VINCE CABLE MP COMES TO BARNSTAPLE
November 19, 2008 9:52 AM
North Devon Liberal Democrats welcomed Dr Vincent Cable MP, the party's deputy leader and shadow chancellor, to Barnstaple on Saturday evening (15 Nov 2008). Dr Cable met local businesses figures for an informal exchange of views at Lilico's wine bar, and then addressed the local party's annual dinner at the Park Hotel.
'I was highly delighted,' says local MP Nick Harvey 'that we had such a wide array of businesses from across North Devon come to meet him, including advertising and design, builders, hauliers, publicans, travel and IT.
Nick and Vince on Vince Cable's recent visit to North Devon
'It was a great pleasure to talk to local businessmen and women and to hear their concerns over the Government's handling of the economy,' said Vince Cable.
'It was also valuable for him to get a balanced picture of our regional economy,' says Nick Harvey, 'and to appreciate that whilst tourism is very important we do have more to offer.'
'Clear issues that emerged from my discussions,' noted Vince Cable, 'were banks not passing on the cut in the interest rates, business rates on empty properties, fuel duty, the slow down in the building trade, the impact of super market alcohol sales on the pub trade and problems faced by the tourism industry.'
'There are many things that the Government could and should be doing to help small businesses,' said Vince Cable, 'and I will be taking this message back to Westminster.'
At the Annual Dinner, he gave his rigorous analysis of the origins of the present financial crisis, and how it might be resolved to a packed audience. He deplored the simplistic views of the Conservative Party who seemed only intent on heaping blame on the Government yet who had little constructive to say about the future, and Labour's attempts to shift the blame onto purely Global factors.
The truth was that soft touch regulation of UK banks and financial institutions had led to record levels of personal debt that were unsustainable even without the stress of external factors, and that the collapse in confidence internationally owned much to the 'pyramid selling' of dodgy debts which has been 'sliced and diced' by financial wheelers and dealers to the point where no-one could tell whether their deals were full of toxic debt or supported real assets.
'It is vital to restore confidence in the financial institutions that underpin our economy,' concluded Dr Cable, 'and to ensure that the financial guarantees provided to the banking industry in recent months are managed responsibly. It is ridiculous that the Government has just announced that it won't be appointing directors to the boards of the Banks it has so recently had to bale out to protect the public interest - this should not and will not be tolerated.'
Notes for Editors
Vincent Cable is the Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer and speaks for his party on issues of Finance, European Economic and Monetary Union and the City.
He is also Vice Chairman of All Party Parliamentary Group on Insurance and Financial Services and a member of the All Party Parliamentary Small Business Group.
He has written several books on Trade Policy and International Finance.
He has been the MP for Twickenham since 1997.
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