A leaked letter by business secretary Vince Cable has caused a storm. He criticised the government’s economic policy, saying that the focus on the budget deficit had left it without a “compelling vision” of how “we will earn our living in future”. It was time for a more activist industrial policy: the government should “show more leadership in identifying and supporting key technologies” and get behind “British success stories”.
What the commentators said
The letter “will strike a nerve with the Tory top command… because it is close to the bone”, said Samira Shackle on Newstatesman.com. They are highly sensitive to the charge that “they have failed to articulate a strategy for growth”.
Cable’s analysis would be more persuasive if it didn’t come from him, said The Daily Telegraph. “He depicts himself as an onlooker” at a car crash, when he was “behind the wheel”. He’s been in the job two years, so his attempt to blame the previous government for an incoherent approach to industry is unconvincing. And instead of concentrating on creating low taxes and minimal regulation to encourage business, he advocates intervention and spotting winners.
But the supposed experts advising politicians “don’t have a clue about which industries” will flourish, said Allister Heath in City AM. People once thought that the money would stay in Microsoft-style software and web browsers. Nobody foresaw the return of Apple or the rise of the Smartphone. Create a favourable environment for the private sector, and then leave it to get on with it. “Industrial policies are doomed to fail.”