Alex Callinicos on Vince Cable

Given the Cost-cutting Con-Dem Coalition of Cutters are, generally speaking, in the words of The Thick of It's Malcolm Tucker, 'the most ideologically dry bastards since Hayek sandpapered a freeze-dried camel's hump', Business Secretary Vince Cable's populist attack on 'City spivs' and even 'capitalism' created a bit of a stir this week. However, those wanting clarification about the exact contradictary nature of Cable, capital and the coalition could do no better than read Alex Callinicos, who notes his speech 'falls into a long tradition of politicians trying to distance themselves from what [the then Tory Prime Minister] Ted Heath denounced in 1973 as the "unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism"'.