VINCE Cable's public spat with fellow Liberal Democrat grandee Sir Menzies Campbell over his contact with Ed Miliband continued yesterday when the Business Secretary insisted he was neither embarrassed nor apologetic over talking to other politicians in a "sensible, grown-up way".
Sir Ming, the party's former leader, ticked off his colleague for texting the Labour leader; Mr Cable is regarded on the more social democrat wing of the Lib Dems and was once an aide to the late Labour leader John Smith.
"The success of this coalition depends upon everyone who participates in it being a full subscriber, and I don't think, we were using the expression pick and mix a little while ago.
"I don't think it helps a partnership to suggest that you may already be looking for another partner," said Sir Ming.
He asked what would disaffected Tories make of a senior Lib Dem figure cosying up to a senior Labour one.
Mr Cable insisted he had "no ambiguity" about his commitment to the Lib-Con Coalition, saying: "I really don't understand the fuss about very, very occasionally having meetings with Labour politicians and other people across the political spectrum."
Asked, to use Sir Ming's phrase, if he was giving an amber light to trouble-makers, the Secretary of State replied: "I am not encouraging people to make trouble."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article