Vince Cable speech as-it-happened
11:26 – There comes a day in each conference season when Vince Cable makes his speech, and that is usually the best day at conference. Here's his offer from last year in which he demanded "responsible" capitalism and drove the business press into an unseemly frenzy. It wasn't a touch on his 2010 offering though, which said "capitalism takes no prisoners and kills competition where it can." Today, the business secretary is under even more pressure to appear left-wing, as he tries to cement his position as leader-in-waiting when the Lib Dems inevitably jettison Nick Clegg. the party will need to put on its best progressive make-up to seduce Ed Miliband and Cable's the man best-placed to do it. Forgive the visual image. The speech is at 12:20 BST (it is still sumertime apparently) and in the build up I'll bring you details of the business secretary's big British Bank announcement and the reaction to it.
12:00 – There is a cosy narrative to Cable's speech today. With all his previous attacks on capitalism and the need to protect it from itself, he is now going to announce a state-owned bank. That plays perfectly into his self-branding. it is businesslike, but recognising the need for state action. Here's our news story on the bank, which will cost £1 billion in those mythical 'departmental underspends'.
12:05 – The reaction to it has been cautious, but broadly optimistic. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber: "The new state investment bank should provide much needed support for businesses to grow and create jobs. It’s a shame that so many businesses have gone to the wall in the two years it’s taken the government to agree to the scheme. Ministers claim that a £1 billion investment could support £10 billion of business lending. But with the UK trapped in double dip recession, this is nowhere near enough to deal with the scale of our economic crisis. If this bank is as good as ministers claim it will be, they should give it the backing it deserves and vastly increase its funds. Multiplying the government’s stake tenfold could support £100 billion of additional lending. This is the level of support businesses really need."
12:07 – Labour's response was a bit more 'I thought of that first'. Here's shadow business secretary, the dashing Chuka Umunna: "Labour has led calls for a British Investment Bank since last year. It is crucial that this business bank is more than merely a re-badging of existing schemes but that it gets credit to profitable firms that can't access it after the failure of ministers' Project Merlin and credit easing schemes to do so. It is far from clear whether ministers want to create the kind of institution which is needed."
12:19 – Just a minute or so to go. Jo Swinson, chair of the federal policy committee, is currently being extremely tedious from the stage and receiving something akin to a polite response. Lib Dems generally don't get much more critical or enthusiastic than the 'polite response' level.
12:20 – the embargo on the speech has broken, even if Vince hasn't started talking, so I'll link to it here so you can follow along as he talks, if that's the way you like doing these things.
12:24 – Delegates have overwhelmingly voted against a motion that would insist on the government being fairer to the poor when cutting the deficit.
12:26 – Cable gets up. Here's the speech in full.
12:27 – He starts by praising Nick Clegg as the man who realised national government was needed. He says Lib Dem ministers work well together as a team but the problems they face go above the limitations of one party so he makes sure he has "good communications" with politicians across the spectrum. That reference to his texts with Ed Miliband raises a laugh from the audience. He then pretends to get a call and says "please Ed, not now".
12:29 – Cable jokes of his pride when Tory voters said he was the man they most wanted ejected from the Cabinet – except he's now been replaced by two "Conservative colleagues".
12:30 – Cable looks well. He still has some summer tan, and he seems ever-so-slightly more enthusiastic than usual. Mildly upbeat. he launches into a not-entirely-convincing summary of what the coalition has done to keep Britain working. "We've had some real successes" – such as saving Vauxhall jobs. There are some commons threads to all this, he says. "One is an understanding that markets fail and government should intervene to protect enterprise". the other is the threat of short-termism.
12:32 – Cable says many leading banks are actually '"anti-business… especially small business".
12:33 – Without Lib Dems in government, the Vickers banking report wouldn't have happened, Cable says. "This is no time for the state to be stepping back," he adds and then presents the British business bank. He structures the bank announcement along the lines I mentioned – as if it was foreshadowed by his speeches of the last two years. He is patting himself on the back a little and bolstering his personal brand.
12:35 – Cable references his capitalism speech, citing rows such as bankers bonuses and phone-hacking as highlights of the dangers of the private sector. he says Lib Dems are fighting for shareholder pay, strengthening environmental' legislation, increasing the number of women in boardrooms and have "seen off the head bangers who think the idea of sacking someone is some kind of aphrodisiac".
12:38. Good little slogan there. Cable calls tax havens "sunny places for shady people".
12:39 – Cable says the mansion tax works because the super rich can't move a mansion overseas. He gets a strong round of applause. Now he turns on the left. He says critics want them to cut more slowly. But they have already slowed down and stretched the process from four to six years. Ed Ball's plan is just to cut in seven years – one extra. Those on the right just want supply-side reform. Cable says he values entrepreneurs, but no "push on the supply side can succeed without the pull of demand".
12:41 – Cable says he won't go back on fiscal discipline, but we need more demand. He promises houses will start being built this month. He sounds as passionate as I've ever heard him (not that passionate) when he says: "What we need is an aggressive programme of house building."
12:44 – He warns of a downward escalator, where cuts mean no demand and slower growth and you can't pay back the deficit anyway. That leads to "political oblivion and we won't let that happen".
12:45 – Cable is talking about Labour. It has given up on financial discipline, civil liberties or a principled foreign policy. Interesting collection of issues. "They've scarcely begun the long march down from that". the business secretary turns on Tories, who most Lib Dem MPs will stand against. "I don't know what Cameron and Boris got up to in Eton" he says, before saying he was warned not to make class jokes – a reference to Andrew Mitchell. "I couldn't resist it," he adds, a twinkle in his eye.
12:45 – Cable is talking about Labour. It has given up on financial discipline, civil liberties or a principled foreign policy. Interesting collection of issues. "They've scarcely begun the long march down from that". the business secretary turns on Tories, who most Lib Dem MPs will stand against. "I don't know what Cameron and Boris got up to in Eton" he says, before saying he was warned not to make class jokes – a reference to Andrew Mitchell. "I couldn't resist it," he adds, a twinkle in his eye.
12:47 – We must fight the next election as a "totally independent" party. he adds: "I don't believe the British people will want to trust the government to one party next time… That next government must have Liberal Democrats at its heart". Very interesting. That's about as explicit a leadership bid as you could ask for. The crowds rise as they applaud, giving Vince a standing ovation.
12:49 – Ok, that's your lot for now. We'll have news and analysis up in a moment. See you tomorrow for more from the conference.
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