Which of you shall say you love me most?

I am not a fan of Vince Cable; which is a polite way of saying I think he’s a bit rubbish. Neither however am I fan of The Telegraph; which is a polite way of saying I think it’s a bit shit. Contrary to popular belief I don’t think it handled the MPs expenses scandal at all well, stirring up public contempt without any constructive comment has resulted in the waste of public money that is IPSA. Yesterday’s entrapment of the Business Secretary wasn’t to uncover any illegal activity, merely to discover the extent of any tension between the coalition partners.

To see his very public ‘will he, won’t he’ performance on the recent vote to raise tuition fees (he did) was to witness someone trying to balance his job with a desperate need to be liked, an all too common failing in our parliamentary representatives; thus Vince Cable becomes a fair target. I suspect my mistrust is a reaction to the ‘economic guru’ status he acquired by virtue of having had a job in the real world - as an economist, no less – but the feeling remains that he doesn’t appreciate the responsibilities of someone in his position, though given the revelations today of his 'declaration of war' on Rupert Murdoch he may not have that problem for much longer.

As bad, however, has been the behaviour of The Telegraph who ‘revealed’ that people in different political parties have different opinions and argue as a result, also that Vince Cable has a rather inflated view of his own importance. In fairness it was a good read but the method used to obtain this story, posing as Liberal Democrat voters to a Liberal Democrat MP, does no one any favours. The result will be politicians even less inclined to be open with the very people they are supposed to represent. It’s another tale of a politician who thinks a little too much of him/herself ‘exposed’ by a newspaper wielding its destructive power to the detriment of the people – quelle surprise!