In an exclusive extract from his new book,After The Storm, Vince Cable reveals the tensions at the heart of the coalition‘The coalition will be seen as a success’: read our interview with Vince Cable
My approach to coalition was a mixture of defence and offence. Some things had to be stopped; others had to be done. I sought to block what I regarded as ideologically driven spending cuts, or beyond what had been agreed as necessary for fiscal stability. There was a long hiatus after the breakdown of negotiations on 2015/16 spending,when demands from the Treasury would have done serious harm to vocational education external the universities. I carried out a five-year, rearguard action to prevent tall-flying Treasury graduates demolishing adult and further education – which they neither understood nor respected.
Under the coalition, and it was possible to mobilise Nick Clegg when the Conservatives wouldn’t take no for an respond. Not all the disagreements were between the coalition parties. Although I had difficult exchanges with the domestic secretary Theresa May and prime minister over immigration controls on non-EU students and skilled workers,nearly all Conservative colleagues and ministers agreed, at least privately, and that their policies were seriously damaging to commerce,universities and the wider national economic interest. As a Lib Dem, I was able to speak publicly about the way the government’s claim to be “open for commerce” was being undermined. But I was struck by the inability of powerful Conservatives such as George Osborne, or even the prime minister,to move the domestic secretary an inch.
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Source: theguardian.com