My Week: Vince Cable
The Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader and Treasury spokesman on a week of mounting economic turmoil
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Over the weekend I started getting calls about the economic situation and came back to London.
Yesterday, I was a guest on the Andrew Marr Show. I broached the issue of partial nationalisation and recapitalising the banks, which although I didn't know at the time, was the first time this had broken cover. It helped to trigger speculation about what the Government was planning. I also broached the issue of deep cuts in interest rates, which was controversial given the issue of the independence of the Bank of England. The Chancellor releases a statement today but it doesn't really take us very far forward.
Tuesday
It becomes clear there is a deep crisis of confidence in the banking. I spend a lot of the day doing media. It is alarming to discover the extent to which the situation is deteriorating but I try to urge a reaction of common sense and insist people's money is safe in British banks. I offer the fact that I have my own money saved in the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Wednesday
We have Prime Minister's Questions today, followed by the Chancellor's new statement, which incorporates some of the things I have been advocating; it is a very appropriate rescue plan. Just before I go down to Questions someone tells me that large numbers of councils, including eight in London, have their accounts in Icelandic banks and a major crisis is going to ensue from that. I take this to the Chancellor and over the next couple of days try to find which councils are affected, how they got themselves into this position, and how they are going to extricate themselves from it.
Thursday
I deal with constant media requests about the crisis, interspersed with a business breakfast meeting with small companies, a meeting with mortgage lenders and lunch with editorial staff at the New Statesman. In the afternoon I meet with the Governor of the Bank of England. In the evening I go off to the relative calm outside London and speak to a large and attentive audience at the University of East Anglia. It is very refreshing and the students encourage me to go back to basic principles: what went wrong with the banking system. These supposedly apolitical students are really engaged.
Friday
I speak to 200 local businessmen in a conference outside Norwich in the morning. There are a lot of probing questions on how this crisis will affect small business lending and the property market. It becomes very clear that this problem is now getting through into the real world. I take the train back to London to attend my weekly ballroom dancing class; I have a major exam on Sunday morning which I mustn't miss. Later in the afternoon I have my weekly surgery, which lasts about three hours. Then I go and speak at a party dinner near Winchester, and after that I head down to the New Forest to see my wife for the first time this week. Maybe we'll get 12 hours there before coming back to London.
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