Vince Cable
Cameron: Cable doesn’t know what he thinks
David Cameron rapped Vince Cable over the knuckles at Prime Minister's Questions today - insisting the business secretary's claim that Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) were "Maoist and chaotic" was actually "not his view".
Cable: Drive for Local Enterprise Partnerships “Maoist and chaotic”
In what are becoming frequent bursts of candour about the government’s deeply-flawed regional policy, business secretary Vince Cable told the annual dinner of Birmingham’s Lunar Society that his plans to scrap regional development agencies and replace them with local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) have been “a little Maoist and chaotic”.
Home secretary forced to “water down” immigration speech
The Financial Times reports today that home secretary Teresa May was forced to "water down" her first major speech on immigration last week, after an intervention from Downing Street and business secretary Vince Cable. Unnamed sources within the government told the FT that May's original speech was "over the top" - with particular objections to passages which attacked the level of Tier 1 visas.
Coalition gives up on tackling bankers’ bonuses as 2010 total set to hit £7bn
It’s hardly a surprise, but the coalition has decided that it has done as much as it intends to tackle excessive bankers’ bonuses, even at a time when small businesses continue to suffer as banks refuse to lend. Most banks will not pay out their bonuses for 2010 until February 2011 but the Treasury minister Lord Sassoon’s declaration in the House of Lords this week indicates the government is satisfied that its ‘work’ on City bonuses is complete.
Police: We did not advise Cable to pull out of Oxford visit
The police have contradicted Vince Cable's claim that they advised him to pull out of a visit to Oxford University today - what would have been the first ministerial visit to Oxford since the publication of the Browne Review into higher education funding. More than 12,000 students had signed up on Facebook to protest the Browne Review this afternoon.
Problems remain for the government over pensions reform
So far we have few details, and all that has been confirmed by the Department for Work and Pensions is that there will be a green paper – the most tentative form of government policy statement – before Christmas.