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Free Radical: A Memoir
Vince Cable, Deputy Leader of the LibDems and Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, has been proved right again and again as the current economic crisis unfolds. Measured, analytical and wise, he is the hero of the crunch in Parliament - as well as its most popular member. Yet his life story is far from that of a career politician. Born into a working-class family in York, he excelled at school and took his first degree at Cambridge, where he became interested in both politics and development economics - which led to his first job, working in the Treasury of Kenya, and to his first marriage, in the teeth of family opposition on both sides, to Olympia Rebelo. They lived in Glasgow, where two of their three children were born, and then moved to London while Vince worked in the Foreign Office before visiting and researching in India, then working for the Commonwealth Secretariat and then for Shell, where he worked as Chief Economist. It was not until 1997 that he was elected to represent Twickenham in Parliament, by which time Olympia was in the late stages of cancer, which she fought courageously until 2001. The vagaries of life as a constituency MP, the gathering clouds of economic disaster and the crash of 2008 bring events up to date. Best known today for his prescience and authority on both domestic and international economic matters, Vince recalls a life of wide variety and great interest - and ballroom dancing - with self-deprecating humour and great insight, making this a terrific and very timely read.
358 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2009
9 people are currently reading
39 people want to read
About the author
Vince Cable
42 books12 followersJohn Vincent "Vince" Cable is a British politician and Leader of the Liberal Democrats. He was the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills from 2010 to 2015 and the Member of Parliament for Twickenham from 1997 until losing his seat in the 2015 election. He regained his seat in the 2017 election and became leader of the Liberal Democrats soon after.
Cable studied economics at the University of Cambridge and the University of Glasgow, before becoming an economic advisor to the Government of Kenya between 1966 and 1968 and to the Commonwealth Secretary-General in the 1970s and 1980s. From 1968 to 1974 he lectured in economics at Glasgow University. Later, he served as Chief Economist for Shell from 1995 to 1997. In the 1970s Cable was active in the Labour Party, becoming a Labour Councillor in Glasgow. In 1982 he joined the Social Democratic Party – which later joined with the Liberal Party to form the Liberal Democrats – and he unsuccessfully stood for Parliament in the general elections of 1970, 1983, 1987 and 1992 before being elected as the MP for Twickenham in 1997.
Cable became the Liberal Democrats Treasury Spokesman in June 2003, and was elected Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats in March 2006, becoming Acting Leader for two months in 2007 following Sir Menzies Campbell's resignation until the election of Nick Clegg. He resigned from both of these position in May 2010 after becoming Business Secretary.
Cable studied economics at the University of Cambridge and the University of Glasgow, before becoming an economic advisor to the Government of Kenya between 1966 and 1968 and to the Commonwealth Secretary-General in the 1970s and 1980s. From 1968 to 1974 he lectured in economics at Glasgow University. Later, he served as Chief Economist for Shell from 1995 to 1997. In the 1970s Cable was active in the Labour Party, becoming a Labour Councillor in Glasgow. In 1982 he joined the Social Democratic Party – which later joined with the Liberal Party to form the Liberal Democrats – and he unsuccessfully stood for Parliament in the general elections of 1970, 1983, 1987 and 1992 before being elected as the MP for Twickenham in 1997.
Cable became the Liberal Democrats Treasury Spokesman in June 2003, and was elected Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats in March 2006, becoming Acting Leader for two months in 2007 following Sir Menzies Campbell's resignation until the election of Nick Clegg. He resigned from both of these position in May 2010 after becoming Business Secretary.
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May 21, 2018
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2999561.html
I've actually had this on the shelves since before the 2010 election, which brought Cable to power as Business Secretary in the Cameron/Clegg coalition government, but have only now got around to reading it. Cable then was one of the Lib Dems' star performers, who crashed out of parliament in 2015, but in 2017 returned and was almost immediately elected leader of the party unopposed. (I noted with amusement that the current Conservative and Labour leaders, Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn, are each referred to precisely once in Cable's book, and both of their names are misspelt.) He was 65 when this book was written and he is 74 now.
His personal and political journey is indeed an interesting one. I too was a Cambridge NatSci from an unfashionable part of the UK, and I too was an election candidate in my late twenties, but otherwise our paths have diverged somewhat. Cable gravitated from academe to a brief spell in government in the late 1970s, and then worked for Shell, reaching the rank of Chief Economist, until he got elected to Parliament for the first time in 1997. (This was after unsuccessful runs for Glasgow Hillhead in 1970 and York in 1983 and 1987). Few politicians come to politics with his level of economic expertise, let alone combined with practical experience of industry. He then was fortunate enough to be able to make the running in critiquing the Brown government's economic policy as the Great Recession started to bite, and the book is in a sense a victory lap for what was generally perceived as an outstanding political performance in the 2007-2009 period.
There is also the moving story of his marriage to his first wife, Olympia Rebelo, a Goan from Kenya. I think Cable is the only leader of a major British political party to have had a non-white spouse. Both families were very doubtful about the match, the Cables out of sheer racism, the Rebelos out of snobbishness. But by Cable's account, they were mostly happy, and he was clearly devastated when she died after a long illness, just a few days after he retained his seat in the 2001 election. Her presence resonates in the background of most of the book. (Oddly enough I knew someone at Cambridge with the same unusual surname as Cable's second wife; presumably a niece or cousin.)
Nine years on, I'm not completely convinced by Cable. The one time I saw him speak in Brussels, in January 2015, I was a bit underwhelmed (of course, this was in the dying days of the coalition, so he can perhaps be excused). Just as I was reading this book last month, he screwed up a meeting with European liberal leaders pretty massively. I'm also not sure of the wisdom of instrumentalising the Lib Dems as "the party that will stop Brexit"; if Brexit is stopped, which I think now vanishingly unlikely, it will be because of a change of mind by the Conservatives (which is why I think it vanishingly unlikely), and if it isn't, the party that promised to stop it will have failed to deliver. But at the same time, I'm glad that there remains a centre party in British politics (I think I am still a member myself), and the book gives me a good understanding of why Cable is leading it in the way that he does. You can get it here.
I've actually had this on the shelves since before the 2010 election, which brought Cable to power as Business Secretary in the Cameron/Clegg coalition government, but have only now got around to reading it. Cable then was one of the Lib Dems' star performers, who crashed out of parliament in 2015, but in 2017 returned and was almost immediately elected leader of the party unopposed. (I noted with amusement that the current Conservative and Labour leaders, Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn, are each referred to precisely once in Cable's book, and both of their names are misspelt.) He was 65 when this book was written and he is 74 now.
His personal and political journey is indeed an interesting one. I too was a Cambridge NatSci from an unfashionable part of the UK, and I too was an election candidate in my late twenties, but otherwise our paths have diverged somewhat. Cable gravitated from academe to a brief spell in government in the late 1970s, and then worked for Shell, reaching the rank of Chief Economist, until he got elected to Parliament for the first time in 1997. (This was after unsuccessful runs for Glasgow Hillhead in 1970 and York in 1983 and 1987). Few politicians come to politics with his level of economic expertise, let alone combined with practical experience of industry. He then was fortunate enough to be able to make the running in critiquing the Brown government's economic policy as the Great Recession started to bite, and the book is in a sense a victory lap for what was generally perceived as an outstanding political performance in the 2007-2009 period.
There is also the moving story of his marriage to his first wife, Olympia Rebelo, a Goan from Kenya. I think Cable is the only leader of a major British political party to have had a non-white spouse. Both families were very doubtful about the match, the Cables out of sheer racism, the Rebelos out of snobbishness. But by Cable's account, they were mostly happy, and he was clearly devastated when she died after a long illness, just a few days after he retained his seat in the 2001 election. Her presence resonates in the background of most of the book. (Oddly enough I knew someone at Cambridge with the same unusual surname as Cable's second wife; presumably a niece or cousin.)
Nine years on, I'm not completely convinced by Cable. The one time I saw him speak in Brussels, in January 2015, I was a bit underwhelmed (of course, this was in the dying days of the coalition, so he can perhaps be excused). Just as I was reading this book last month, he screwed up a meeting with European liberal leaders pretty massively. I'm also not sure of the wisdom of instrumentalising the Lib Dems as "the party that will stop Brexit"; if Brexit is stopped, which I think now vanishingly unlikely, it will be because of a change of mind by the Conservatives (which is why I think it vanishingly unlikely), and if it isn't, the party that promised to stop it will have failed to deliver. But at the same time, I'm glad that there remains a centre party in British politics (I think I am still a member myself), and the book gives me a good understanding of why Cable is leading it in the way that he does. You can get it here.
September 25, 2013
Recently I broke my long-time stance of refusing to read political memoirs. My refusal to indulge in the genre stemmed from a plurality of esteemed friends and respected figures deeming them, regardless of the author or readers’ respective political orientation, broadly uninspiring reads trotted out in an attempt to reshape one’s political legacy.
But we all have our soft spots, and my inclination toward a liberal outlook, so bereft of a flag bearing party in Australia, has lead to a rather acute obsession with the trials and tribulations of the UK Liberal Democrats (Lib Dems). A star in this party is Dr Vince Cable, party economic spokesperson and current Business & Innovation Secretary in the Coalition Government. Sometime earlier this year I stumbled upon a mention of Vince Cable’s 2010 memoir, Free Radical, and decided to ditch my self-imposed prohibition and find out what compelled the man to join what was (and still is) the squeezed third party of UK politics.
Before I delve into the content, I should add the book is well written, providing a clarity and wit that creates a compelling account of Cable’s life. Deployed early and often is the sardonic style of self-reflection that colours his writing. Growing up in a conservative household, his beginnings were quite modest – a fact Cable admits to playing up:
"Some memories are more ambiguous, like the large metal bathtub in front of the coal fire, which may well have been for me, but possibly for the whole family, as it was when I needed later on to impress left-wing audiences with my proletarian origins."
Though still a hero to progressive audiences, the Right have never warmed to him. Cable is often criticised by right-leaning UK media as the ‘anti-business’ Business Secretary; a leftie Lib Dem with little understanding of private enterprise. The further I read, the more I became convinced that I’ve been reading the Telegraph (a Murdoch rag) too often. Cable, as he recounts, spent years before the GFC trying to bring public attention to the dodgy lending practices of banks and the nation’s mounting private indebtedness. Though the solutions he now advocates may not be met with thunderous approval from the London financial district – it’s clear they are well thought out.
Cable’s liberalism is partly the result of his lack of major political success until relatively late in life. Elected as an MP at 54, he spent the majority of his career not as a staffer or in party HQ, but in a variety of roles in diplomacy, development economics, business and academia.
His first posting as an economist working in the Kenyan Treasury during the 1960s gave him a skepticism of centrally planned economies, seeing first-hand the corruption and rent-seeking they engendered. Here he paints an eloquent picture of a country in the process of casting off its colonial rulers, only to enter the thrall of a self-interested clique closer to home. The conclusions Cable draws largely conform with my own: when government is heavily involved in the market, business will always try to pull strings (often bribery in the developing world, lobbying in the West) to secure preferential status at a loss to the wider economy. Crony-capitalism if you will. Anyhow, his work in Kenya galvanised his belief that genuine competition, property rights and security for entrepreneurship were vital to a successful economy. He still saw a strong role for the state in healthcare, basic services and education, just not in picking and choosing market ‘winners’.
The strain of racial divisions in Kenya, echoed in his return to UK as a husband in a ‘mixed-race’ marriage, also lead him to adopt an aggressive stance towards baseless social intolerance. He also grew committed to seeing social mobility based on merit, unimpeded by race, family status or the like, achieved in society.
His life took several other turns, each pretty interesting, and all further informing his liberal stance. Liberalism aside, what endeared me most to Cable is his dogged rationalism. Whilst in high-school Cable became concerned that despite attending church throughout his childhood, he’d never once had a religious experience that could affirm his faith. He thus determined to visit every church in town (a sizeable number), methodically sampling denominations in search of a real connection to God. An eminently sensible idea! Being born into a particular denomination of religion strikes me as a terribly arbitrary way to end up with a belief system and conception of the divine.
His search for political identify proved just as varied. Chronologically he was President of the Cambridge University Liberals, a Labour Glascow Councillor and unsuccessful Social Democrat candidate, before winning his current seat in 1997 as a Lib Dem. His personal life gives the book some emotional punch – his first wife Olympia’s long fight against cancer is lost just days after his successful 1997 election; the devotion he showed her is the most touching part of the book. His interest in ballroom dancing, culminating in a Christmas Special debut on Strictly Come Dancing, shows his more eclectic side.
Overall, a great insight into the making of a model parliamentarian.
But we all have our soft spots, and my inclination toward a liberal outlook, so bereft of a flag bearing party in Australia, has lead to a rather acute obsession with the trials and tribulations of the UK Liberal Democrats (Lib Dems). A star in this party is Dr Vince Cable, party economic spokesperson and current Business & Innovation Secretary in the Coalition Government. Sometime earlier this year I stumbled upon a mention of Vince Cable’s 2010 memoir, Free Radical, and decided to ditch my self-imposed prohibition and find out what compelled the man to join what was (and still is) the squeezed third party of UK politics.
Before I delve into the content, I should add the book is well written, providing a clarity and wit that creates a compelling account of Cable’s life. Deployed early and often is the sardonic style of self-reflection that colours his writing. Growing up in a conservative household, his beginnings were quite modest – a fact Cable admits to playing up:
"Some memories are more ambiguous, like the large metal bathtub in front of the coal fire, which may well have been for me, but possibly for the whole family, as it was when I needed later on to impress left-wing audiences with my proletarian origins."
Though still a hero to progressive audiences, the Right have never warmed to him. Cable is often criticised by right-leaning UK media as the ‘anti-business’ Business Secretary; a leftie Lib Dem with little understanding of private enterprise. The further I read, the more I became convinced that I’ve been reading the Telegraph (a Murdoch rag) too often. Cable, as he recounts, spent years before the GFC trying to bring public attention to the dodgy lending practices of banks and the nation’s mounting private indebtedness. Though the solutions he now advocates may not be met with thunderous approval from the London financial district – it’s clear they are well thought out.
Cable’s liberalism is partly the result of his lack of major political success until relatively late in life. Elected as an MP at 54, he spent the majority of his career not as a staffer or in party HQ, but in a variety of roles in diplomacy, development economics, business and academia.
His first posting as an economist working in the Kenyan Treasury during the 1960s gave him a skepticism of centrally planned economies, seeing first-hand the corruption and rent-seeking they engendered. Here he paints an eloquent picture of a country in the process of casting off its colonial rulers, only to enter the thrall of a self-interested clique closer to home. The conclusions Cable draws largely conform with my own: when government is heavily involved in the market, business will always try to pull strings (often bribery in the developing world, lobbying in the West) to secure preferential status at a loss to the wider economy. Crony-capitalism if you will. Anyhow, his work in Kenya galvanised his belief that genuine competition, property rights and security for entrepreneurship were vital to a successful economy. He still saw a strong role for the state in healthcare, basic services and education, just not in picking and choosing market ‘winners’.
The strain of racial divisions in Kenya, echoed in his return to UK as a husband in a ‘mixed-race’ marriage, also lead him to adopt an aggressive stance towards baseless social intolerance. He also grew committed to seeing social mobility based on merit, unimpeded by race, family status or the like, achieved in society.
His life took several other turns, each pretty interesting, and all further informing his liberal stance. Liberalism aside, what endeared me most to Cable is his dogged rationalism. Whilst in high-school Cable became concerned that despite attending church throughout his childhood, he’d never once had a religious experience that could affirm his faith. He thus determined to visit every church in town (a sizeable number), methodically sampling denominations in search of a real connection to God. An eminently sensible idea! Being born into a particular denomination of religion strikes me as a terribly arbitrary way to end up with a belief system and conception of the divine.
His search for political identify proved just as varied. Chronologically he was President of the Cambridge University Liberals, a Labour Glascow Councillor and unsuccessful Social Democrat candidate, before winning his current seat in 1997 as a Lib Dem. His personal life gives the book some emotional punch – his first wife Olympia’s long fight against cancer is lost just days after his successful 1997 election; the devotion he showed her is the most touching part of the book. His interest in ballroom dancing, culminating in a Christmas Special debut on Strictly Come Dancing, shows his more eclectic side.
Overall, a great insight into the making of a model parliamentarian.
August 1, 2022
I'm not too sure what I expected from this book. I knew it was an autobiography, but before I read it I think I was expecting a different balance between the formative and active (?) parts of this book.
For the uninitiated, Vince Cable was the British politician who can most claim to being one of the first (if not the first) politician to see the banking and housing collapse coming. This probably come from the fact that, unlike many of his colleagues, he didn't enter Parliamnet fresh out of University, but had to work as an economist before finally gaining a seat.
The book is interesting, but as I said I'm not too sure about it. It's short and he doesn't miss anything out, but he's a member of a party that hasn't achieved a great deal till recently (and their most recent successes aren't covered here), so what's he really go to talk about?
His life is interesting in that he's got such a wide variety of interests (gained for broad travels overseas for the UN and Shell), but those of you who want more of an idea of the machinations of party politics should probably look elsewhere. Cable was once described to me as the "best Chancellor we'll never have" by a fellow Lib Dem, but he isn't the sort to give us the low down on salacious backroom deals.
For the uninitiated, Vince Cable was the British politician who can most claim to being one of the first (if not the first) politician to see the banking and housing collapse coming. This probably come from the fact that, unlike many of his colleagues, he didn't enter Parliamnet fresh out of University, but had to work as an economist before finally gaining a seat.
The book is interesting, but as I said I'm not too sure about it. It's short and he doesn't miss anything out, but he's a member of a party that hasn't achieved a great deal till recently (and their most recent successes aren't covered here), so what's he really go to talk about?
His life is interesting in that he's got such a wide variety of interests (gained for broad travels overseas for the UN and Shell), but those of you who want more of an idea of the machinations of party politics should probably look elsewhere. Cable was once described to me as the "best Chancellor we'll never have" by a fellow Lib Dem, but he isn't the sort to give us the low down on salacious backroom deals.
January 26, 2013
A fascinating autobiography that is honest in its self-critical examination of the life of one of politics' few respected members. The insight that Cable reveals into a career of public service is compulsive. It should be compulsory reading for anyone intending a future in the political arena, no matter what party they support.
December 11, 2013
The chapters about the illness and tragic death of Mr Cable's first wife are written very movingly, but the last couple of chapters are off putting, perhaps because his ambition shows too much. Interesting read though.
April 28, 2013
A good background to what I consider to be one of our true "conviction" politicians - recommended
Read
July 4, 2021DNF: just a bit dense and monotonous for me- would rather read a few hundred pages of something else.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews