Vince Cable
The Return to Middle-of-the-Road Politics?
Summary
Where have middle-of-the-road politics gone? In the Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany, and above all, the United States, individuals once regarded as unacceptable extremists and populists are now close to power. In this lecture, Sir Vince Cable asks, why have ‘one nation conservatives’ and their overseas counterparts diminished and is the process of polarisation irreversible?
Vince Cable
Sir Vince Cable was secretary of state for business, innovation and skills from 2010 to 2015, and he represented the constituency of Twickenham as a Liberal Democrat MP. Before entering the House of Commons in 1997, Vince studied at the University of Cambridge and received a PhD from Glasgow University. He worked in government and then in the private sector, becoming Shell’s chief economist in 1995. As an author, Sir Vince has published several books, including Money and Power (2021), which looks at the history of political figures who changed the way economic policy was made. Vince is currently Professor in Practice at the London School of Economics in the School of Public Policy and a visiting professor at Nottingham University, where he worked with the university on a collaborative project with Future learn to develop a MOOC(on line course). He is also a visiting professor at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, and Honorary Fellow at Fitzwilliam College Cambridge and of the City Lit in London.