The degree of leverage now being reversed is staggering, and the underlying global imbalances - notably between the savers and the spenders - will require long and painful adjustment. Vince Cable More Quotes by Vince Cable More Quotes From Vince Cable Our workforce is very co-operative, very flexible, easy to work with and one of the big selling points. The idea that Britain is still back in the labour market of the '70s is utterly bizarre. Vince Cable selling easy ideas 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. Vince Cable abuse responsibility weak 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. Vince Cable growth skills long Much of the shadow banking sector, a major contributor to the economic crisis, was also only possible because of taxhaven secrecy. Vince Cable economic banking shadow Taxes shouldn't be higher; they should be fairer. We must be a party that's disciplined. We must make tough choices. Vince Cable tough party choices The real problem at the moment is that the banks - because of their existing culture, which is frankly anti-business, obsession with short-term trading profits, not focusing on the long term - are throttling the recovery of British industry. Vince Cable recovery real long 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. Vince Cable mps vote people The House has noticed the Prime Minister's remarkable transformation in the past few weeks, from Stalin to Mr. Bean. Vince Cable transformation house past There was, of course, a global financial crisis. But our Labour predecessors left Britain exceptionally vulnerable and damaged: more personal debt than any other major economy; a dangerously inflated property bubble; and a bloated banking sector behaving as masters, not the servants of the people. Vince Cable banking-crisis debt people When Gordon Brown becomes prime minister, the balance sheet that reflects his economic stewardship could look very sickly indeed. He could become Labour's biggest liability, not its most marketable asset. Vince Cable stewardship balance looks The two policies that Ken Clarke is most famous for are his opposition to the Iraq war and being a very defensible and quite courageous pro-European. These are both policies he shares with us. Vince Cable iraq war two You can't win with some people. If you're not in government, you're criticised for being not serious. If you are in government, you're criticised for wanting power. That's the Labour party's line of attack, and it's a bit ridiculous. Vince Cable party government winning Fundamental renegotiation is very, very unlikely to produce any significant change Vince Cable unlikely significant-change fundamentals The Tories are now the party of rural areas and Labour essentially is in the big cities Vince Cable rural-areas party cities My college, Fitzwilliam, was pretty good but unfashionable and I lived in digs so I was not part of the cloistered 'old college' environment, which frankly was a bit intimidating. But I worked hard and settled in by exploring politics and girls. Vince Cable environment girl college Many of our problems are home-grown. Gordon Brown regularly advised the rest of the world to follow his British model of growth. But the model was flawed. It led to the highest level of household debt in relation to income in the world. Vince Cable income growth home According to the papers, I'm miserable, alienated, and on the brink of resignation. But that's simply not where I am. Vince Cable resignation miserable paper Small- and medium-sized businesses need access to a diverse range of finance options, including non-bank lending. These new forms of finance are still small in scale today but they should, over time, bring additional choice and greater competition to the lending market. Vince Cable competition choices needs On banks, I make no apology for attacking spivs and gamblers who did more harm to the British economy than Bob Crow could achieve in his wildest Trotskyite fantasies, while paying themselves outrageous bonuses underwritten by the taxpayer. There is much public anger about banks and it is well deserved. Vince Cable crow apology anger Well, as I said, you know the issue of Greek debt, they've grasped the principle of debt reduction. I think most people would argue that probably more needs to be done on that front, and they've just begun to take the first steps to accepting that there's going to have to be much closer economic integration in Europe. Vince Cable issues europe thinking
