Tuesday 15 September 2009

Lib Dem Axe-Man

No-one can accuse the Lib Dems of refusing to use the c-word. Their Treasury guru, Vince Cable, is publishing today a list of where the axe would fall should they win power.

His chums in the Welsh Lib Dems may or may not be thrilled to learn that Dr Cable would scrap the defence training review contract, estimated to be worth £13bn, a project that would see a defence training academcy set up in St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Dr C argues that this is believed to be a "highly expensive" option and would therefore scrap the contract.

No news yet on what the Welsh Lib Dems, who previously supported the project, think of plans to scrap one of the largest investments Wales has seen along with the prospect of several thousand jobs.

UPDATE: The Welsh Lib Dems, who appear to have been caught on the hop by their economic expert, say his views - which they circulated - are not party policy although they do indicate "the direction of travel" (their ghastly phrase, not mine) of the cuts required.

Clearly, only irresponsible hacks could confuse the views of someone who describes himself as the "Liberal Democrat shadow Chancellor" and is deputy leader of his party with party policy.

St Vince's spin doctors deny that he's calling for it to be scrapped. I must have been confused by this excerpt from his pamphlet: "The main proposals are.......Reducing the amount of waste in the defence procurement process, including scrapping........the Defence Training Review contract (£13bn over 25 years)".

As he puts it himself: "The time for generalities is over".

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

We can ignore what they say or think, I think we can ignore Labour as well

Glyn Davies said...

David - as Nick Robinson said yesterday about Lord Mandelson's denial that Gordon Brown ever used the words 'Tory cuts' versus 'Labour investment', you can re-write policy but you can't re-write political history - especially when its written down. I hope you have the opportunity to tell the people of Wales of the policy position of the Liberal Democrat's economic voice.

Anonymous said...

Did they not consult with Kisty W then?
Shows how little regard they hav efor her and the party in Wales.
Not good enough is it