Cable: no budget should be ring-fenced

David

Cable is nothing more than an economic weathercock. Pay him no mind.

Sally Chatterjee

Indeed. I don't see why NHS spending should be ring-fenced. For example, why not impose a pay-freeze on GP salaries? This would be a "real" pay cut but few would notice, medics included. It's a far cry from removing beds, sacking nurses etc.

John Page

The "common ground" just means they're agreed to be easy hits.

And yes, the Tories' pledge on the nationalised health service and aid to dictators looks increasingly bizarre and pointless.

Roger Daley

That'll be a Labour policy then.
Bereft of its own ideas Labour will use anyone elses.

Peter

We can either applaud the sense of his comments which clearly put pressure on the Tories to respond. Or we can dismiss them as debating points made by someone who will never have to put anything he says into practice.

Chris lancashire

I'm with David, Cable has earned an undeserved reputation as financial soothsayer and general wiseacre. Look back at his policy history and he's been all over the place.

That said credit for the fact that he's a politician who has actually had a real job.

paul holdstock

interesting to hear that Brown mentions cutting,'unneccessary spending'.
which indicates that he admits that he has presided over this government, unneccessarily spending tax payers money.
hardly a revelation, however it is just about all the proof any sane person needs to ensure that he, and his incompetent, dishonest, corrupt, party;
are ejected from office, at the earliest opportunity.
and hopefully, never again allowed near the 'levers of power'.
let us hope that the publics' appetite for revenge is fed by retribution on them all.

David

"ought to give the Tory leadership a wake-up call about their commitment,"

Why? Cable doesn't have to worry about actually winning, the Tories do. That's life in a democracy - some things simply aren't attractive to the electorate, and that has to be taken into account.

Lawrence Greek

Everyone keeps quoting ID Cards and Trident but neither item currently contributes to the £175 billion deficit .. unless i'm mistaken .. these aren't savings, emerely even greater spending shelved.

Anne Wotana Kaye

Cable, no need to worry your little brain. Gordon Brown has at last shown his mettle, he is indeed a wily and devious man. NHS training is to be given to his new-found buddies, the Libyans. Just think, by providing them with the dreadful treatments and services we poor Britons suffer, they will in less than one generation cease to be a danger to western civilization. Britain is at the bottom of the European table for cancer recovery and prompt treatment, and top for infections in filthy hospitals. Brown, you really have pulled a dark card out of the pack.

John Thornley

Public spending isn't just 'unnecessary' - it's pernicious - government-sponsored inflated salaries and pensions are causing fake UK property re-inflation, encouraging more loose money-lending, and shoring up the pseudo-recovery, delaying and hampering a true recovery, while increasing our massive public debt. Pious Environ-Mentalists who nag about switching off the lights to 'help the next generation' don't seem to mind one bit about impoverishing and enslaving that generation to sovereign wealth funds in Riadh and Peking.

Olaf Rye

I am puzzled at Vince Cable's reputation as a shrewd economic analyst. He has stated the obvious, which is a laudable thing given the mendaciousness of politics and the media in this country. I am nonetheless surprised that he has come out in favour of spending cuts given his membership of the Liberal Democrats, but this is probably a reflection of the disastrous condition of the public finances. Nonetheless, as someone sagely remarked already, his suggestions are merely postponements of higher spending. I hope that someone has the bottle to state what is necessary--deep cuts to the public service, namely, to that amorphous mass of 'managers' that have siphoned vast quantities of money from the private sector. The unions seem sagacious enough to realise that cuts to the public sector are necessary for anyone seriously wishing to sort out this catastrophic situation but the politicians just refuse to give us assurances that this will indeed occur.

Chuck Unsworth

Cable The Magnificent, eh?

What does he really know? He's very good at post-event comment, but is he any good at predicting events?

Michael Booth

“politicians must not shy away from explaining in detail how they will tackle the problem of deficits and debt”.

This is great! Perhaps before we get to this stage, politicians will explain in detail how they got is into deficit in the first place. I'd like a whole big wadge of mea culpa first, before I would consider re-electing any one of them.

Michael Booth

“politicians must not shy away from explaining in detail how they will tackle the problem of deficits and debt”.

This is great! Perhaps before we get to this stage, politicians will explain in detail how they got us into deficit in the first place. I'd like a whole big wadge of mea culpa first, before I would consider re-electing any one of them.

Damon

As someone on the Thatcherite wing of the Tory Party, I've read Vince Cable's paper and frankly its impressive stuff that's hard to disagree with

Brian E.

It is totally wrong for any budget to be ringfenced as all this does is to discourage any strive for increased efficiency - "what's the point, we get our money regardless". Every budget needs to be challenged at some point, starting with the ones where there seems to be the most waste, moving indue course onto the "sacred cows", Education, NHS and Defence. In all three cases it seems clear to most outsiders that there enormous administrative overheads and waste that no private organisation would tollerate.