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Interview: Vince Cable

The Liberal Democrats’ sound money man

Simon Nixon

Wednesday, 28th November 2007

Simon Nixon talks to Vince Cable, the Lib Dem Treasury spokesman and acting leader, who the City admires as one of the few politicians to talk sense about Northern Rock

I met Vincent Cable recently at a dinner party with a mixture of City and business bigwigs: a few FTSE-100 bosses, a smattering of hedge-fund tycoons, the odd private-equity baron. The Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman was the only politician at the table and the debate inevitably focused on financial worries: the credit crunch, Northern Rock, the soaring oil price, foreign takeovers of British companies. There was quite a bit of hand-wringing by the business chiefs, but the shy, mild-mannered Cable gave as lucid and articulate a defence of open markets and free trade as I have heard from any political leader. It was impressive stuff — and afterwards I noticed that several guests went up to tell him so.

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Richard Orange

Richard Orange says the Indian tea industry is enjoying a revival — but that the traditional tea-planters’ way of life, established by the British, is passing into history

There is not much to distinguish Dhanesheva Kurmi from the rest of the crowd at the Hautely Tea Estate, a remote garden an hour and a half’s bumpy drive from the Assamese town of Jorhat.