Why Vince Cable emerges from this week stronger than ever

By David Higgerson on Dec 22, 10 07:13 PM

The expenses scandal, it isn't. But the Daily Telegraph's clever ploy of sending in journalists to pose as constituents certainly tells us a lot about politicians in general.

And we've learnt that Saint Vince Cable is human. Prone to boasting a bit, he's now looking a bit silly. But reports of the death of his political career are surely greatly exaggerated.

Today's coverage of Cable hanging on to his job as business secretary - but losing the right to decide whether Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation can take full control of BSkyB - contains several phrases which come up time and again: Lame duck, less powerful as a result, weaker and so on.

There's no doubt the lobby correspondents will make Cable their number one priority. Much as in the same way they went after Peter Mandelson during his time in office. They've smelt blood and won't stop until it's leaking over the wooden floors of Parliament.

Increasingly, the lobby appears to care less about the things which matter to people (their readers) and more about the politics of personality - the sort of things which the rest of us would mark down as gossip. The sight of the prime minister and deputy prime minister taking questions about how Moaist the coalition is on the back of a couple of Cable's comments prove this.

Sure, the press conference also covered a variety of other areas - NHS winter services, school sports, weather problems, the economy, defence - but some these seemed like fleeting references with the journalists dwelling for far too long on Maoism - a matter which won't even bother the vast majority of the UK voting population.

Cable the man, on the other hand, is one of the few politicians to be known to the vast majority of voters. What he said might have been daft, but Tim Farron, the Lib Dem president, summed it up quite well on Twitter when when he congratulated the Telegraph on proving that Lib Dem ministers have minds of their own.

Tory ministers were briefing various journalists yesterday over how angry they were Cable had remained in a job. Their off-the-record briefings are no different to what Cable was doing with his constituents - the only difference is that one was recorded.

Cable will continue to be the only politician who called the financial crisis correctly from very early on. Yes, the halo has slipped and he's no longer holier than thou, but his policy judgment up until now appears still to be spot on.

On tuition fees, he seemed to wobble a bit - not on the policy, but on whether to vote in favour of it or not. That wobble seems to have had more to do with upsetting his support within the Lib Dems. He decided, ultimately, that it was worth the risk, and the fact that Cameron and Clegg felt he couldn't be sacked yesterday suggests that wing of the party is still with him.

The choice for Cameron and Clegg will have been simple: In terms of keeping the coalition together, is Cable more of a danger causing trouble on the backbenches or inside the cabinet?

If Cable really is the man who keeps one wing of the Lib Dems from revolting, then being seen to be a dissenting voice within the coalition will probably do him the power of good.

Only time will tell if Cable decides to push the nuclear button and resign over something else. Only time will tell if the fallout from such a move is, as Cable suggests, the collapse of the coalition.

In the meantime, I suspect Cable will emerge stronger from this week's events. He draws his power from the supporters he has, rather than from the office he holds. In that sense, he's more John Prescott than he is Peter Mandelson. And while he's a little red-faced at being caught boasting, he's not that far wide of the mark - even now.