InVinceCable We Trust

[Via Wadds]

As the Lib Dems and the Tories negotiate over power-sharing in number 10 the question that’s being asked by the Tory-supporting Telegraph no less, is “could George Osborne be sacrificed for Vince Cable?”

And so InVinceCable, the apolitical campaign that is seeking to instigate conversations around the need for a qualified candidate to hold the position of Chancellor, moves into a new phase.

“Well, we wanted to wait awhile for fear of calling it too early, but now that it’s the afternoon of the day after, it’s clear. We have undoubtedly got ourselves a hung parliament, which is most excellent news for the country. Why? Because now Vince Cable can be chancellor.”

But maybe we need to be careful what we wish for – economic vision and leadership becomes an even more critical in a hung parliament. Yesterday was not a good day on the financial markets, particularly for banking stocks.

Cable, with his tough talking on the deficit and banking reform, must have a role in the Cabinet and the Treasury in the event of a power sharing agreement.

“The coming week will be characterised by political machinations […] and this is just the moment then that the InVinceCable We Trust campaign comes into its own. So on Sunday 9 May, which also happens to be Vince’s 67th birthday, we’d like everyone to blog and comment and tweet and write to MPs of all colours to demand that Vince Cable be made chancellor.”

Follow @InVinceCable and visit the InVinceCable web site for more information about how to get involved.

Photo via LibDems on Flickr.

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The following was sent out in an email newsletter today to everyone who has registered their email address on the campaign’s website or wiki…

So here we are, the week of Election 2010. Bremner, Bird and Fortune claim there’s been just two highlights worth recalling to date: “I agree with Nick” and “bigotted”.

Perhaps the Chancellors’ Debate and Vince’s unchallenged supremacy was too early in the campaign, or perhaps it just wasn’t sufficiently comedic for Bremner and chums to relive; we definitely don’t think the prospect of George Osborne in Number 11 is funny.

So let’s quickly remind ourselves of our objective:

To harness a groundswell of the UK electorate such that, in the event of a hung parliament, the Prime Minister has no choice but to invite Vince Cable to be Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Will we have a hung parliament? It’s looking a little less likely than last time we emailed but we have to plan now regardless.

Blog Vince Day – 9th May 2010

One of the ideas that emerged from the #invincecable campaigner twitter brainstorm of the 20th April was the idea of a “Blog Vince Day” this coming Sunday, in the event of there being a hung parliament of course.

The week commencing 10th May 2010 will be a week of political machinations in the event of a hung parliament, and this is just the moment then that the InVinceCable We Trust campaign comes into its own. So on Sunday 9th May, which also happens to be Vince’s 67th birthday, we’d like everyone to blog and comment and Tweet and write to MPs of all colours to demand that Vince Cable be made chancellor.

Together, we will remind them of the Chancellors’ Debate and the popular consensus. We will remind them that current economic conditions require the best man for the job, and not the best man to suit other political ambitions and back room agreements. There are many hard decisions to be made, and we don’t want a career politician who hasn’t even run a corner shop. We want Vince Cable.

I do hope you can join in on Blog Vince Day as this campaign’s voice is only as loud as all the contributory voices.

Until then, happy voting.

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The following video “Vince Cable’s Way” has graced our homepage for the past week or so, but that prime position has now gone to our commuity’s latest entertaining offering, “Vince Charming”. Of course, depending on when you read this, it may not be there now, so both are embedded below for your enjoyment. And you can always catch us at the InVinceCable YouTube channel of course.

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Rory Cellan-Jones took the opportunity to present the InVinceCable website to viewers of BBC 24 this lunchtime. (BBC 24 News isn’t available on iPlayer, but if we can get hold of the video or a still we’ll post it here.)

Rory is covering Election 2012 from a digital / social media perspective. Having referenced our campaign in a blog post on the 24th March, Rory obviously considers the work we’re all doing on the campaign to have achieved a certain momentum warranting the BBC’s attention.

Perhaps it was our making Vince the Mayor of Number 11 Downing Street?! Perhaps it’s our new tongue-in-cheek video? Perhaps it’s because our Crowd Flutter had William Hill suspend bets and then shorten the odds on Vince becoming Chancellor? Perhaps it’s everything, little, cheeky or more substantial, that we’re all getting stuck in to.

Please do register your interest in the campaign by completing the short form on our website, or joining our Facebook group, or following our tweets, or wearing our Twibbon, or all of these and more! BBC or not, we’re only as successful as the number of voices we can bring together.

Our objective is simple: To harness a groundswell of the UK electorate such that, in the event of a hung parliament, the Prime Minister has no choice but to invite Vince Cable to be Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Thanks.

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In what some could call a “cheeky” PR tactic, the #invincecable campaign team has made our man FourSquare‘s Mayor of Number 11 Downing Street, the residency of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Now you could say FourSquare remains nascent. You could argue that there wasn’t much competition for the venue. But that’s missing the point… we just did it. It took 7 minutes and 42 seconds. And here’s screenshots to prove it, and the first all important media coverage too.

With your support, in fact only with your support, we might be able to announce a different position for Dr. Cable at 11 Downing Street come 7th May 2010.

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Sean O’Grady writes a super commentary article pivoting around the prospect of a hung parliament in today’s Independent under the title “Get ready for Vince in Number 11“.

There seems to be a bit of a misunderstanding about what will happen in the hung parliament that now seems inevitable. The misunderstanding is that Nick Clegg will find it difficult to extract concessions from Gordon Brown and that a Lib-Lab coalition would be tricky to put together. He won’t and it wouldn’t. In fact it has the air of inevitability about it. If he wants, Clegg can have the alternative vote, he can get Vince Cable into the Treasury, himself a nice cabinet job and junior posts for others, and, far more important, an agreed four-year programme for economic recovery and reducing the budget deficit.

Sean completes this paragraph with the assertion “Job done”. We love his optimism, but we have a long way to go yet, including the need to coalesce and focus public sentiment on this outcome.

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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“.

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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

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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.

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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…

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