# Vince Cable

Sir John Vincent Cable PC MP (born 9 May 1943) is a former British Liberal Democrat politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Twickenham from 1997 until 2015, and from 2017 until 2019. He was the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills from 2010 to 2015. He has been called 'The Sage of Twickenham'.

## Quotes
### 2007

* The House has noticed the Prime Minister's remarkable transformation in the past few weeks from Stalin to Mr. Bean, creating chaos out of order, rather than order out of chaos.
** House of Commons' Hansard, 28 November 2007.

### 2008

* These masters of the universe must be tamed in the interests of the ordinary families whose jobs and livelihoods are being put at risk... The Tories won't say anything about the current crisis as they are completely in the pockets of the hedge funds.
** Comment's on hedge funds, 17 September 2008.

### 2009

* The big, looming, monetary issue is "quantitative easing": that is, printing money. What happens is that the government borrows from the Bank of England, not from the markets. It expands the money supply to keep the economy going and also to counter deflation without simultaneously increasing government debt. The attractions are obvious, as are the dangers. The Robert Mugabe school of economics provides a salutary warning about uncontrolled monetary expansion in generating hyper-inflation. The road to Harare is not as long as we might hope. Monetary easing may prove to be necessary but will have to be managed with great skill and care: Too little easing and the crisis drags on – as in Japan. If there is too much, the authorities face the messy task of mopping-up liquidity by issuing bonds which add to the burden of borrowing or else we lurch back from deflation to inflation. So interest rates may soon become yesterday's story.
** "Confiscating savings from the poor is stupid and cruel". The Independent. 8 January 2009.

### 2010

* We're being held to ransom by these pinstripe Scargills...
** Said about bankers during the chancellors debate on 29 March 2010.
* We didn't break a promise. We made a commitment in our manifesto, we didn't win the election. We then entered into a coalition agreement, and it's the coalition agreement that is binding upon us and which I'm trying to honour,
** Lib Dems broke no tuition fee promise - Vince Cable, BBC News, 21 November 2010

### 2011

* I have declared war on Mr Murdoch and I think we are going to win.
** Vince Cable's Murdoch gaffe 'to cost £300,000', BBC News, 18 February 2011

### 2012

* The destruction of the British building society movement – or much of it – in the two decades after the late 1980s … was one of the great acts of economic vandalism in modern times. And the commercial banks largely abandoned locally based relationship banking in the decade before the recent financial crisis. There is now no institutional structure in place to offer countercyclical lending, particularly small and medium sized businesses, in place of the banks.
** Comments on demutualisation of Building Societies, 18 June 2012.

### 2013

* [Regarding an EU referendum], it's a distraction. It's a serious distraction. We are recovering from the worst economic crisis for the best part of a century. The last thing we need now is massive levels of uncertainty in the business community.
** Cameron and Cable clash over EU referendum vote BBC News (1 July 2013)
* [London] is becoming a giant suction machine draining the life out of the rest of the country
** London draining life out of rest of country - Vince Cable, BBC News, 19 December 2013

### 2017

* We must fight for the British public to have a final say on the government's deal with a chance to stay in the EU if the deal is not good enough. To achieve this, we will need to work with like-minded people in other parties.
** Lib Dem leadership: Norman Lamb out of the race BBC News (22 June 2017)
* Some of the brightest and most interesting people in British politics recently have been relatively old,
** The Vince Cable story: Profile of new Lib Dem leader, BBC News, 20 July 2017
* [I am] struck by the heavily Remain sentiment in colleges and schools, and the heavily Brexit mood of church-hall meetings packed with retired people
** Vince Cable: Young 'shafted' over Brexit, BBC News, 6 August 2017
* The old have comprehensively shafted the young
** Vince Cable: Young 'shafted' over Brexit, BBC News, 6 August 2017
* We haven't yet heard about 'Brexit jihadis' but there is an undercurrent of violence in the language which is troubling.
** Vince Cable: Young 'shafted' over Brexit, BBC News, 6 August 2017
* Growing inequality is linked to poor economic performance, greater instability, more social tension, insecurity and unhappiness.
** Vince Cable warns inherited wealth is fuelling inequality, BBC News, 6 September 2017
* We are the party of remain. We believe membership of the EU is in our country's interest.
** Lib Dem conference: Cable urges 'exit from Brexit' vote BBC News (16 September 2017)
* No-one has come up with a plausible explanation about how leaving [the EU] will make us better off than we are inside. Nobody has come up with a plausible explanation about how this process can be managed in a way that does not cause enormous cost and enormous damage.
** Lib Dem conference: Cable urges 'exit from Brexit' vote BBC News (16 September 2017)
* On his central point, the £350m a week, this is a lie. He knows it is a lie and endlessly repeating it does not make it the truth.
** Boris Johnson insists he is 'all behind' May over Brexit BBC News (16 September 2017)
* I love slightly dangerous things. High energy, edgy things. I learned to ski when I was 63, which is a bit hazardous. But I go off once a year to the place where the Russian mafia assemble in the Alps, and go out on the slopes. I've got into red runs. One of my unfulfilled life ambitions is to do serious black runs. So, you know, a bit of danger, a bit of speed.
** Vince Cable: I love skiing and driving fast cars, BBC News, 17 September 2017
* In a Britain increasingly dominated by extremists and ideologues, I want us to fill the huge gap in the centre of British politics.
** Vince Cable: I can lead Lib Dems back to power, BBC News, 19 September 2017
* There is another word for that - masochism. It isn't illegal. I am told some people pay good money to indulge in it. But unlike masochists, the Brexit ideologues usually envisage someone else bearing the pain. And that pain will mainly be felt by young people who overwhelmingly voted to Remain.
** Vince Cable: I can lead Lib Dems back to power, BBC News, 19 September 2017

### 2018

* nostalgia for a world where passports were blue, faces were white and the map was coloured imperial pink
** Sir Vince Cable denies branding older Brexit voters racist, BBC News, 12 March 2018
* [There is a] fundamental economic issue of whether any company which uses data from individuals to make money should pay the owner of that data for its use... The new oil is data. Data is the raw material which drives these firms and it is control of data which gives them an advantage over competitors
** Firms should pay for people's data, says Vince Cable, BBC News, 19 April 2018
* I think the interesting thing about Windrush is that perhaps for the first time the public opinion has been ahead of the politicians in seeing that there is a terrible injustice here and it should not be allowed to pass.
** Sir Vince Cable: Governments assume public are 'pretty bigoted', BBC News, 29 April 2018
* The immediate preoccupation is to work with people in other parties to stop Brexit, but in the longer term there may well be realignment because of the deep splits in the parties and I want my party to be at the centre of it.
** Sir Vince Cable 'made mistake' in missing Brexit vote, BBC News, 22 July 2018
* Liberal democracy itself is under threat notably in the USA, in eastern Europe and perhaps here. Authoritarians and extremists of both right and left are on the march.
** Vince Cable could stand down as Lib Dem leader next year, BBC News, 7 September 2018
* I think it's very clear that people in Scotland, as in other parts of the United Kingdom, don't want Brexit to happen. They want to stop it and it can be stopped, and the best mechanism for stopping it is to have a people's vote. I think momentum is building up behind that and I'm trying to work with people in other parties to make sure it happens.
** Vince Cable proposes new hurdle to independence, BBC News, 13 September 2018
* Whether you see yourself as a liberal, social democrat, progressive, or centrist there is a home for you here, particularly as we fight Brexit together
** Lib Dems: Cable says party offers home to Brexit opponents BBC News (14 September 2018)
* We're absolutely solid that we need to vote against Brexit and stop it.
** Lib Dems will oppose May's Chequers plan - Cable, BBC News, 16 September 2018
* Brexit is not inevitable - it can and it must be stopped,
** Sir Vince Cable: Brexit not inevitable and must be stopped, BBC News, 18 September 2018
* We are absolutely solid that we need to vote against Brexit and stop it
** Six things we learned from the Lib Dem conference BBC News (18 September 2018)
* Are we going to make a terrible mistake, leaving behind our influence in Europe's most successful peace project and the world's biggest marketplace?
** UK can 'turn a corner' if MPs back Brexit deal, says May BBC News (31 December 2018)

### 2019

* We have long argued it is the right and logical thing to do for the people to have the final say on Brexit.
** Labour prepared to back new Brexit referendum BBC News (25 February 2019)
* [We should] go back to the people [with another referendum]
** EU elections: Cable says Remain parties 'shouldn't be squabbling', BBC News, 14 May 2019
* We need a proper referendum that will come to a resolution on the issue, with remain on the ballot paper.
** Brexit: Theresa May plans 'bold offer' to get support for deal BBC News (19 May 2019)
* [Young people felt their future had been] taken away from them by a very narrow majority
** European elections 2019: Remainers are angry too, says Vince Cable, BBC News, 20 May 2019
* I understand how angry people are on both sides. There are some angry Leavers and there are some very angry Remainers too, particularly young people who feel their future has been taken away from them on the basis of a very narrow majority, where a significant majority of the electorate did not vote and many young people did not get an opportunity to vote.
** European elections 2019: Remainers are angry too, says Vince Cable, BBC News, 20 May 2019
* I'm afraid the referendum resolved nothing and we do have to go back to the people and ask if what is now on offer is what they really voted for. We have got completely different views about what Brexit actually means. What has emerged over the last three years is that the prospectus on which the Leave vote was achieved was based on a tissue of lies to be frank.
** European elections 2019: Remainers are angry too, says Vince Cable, BBC News, 20 May 2019
* Brexit will make us poorer and risks breaking up our United Kingdom. We must stop it and we will.
** Lib Dems pledge to cancel Brexit if they win general election BBC News (16 September 2019)

## About

* The House has noticed his remarkable transformation in the past few weeks from national treasure to Treasury poodle.
** Harriet Harman
** House of Commons' Hansard, 22 June 2010
* We have to be careful of Vince Cable, he's extremely sharp and clever. In fact, he's almost as sharp and clever as he thinks he is.
** An anonymous Conservative aid quoted on Newsnight.

## External links

* Dr Vincent Cable MP official site
* Vincent Cable MP official Liberal Democrats profile
* Hansard record of Vincent Cable