On Wednesday, Vince Cable said during the Chancellors’ debate that the
Tories’ planned £6 billion of efficency savings really didn’t amount to that much. Here’s the exchange:
Andrew Neil: ‘Vince you used to be an economist. Are you seriously arguing that 6bn would make a difference one way or the other to a 1.5 trillion pound economy’ Vince Cable: ‘No I wouldn’t. But what I would argue for is broad fiscal neutrality. On this issue of timing it’s absolutely right in the coming year’ AN: ‘What does that mean in English?’ VC: ‘It means in simple English it’s not having a severe contraction of the budget deficit’ AN: ‘Well 6 billion isn’t severe?’ VC: ‘Well that’s what I’m trying to say.’
But today, Cable is calling them particularly dangerous:
“There is a very real danger the economy could fall back into recession,” says Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable. “The Conservatives’ so-called efficiency savings are particularly dangerous,” he says. “They have no clue where or how these ‘efficiencies’ will be made, making it likely they will be nothing more than a smoke screen for job cuts.”
Even by Cable’s own standards, this is a rapid reversal of position. If Darling or Osborne changed their minds like this it would be a major story. Now that the Lib Dems are so high in the polls, Cable’s shifts of position should come under equal scrutiny.
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