Invaders threaten recovery: Cable

1/2
16 September 2013

An invasion of estate agents and bankers has established a new foothold in London and the south east and must be stopped before it causes a new financial crisis, Vince Cable told Liberal Democrat delegates amid sharp attacks on the Conservatives.

The Business Secretary said he had spent a lifetime fighting the Tories - but told the Glasgow party conference it was the right decision to enter a coalition in 2010 because of the national economic emergency.

But he said the Conservatives practised ugly politics based on ideals that were not shared by the Liberal Democrats.

Dr Cable said under those politics, the natural allies of the Tories desired a return to pre-crash business as usual despite being at "heart of the greed and recklessness" which caused it - and warned "amber lights" were now flashing as a warning history could repeat itself.

He said: "David Cameron says I am the Jeremiah but you will recall from your reading of the Old Testament, that Jeremiah was right.

"He warned Jerusalem would be overrun by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar and in my own book of lamentation, I described how Gordon Brown's new Jerusalem was overcome by an army of estate agents, property speculators and bankers.

"The problem we now have is the invaders are back and they have a bridgehead in London and the south east of England, and they have got to be stopped."

The Business Secretary said Labour had been asleep at the wheel as the crisis emerged and added reforms made by the coalition had been vital in repairing the damage and building a platform for the future.

"We must not now settle for a short-term spurt of growth fuelled by an old-fashioned property boom and bust and bankers rediscovering their mojo," he added.

Turning his fire again on the blue half of the coalition, he said: "We are rightly getting rid of the red tape that throttles small business. But some regulation is essential and that's why I work with Ed Davey to resist Tory pressure to emasculate environmental regulation, as in their ludicrous war on windmills. It's also why we have seen off demands from a Tory donor to make it possible to fire people for no reason whatever."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in