YouSaid · the spoken record

Vince Cable

lines on the record: 32
first: 2018-09-21
most recent: 2018-09-21
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Not plots but ideas. Let's put it that way. I don't get time to do plots and writing at the moment, but I'm certainly thinking ahead.”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Never tried. No, it's Seth things like dialogue and sustaining tension. It's a real art. And I've learnt some of it, but I'd like to improve it. But, you know, when I get more time, I've got several books on my list.”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, I've learned a lot writing the first one. It was difficult. I don't know whether you've tried it, but writing fiction is much more difficult than non-fiction.”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I don't think so, and that is indeed one of the problems that even people like he who have been enormously maligned by their own party are pretty tribal. No, I would expect people like him to sit outside and express support for what some of us are trying to do.”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Thought of him and said about him. I would like Blair to be involved, actually. I've got a very high regard for him. I mean, the Iraq war was a major blot on the history, but he was now standing Prime Minister in many ways, as was Gordon Brown, actually. He was also much maligned figure. And I respect both of them, and I would like them to be part of the mix.”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think we were down to 30,000, 40,000 members. It was a lot of MPs and councillors, but the movement wasn't there. So in a way, we've inverted the structure.”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't despair. I mean, I think it's difficult on all kinds of levels. I think liberalism is under siege and the party makes it very difficult to break through because for the obvious reasons, if you've got 12 MPs, it's very difficult to get heard in parliament and then the media outlets don't give you the same attention as they would to others. I'm not criticising them. That's the facts of life. So it's quite difficult to be heard above the noise. I mean, what I take some reassurance from is that, you know, I think we are making headway, certainly at local level, doing brilliantly well. The poll ratings aren't brilliant, but they're improving 50% up on when I started. And we are getting the feel of a kind of mass movement. We're getting big membership, record levels, supporters. I think we calculate as about 200,000 on top of our 100,000 members. I mean, the party has never been in this position in the great days of Charles Kennedy when we were up at six.”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This was a very difficult world. There was disapproval as well as worrying. I mean, things have got much better. I mean, they're by no means perfect, but they're much better these days. But it's precisely because I've beaved in these arguments on the front line, as it were. I know racism when I see it.”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, I mean, I personally think people with my wife's background who felt this. I mean, as it happened, I'd been in East Africa working and we came back in 68, if you remember, this was a particularly fraught time. The panic over the Kenyan nations, special legislation being risked through to deprive them of their citizenship And Enoch Powell's Rivers of Blood speech followed it. And I was starting, or we were starting on life in this country. My wife was pregnant at the time, starting a family. And it was in this completely toxic atmosphere, in addition to which I had quite serious conflicts at home and my wife did with her family as it happens.”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I don't think they're inconsistent. The spring conference I was referring to a substantial block of mostly older voters who, I think to some degree, motivated by nostalgia. And that phrase that we use may well describe the way it was. What I was trying to say the other day is you cannot characterize all Brexit voters. Some are some aren't prejudiced. And we, you know, in balance, give people the benefit of the doubt. The point I was trying to make is that it is possible for people to be concerned about immigration without necessarily being motivated by racial prejudice. Sometimes they overlap, of course, but sometimes they don't. And I think we've got to address the genuine concerns.”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I don't think any of us know the precise mechanism by which this will happen. I mean, as the autumn looms, it's a little bit like going down a motorway and there's a fog warning in front and you can see the mist. And we don't know what's in the mist. And that's not our fault. I mean, that's the position the government's got us into. I mean, what we do know is that the chequers' proposals have been sort of hold below the waterline. We've had the no-deal option floated and analysed over the summer. I don't think there's much appetite for it in this country or in the European Union. So the question is, what else do you go? So there's some people who feel as a matter of principle that we should have a confirmatory referendum and others who see it as a way out of a mess.”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's true, yes, it wasn't a natural cohabit where I was concerned. I know you've heard this clich ⁇ before, but I said to some of the Tories who were in my department that we leave our weapons at the door and we just get on with the job. And I wouldn't say we had been friends or we became friends, but it was a perfectly civilized, sensible relationship.”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I thought it was painful and difficult. I wasn't enthusiastic about it. It was the kind of thing taking on a difficult task that somebody had to do. Did the process do some good? And I think, you know, when I go back over the things we did, As Lib Dems in government and me as a cabinet minister, there's a long list of legacy achievements, but these were difficult times. There were painful decisions, and we got a lot of flack for it.”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I mean, in a way, it was the worst possible time to do it. But you know the situation at the time. It was the only way of forming a stable government and the country had been through and was facing the most mega economic crisis we'd had in our lifetimes. And I don't think he would just walk away from it. You sound a bit sort of...”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I wasn't actually in government when we did hit the iceberg. I was in government shortly afterwards when we were trying to plug the hole in the ship's hole. And it was a difficult and difficult process and cuts out to be made. It was widely accepted when we came into government. We had a 10% of GDP budget deficit. The next government, whoever it was, whether it was coalition Tory or Labour, was going to have to deal with it. And it was going to involve some unpopular and difficult things”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Meaning a member of your party wouldn't have a clue what you were talking about. So that's one of the challenges to try and reduce this to common sense language and ways of thinking.”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it's certainly true that we live through the financial crisis. It is so-called moderate people who were in charge, they were on the wheel when the ship hit the iceberg. There is an element of that happening, but I think we have to argue that going to demagogic extremes potentially makes things a great deal worse and also have a positive story. One of the things I tried to do in this speech, which is God overlooked by erotic spasms, is that... I tried to set out a program for the future, and I'm not just trying to defend the status quo.”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You hang on. You stay in and vice versa. And those two things are significant inhibitors. But I think, in a way, once People will feel liberated, I think, to go back to these basic choices”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't think the conditions are perfect. I mean, a lot of people in the two main parties are hanging in there because they sense that certainly in the next six months major decisions will be made and they want to try to influence them. And I understand that. I think there's also some people who are so frightened of the other that they cling on to what they've got even though they regard it as seriously deficient.”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, well, some people have had a bit of fun at its expense, and it's one of the features of our party is that most people definitely don't see themselves as moderates. They see themselves as radicals in the environmental cause or social justice or Europe. But I think, I mean, what I'm trying to say is I think what people outside politics can connect with is that they can see that there are kind of rabid people or extreme people on both wings, if you like, of the two main parties. And there's a sort of groping for what some people call common sense, others call moderates, others call centrist. I mean, there's a wealth of words. And I'm trying to mobilize them.”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, there's nothing quite parallel to what we're talking about. I mean, Macron did come from an existing party. He did initially, of course, seek an alliance with the Beirut Liberals, which is roughly the sister equivalent of ours. Then he created a movement. So he was part of the political establishment originally. The best parallel we have, I think, is in Canada, where we had a liberal party in third place that came through to first, and Trudeau, or rather his predecessor, created a rather similar system to what I'm doing. And an ultra-top class Canadians came forward to compete. And I think Trudeau was stronger for having had the competition.”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not consciously, but I don't think we should rule out the possibility that there are people out there with immense, I mean, we're going through a very... Dangerous term in politics, but also potentially an exciting one when a whole lot of party upheavals and British politics develops in new directions. And I don't think we should rule out the possibility that the people out there with leadership qualities and who share our values, who've had to pursue other careers but might properly be considered. We've got some very good MPs. I'm not trying to run them down, but let's have the widest talent pool.”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Whenever it is, I would then be mid 80s. So I thought, well, let's just be grown up and realistic about it and plan things out. And I have various tasks that I want to do. Including seeing us through the Brexit process. We're not entirely sure how long that will last. There may be an early general election. There are these reforms I want to see enacted, local government elections next May are very important because we're rebuilding our party base and I'm overseeing all of that and I'm committed to doing it but at some point after that I will let the next generation take over and I don't feel threatened by it and I think it's a healthy”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's unconventional. I know there's this conventional wisdom that you stay until you fall under a bus or a pushed or whatever. We had these long agonies with Mrs. Thatcher and Tony Blair and all that stuff. I mean, it struck me as being somebody who hasn't spent most of my life in politics, actually, is a sort of grown-up professional thing to do. I mean, I thought, is it plausible for me to be leading a party in 2022 into an election for a parliament in 2029?”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I don't, I wouldn't judge people. Obviously, if people act inappropriately and involved in Me Too type assaults, I mean, that's clearly beyond the pale. But people's private life is their own.”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, they do often go together and some of the most famous people in the world from Jack Kennedy to Trump. Obviously Sea Power, it's connected with their perhaps rather overrated view of their own performance, but nonetheless they're quite potent people. It doesn't apply to everybody. I mean, I have a very happy private life. I don't go around trying to use half the women in Westminster, but there are plenty of people around who. Who's machisma does spill over into real life activities? We've had quite a lot of that in the last year, haven't we?”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes. So that's right. The leading character in the book was a woman. It was a Tory woman, actually. I didn't feel I should be using the novel for political propaganda. It just struck me as being plausible. There are quite a lot of them these days. Some of them are nice looking and some of them rise to the top and making her the centre of the narrative seem to me a plausible storyline and a more interesting one than if I'd just used it for scoring a point.”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, well, it was I thought actually it wasn't bad for a beginner. It wasn't significant for its raciness. I mean, it was an attempt to weave together stories partly based in the UK, partly based in India. It was an adventure thriller, if you like, and trying to write well and write a page turner and quite a lot of people complimented me on saying it was. There was a bit of sex, but it wasn't Edwina Curry explicit stuff. It was hinted at rather than described.”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I didn't actually. I mean, I think I've long since learned that. You just make yourself uncomfortable if you're reading everybody's criticism, but it's something you have to put up with. Well, I don't think this is too”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, no, I thought, oh my God, yes. I think it was what's called in the trade of Freudian slip. There'd been a certain amount of debate beforehand as to whether this was a good phrase. And it must have been running through my mind. But anyway, it's been noticed. I mean, the fact that Garrick Alinica tweeted the world about it that told me that Garica Lina was watching what I was saying, which was to my pleasant surprise. Either that.”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Okay, I mean, people have different views about what's good taste, but it was an attempt to create a colourful metaphor to describe sudden pleasure and then long-lasting regret, which is, I think, my best how we can best capture the way that Brexit will be perceived by the people I call the true believers. I've always intrigued.”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think the correct phrase was erotic spasm. Spasm, you said it's a tricky phrase. Yes, that was the way it was written in the script.”
2018-09-21 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Vince Cable One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source