InVinceCable We Trust

The title of this post is taken directly from an article in today’s Times. It appears that online voters are representative of the 1.7m viewers of the Chancellors’ Debate given that he won the debate and accrued mostly positive ratings from the traditional media too (see our last post about the view from the US press).

However, for some reason best known to the editor of the Times article, they cut a quote from a Tweet by business and tech journalist @chrisgreen. See if you can spot the difference!

As quoted in the Times:

I’m a paid-up card-carrying member of the Conservatives. Vince Cable for Chancellor #askthechancellors.

Original Tweet:

I’m a paid-up card-carrying member of the Conservatives, but even I have to say: Vince Cable for Chancellor #invincecable #askthechancellors

Oh well, guess we’ll have to keep plugging away until the traditional media takes note.

Later today, the Twittersphere took some time to poke fun at the leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron, who reportedly complained about the clapping from the audience to contributions from Dr. Cable.

Wow! Did he really want Krishnan to stop people clapping, to stop them from showing their appreciation? David, that’s kinda what an audience is for… kinda what they do. And this story also made the Times today: “Tories take fright from viewers’ reaction to Vince Cable in debate“.

View post on its own with option to comment

Hello all,

I’m back from my brief trip to Berlin and waiting for the Man United v Bayern Munich game to finish on Five Live before I load up 4OD and catch up on the last night’s Chancellors Debate on Channel. From what I caught on Newsnight (the hotel had BBC2) last night and BBC breakfast (the hotel had BBC1) this morning, it seems that Vince performed strongly and was well-received by the audience.

Given that I’ve been abroad it seems apt to give a brief roundup of what the international media of thought of Vince’s performance.

New York Times – report

“Mr Cable would usually not matter much in this sort of debate. But recent opinion polls show that the Tories’ lead is narrowing so much that a hung parliament… is a real possibility. If one were to occur, the Liberal Democrats would be in a strong position to influence the debate. There is even some speculation, denied by Labour, that if it were to remain in power with a weak or nonexistent majority, Mr Cable could be the chancellor.”

Wall Street journal – live blog

“Cable’s playing it beautifully so far – the People’s Vince. Darling and/or Osborne needs to take him on and challenge his claims or he’ll run away with the show.”

“It’s turning into a bit of a love in, which Cable calls to a halt, to much laughter. Vince looks like he’s running the programme! As though he’s the host!”

The quotes are the best bits from what appears to be a bit of snarky journalism. There’s a few barbs directed to validity of Vince’s claims that he forewarned the government of financial crisis (which we  all know he did) and a rather pompous “translation” of Cable’s summing up. All in good fun though!

Businessweek – news article

“It was Cable, from the minority Liberal Democrats, who won most applause from the studio audience.” Hooray! According the report Vince won five rounds of applause to Darling’s one and Osborne’s zero.

Ending on a somewhat sober note “The man who shone in last night’s debate, Vince Cable, is unlikely to get the job”.

Your comments please!

Chris

View post on its own with option to comment

As Channel 4’s live TV debate will prove: In Vince Cable We Trust

As the candidates for the UK’s next chancellor of the exchequer go head-to-head live on Channel 4 tonight, the grassroots InVinceCable We Trust campaign will gather more pace as Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman Vince Cable challenges the grasp of economics of both Alistair Darling and George Osborne.

The idea of Vince Cable as the best candidate for chancellor is gaining widespread public support. In a survey conducted last week by MSN Money, 23% of respondents felt that Vince Cable would make the best chancellor (second only to Richard Branson with 29%). Alistair Darling and George Osborne received 7% and 8% of the vote respectively.

The InVinceCable We Trust campaign is evidence of single issue campaigning made possible by the emergence of the social web. The campaign has a single focus, promoting the view that Vince Cable is the politician most qualified to be chancellor of the exchequer following the election.

The campaign is remarkable in many respects. It is a grass roots pressure group that is not affiliated with any political party; it has no endorsement from Vince Cable or the Liberal Democrats. The campaigners have neither asked nor volunteered any political affiliations to each other. Most remarkable of all, several of the core team managing the campaign have never met. Meetings are held use Skype conference facility and agendas and minutes are published on a wiki site. This is no ‘virtual organisation’ however, it is in the process of incorporating as “We The People”, which will allow the campaign to raise funds and structure its own governance.

The campaign is the brainchild of marketing communications professionals Philip Sheldrake and Mark Pinsent and the main activists came together through word of mouth – much of it on-line. They have been spreading the word on-line for several weeks.

Note to Editors: Further details about the campaign are available at the website. Details of the core team are available at http://invincecable.wikispaces.com.

For further information contact: Rob Brown +44 (0)7900 053109 rob@invincecable.org.uk @RobBrown

Mark Pinsent +44 (0)7872 589389 mark@invincecable.org.uk @MarkPinsent

Philip Sheldrake +44 (0)7715 488759 philip@invincecable.org.uk @Sheldrake and via @invincecable

View post on its own with option to comment

With a few hours to spare before Match of The Day begins, what better task is there than logging onto the Daily Telegraph website and delving into the world of the parliamentary expenses scandal.

An early flight out of Heathrow tomorrow morning and a poor offering on television until 10:30pm means spending Saturday night indoors and reviewing the expenses of three MPs ahead of Channel 4’s “Ask the Chancellors” debate on Monday at 8pm.

Alistair Darling, George Osborne, and Vince Cable will contest a live debate where they will champion their stewardship of Britain’s sickly economic.  The debate will pare increases in taxation with cuts to public spending under what is almost certainly to be a government of austerity.

Naturally I’m rather keen to see how the trio has spent tax payers’ money to date when, sooner or later, one of the would-be chancellors will ask for more money to reduce the country’s budget deficit.

When it comes to fiscal prudence, our man Vince Cable is a walking and talking example. Under the Additional Cost Allowance, dubbed the “second home allowance”, Vince chooses not to claim expenses for his home in the outer London constituency of Twickenham and instead commutes by train to Westminster. Not a penny asked for.

By comparison, the shadow Chancellor George Osborne claimed £87,441 between 2004/5 and 2007/8, with £19,438 reclaimed in mortgage costs for his constituency home in Cheshire during 2007/8. He has also claimed a grand for food.

Meanwhile, Alistair Darling claimed £65,289 during the same period, around a quarter less than George Osborne, but perhaps more seriously was accused by the Daily Telegraph of being “a classic flipper – making four separate home designations covering three different properties in the space of as many years”.

Here’s hoping that Channel 4’s moderator on the night, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, will enlighten watchers with the knowledge that Vince hasn’t had his fingers in the till and that his moral authority during the expenses scandal makes him well-placed to handle the nation’s finances and economic recovery.

And if that’s not enough, the above video shows that he’s pretty light on his feet.

Sadly I will miss the debate as my job takes me to Berlin for two days but we would love to hear your thoughts and comments about it. Oh, better go, MOTD is on soon…

Chris

View post on its own with option to comment

In our last post we mooted that this campaign’s #crowdflutter tactic may well have been the cause for William Hill shortening the odds on Vince Cable becoming Chancellor after the next election and then suspending further betting, and now we know that’s exactly what happened.

The tactic simply encompassed crowd action to place individual bets on Vince Cable becoming Chancellor.

Apparently bets are now back on, but the likelihood of Vince Cable becoming the next Chancellor is now considered by William Hill to be higher than for the current Chancellor Alistair Darling.

The following notice has just been posted to the William Hill press website:

GAMBLE ON CHANCELLOR CABLE

BOOKMAKERS William Hill have slashed their odds about Vince Cable delivering the next Budget from 12/1 to 7/1after a stream of internet bets for him to do so.

‘For reasons not immediately apparent to us we suddenly took a slew of internet bets for Mr Cable to be Chancellor when the next Budget is delivered. It obviously is very unlikely unless there is a Hung Parliament or Mr Cable defects to the Tories, but we have shortened his odds as he is now the best backed contender for the role, and a shorter price than Alistair Darling.’ said Hill’s spokesman Graham Sharpe.

Hills make George Osborne 2/5 favourite to present the next Budget, with Vince Cable 7/1; Alistair Darling 8/1 and Ed Balls 10/1.

View post on its own with option to comment

The #invincecable campaign organised a so-called #crowdflutter today, with bets being placed on Vince Cable becoming the next Chancellor of the Exchequer with William Hill. And whilst we can’t be entirely sure of cause and effect, it does seem incredibly coincidental that the bookie has now suspended betting…

View post on its own with option to comment

The New York Times published a rather splendid profile of Vince Cable yesterday: “The Rumpled Sage“. It’s worth a read.

It starts with this:

An unlikely character, bald and blunt, a “good bloke” in native parlance, has emerged as a pivotal figure in Britain’s May election, at once the country’s most popular politician and a possible chancellor of the Exchequer in the plausible event of a hung Parliament.

And it ends with this:

Cable’s got something going on. Whether it’s enough to lift the Liberal Democrats from their 63 seats is unclear. But a hung Parliament, in which neither Labour nor the Tories can form a government, is more likely than in any recent election. That could put Cable in a position of power, about as good an outcome as I can imagine.

And the stuff in between is cracking. Spread the word.

View post on its own with option to comment

For some odd reason I didn’t receive the week before last’s Economist until this week. Which was a pity, because I’d have been able to tell you about the following letter before now! Here it is:

SIR – Why is the City of London so bearish about a hung parliament? If this were the outcome of the election, then the government would include either Conservatives and Liberal Democrats or Labour and Liberal Democrats. In either case, the chancellor who would command the widest respect both in Parliament and nationwide would surely be the Liberals’ current economic spokesman, Vince Cable. So why the despondency? – GRAEME ALLEN, Eaton Bishop, Herefordshire

Well said Mr Allen.

View post on its own with option to comment

Rory in animated enthusiasm on BBC News, and I’m sure that Jon Sopel’s occasional distraction is not caused by boredom but by his need to look at an off-camera screen to see what Rory is going on about!

And Rory mentioned the In Vince Cable We Trust campaign on his blog here. Here’s the excerpt:

1100: An hour or so before Alistair Darling stands up for what is pretty likely to be his last Budget, I’m looking at a website which aims to promote the claims of a man who is currently 16-1 with Ladbrokes to be his successor. The site is called InVinceCable, and is billed as the HQ of a campaign to get the Liberal Democrat the job of chancellor.

The site says this: “We’re not linked to or supported in any way by Vince himself, the Liberal Democrats or, indeed, any political organisation.”

It turns out to have been put together by a bunch of marketing types, one of whom is Mark Pinsent: “Down the pub one night, we started talking about whether social media would have any impact on the election,” he explained.

They all agreed that Vince would make the best chancellor – and decided to have a go. Their only weapon is the social networks – so can they make Vince go viral?

Click the image to play over on the BBC website (couldn’t find any embed code to show it here I’m afraid).

View post on its own with option to comment

View post on its own with option to comment