longer one of the world's price setters. It is painful. It is a challenge to us in government to explain all that, and it is a pity that the political class is not preparing the public for it to understand how massive the problem is.
years people legacy
I fear that the rising personal bankruptcies and repossessions are the first signs of bigger problems to come and personal debt - Gordon Brown's legacy to millions of Britain's families - will hang like a millstone around the neck of the British people for years to come.
father air views
I know it sounds trite but I wanted to make a difference. Political debates with my father had been fraught because he was uncompromising and explosive but if he taught me one thing it was to air my views.
father boys views
I made friends with a boy who was a communist when I was 13 and that broadened my political views, but it also brought me into conflict with my father who was very Right-wing.
vegetables shopping wife
My late wife Olympia was Goan and I've been to India many times. I love the food there. We used to do our shopping in Southall, where you can find cheap but wonderful fruit like mangoes, vegetables and spices. I didn't do much of the cooking, as Olympia did a lot - I was the under-chef and did some of the chopping.
party years two
No, and in fact I get a bit frustrated, because I'm actually quite good at one-liners, and I've had hundreds of them over the years, and they sink without trace, and I get very frustrated. Every party conference I really work on the speeches, and I always have two or three things I'm quite proud of, and no one ever remembers them.