Cable was besieged by the press when he arrives at City University in London. A notable rebel within the Liberal Democrat Party, his appearing to speak was covered live on the BBC News and afterwards I was lucky enough to get an interview with him and a number of other Liberal Democrat bloggers.

I wanted to get an overall feel of how Cable’s approach was to both the economy and the coalition.

My first question was thusly phrased “Do you consider yourself to be an economic Cassandra?”

Cassandra is a member of Greek mythology who was punished for not loving Apollo by being cursed to always speak the truth and never be believed. Given Cable’s background in predicting economic downfall, he has always been seen as something of an advocate of economic restoration following the banking crisis. However, under the persecution of the press, since becoming the Business Secretary to the Coalition government, Cable’s comments had been dismissed as spouting Conservative rhetoric, albeit reluctantly.

Cable’s response was an appropriate chuckle;

” well, Cassandra has always been seen to represent gloom, whereas I don’t think I represent things in such a negative light. The Social Liberal Forum is an opportunity for the Liberal Democrats to celebrate being positive, and a positive effect in the coalition. Restructuring the economy is our core message and is fundamental to prevent another crisis”

There is certainly how the fable has been represented, but I would imagine the art of speaking the truth and never being believed, whether it is positive or negative, would have quite a detrimental affect on your ability to remain optimistic.

I sought to press him, saying I believed that Cassandra was much more representative of not being believed than being negative.

“well I warned of the boom and crash risk in the mid-90s, it took about five years for the penny to drop”

By this reckoning, we should be able to see the positive effects of the deficit restructuring coming around about a year and a half after the next election. By then, perhaps, it may be too late to save the Liberal Democrat election prospects, unless we can convince the public otherwise in the meantime. However, I still maintain great faith in what Cable says about the economic deficit, and the necessity of restructuring now rather than leaving things as they were, the Labour protest would be a better or more appropriate solution.

My second question was more coalition focused. “With the benefit of hindsight, what would you and the Liberal Democrats in government have done differently in the last 12 months?”

“The Liberal Democrats were completely unprepared for government. I’m sorry, but that’s true. Of course the major problem has been the University policy, this has being badly handled and was a complete public relations failure.

The RDA transition could also have been handled differently.”

I find it quite interesting that the Regional Development Agencies were mentioned, given that this is not something that has really been headline news under the coalition government. In a country with dying town centres, suffering the emigration of workers to larger cities, often tourism is the only last surviving trade. The Regional Development Agencies and their transfer into Local Enterprise Partnerships has had a substantial effect on tourism industry, largely due to funding. This can be seen in Kent, most notably in Canterbury and Faversham, where museum prices have increased by 100%. However, the lateral effects on society have yet to be noticed. Let’s hope that this isn’t one of Cable’s “Cassandra” comments in waiting.

Out of respect to fellow bloggers, I will pass on commenting on other questions until blog posts have been posted. I will post links to them here.

Andrew Emmerson’s Yellow Bastard
Lee Dargue
Brian Robson