InVinceCable We Trust

Great post by politics.co.uk earlier today.

According to a post by Sandamali Zbyszewski, Ladbrokes have cut the odds on our man Vince Cable becoming chancellor from 16/1 to 10/1. Lib Dem spokesman, Nick Weinberger told politics.co.uk: “This is quite surprising but we think it’s because the media are talking up the likelihood of a hung parliament.”

Maybe but less than two weeks ago our campaign caused William Hill to suspend all bets on Vince Cable for Chancellor following the success of #invincecable’s #crowdflutter.

Let’s have have a quick look at the odds on offer elsewhere today:

- William Hill are offering 7/1 for Vince Cable to deliver the first budget of the next government (Darling 8/1, Osborne 2/5)

- Paddy Power are offering 4/1 for Chancellor of the Exchequer being the most senior job held by a Lib Dem in a hung parliament. While Vince Cable as Chancellor outright is at 8/1 (Darling 7/2, Osborne 4/11)

- Betfair on the other hand have Vince Cable at 9/1 with Osborne at 3/1… but no sign of Darling on the betting sheet at the moment.

It seems that in the bookies’ eyes Vince Cable has leapfrogged Darling as Britain’s next Chancellor. Just Osborne to go!

Night all

Chris

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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

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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

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