Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Keeping the Tories honest
In this morning's Daily Mail, Vince Cable sets out a key reason why many of us are biting our tongue and working with the Tories in Government. It is because we are moderating their worst excesses, whilst at the same time putting into effect key Liberal Democrat policies such as taking 50,000 Welsh workers out of tax and linking pensions to earnings.
We should not overlook the fact either that one of Nick Clegg's promises in the last election was that in the event of a hung Parliament we would work with the largest party. Nor should we forget that Labour did not have the numbers nor were they interested in an alternative coalition. The alternative would have been a minority Tory Government, an early General Election and then a unrestrained Tory majority.
In an interview with BBC Scotland: Mr Cable boasted that he was part of the ‘very strong anti-Tory aggressive tradition in Scottish politics’ when he ‘led and was active in Labour politics in Scotland in the early Seventies’.
He said: ‘I very much understand the tradition and I do understand the kind of revulsion that people had, from some of the policies of the 1980s and the poll tax and the massive run-down of the manufacturing industry.
‘What we have done in this government is stopped a Conservative government doing many of those things that people in Scotland found offensive, and we have concentrated, for example, in lifting low-earners out of tax, not cutting taxes for the very wealthy.’
It is an important point and one that should not be lost in Labour's attempt to re-write history.
We should not overlook the fact either that one of Nick Clegg's promises in the last election was that in the event of a hung Parliament we would work with the largest party. Nor should we forget that Labour did not have the numbers nor were they interested in an alternative coalition. The alternative would have been a minority Tory Government, an early General Election and then a unrestrained Tory majority.
In an interview with BBC Scotland: Mr Cable boasted that he was part of the ‘very strong anti-Tory aggressive tradition in Scottish politics’ when he ‘led and was active in Labour politics in Scotland in the early Seventies’.
He said: ‘I very much understand the tradition and I do understand the kind of revulsion that people had, from some of the policies of the 1980s and the poll tax and the massive run-down of the manufacturing industry.
‘What we have done in this government is stopped a Conservative government doing many of those things that people in Scotland found offensive, and we have concentrated, for example, in lifting low-earners out of tax, not cutting taxes for the very wealthy.’
It is an important point and one that should not be lost in Labour's attempt to re-write history.
