Business secretary Vince Cable brushed off a newspaper sting which saw him stripped of some Government responsibilities.
The Lib Dem minister insisted he had a 'job to do' as he visited Uppermill on the campaign trail ahead of the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election.
He was stripped of his media responsibilities after being embarassed by a sting by the Daily Telegraph in which Mr Cable, who was overseeing the proposed take-over of BSkyB by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, told undercover reporters he would 'declare war on Murdoch'.
Speaking publicly for the first time since the story, Mr Cable bushed off the incident as a 'pre-Christmas frenzy', telling reporters: "I've got a job to do and I'm going to get on with it."
He later told the M.E.N. the sting had jeopardised the relationship between every MP and their constituents.
He said: "There's a danger that MPs surgeries are no longer treated as a kind of haven of confidentiality as they were in the past. I'm determined I'm not going to let it affect the relationship with my constituents. I have met thousands of people on a one-on-one basis during my years as an MP and I don't what that to be undermined by what happened."
He was speaking over an ice-cream in A Month Of Sundaes ice-cream parlour after visiting a string of businesses in Uppermill.
Asked how bad the economy would get, Mr Cable insisted he could see 'light at the end of the tunnel' despite the massive cuts in public spending.
"I don't think anybody doubts times will be difficult because we are having to make difficult decisions on public spending to get the budget under control. We inherited a massive debt that wasn't sustainable," he said.
"My job is working with business to get the recovery going and what we are already beginning to see are quite a lot of signs of business growth, particularly in manufacturing. I think we can very clearly see light at the end of the tunnel. We are already seeing private sector job growth and investment in manufacturing. There are a lot of positive things happening in the economy.
"But there's no doubt we are going to have to o through a difficult period when the cuts take effect."
Mr Cable made the visit to Uppermill to back Lib Dem candidate Elwyn Watkins, whose susseccful legal action against Labour's Phil Woolas prompted the by-election on January 13.
Mr Woolas was stripped of his seat after a special court found him guilty of lying in election leaflets
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Former Nulabor win by a nose.
Sold out LibDem maybe second.
The rest looking for the tea and biscuits trolley.
There you go Oldham East and Saddleworth save your some money on voting campaign. Happy New Year.
I wonder if cable will admit that the financial state that the country is in at the moment isn't as a result of mismanagement of the last government (which I was never a fan of), but the fault of greedy bankers which forced the government to bail them out with loans totalling billions of pounds, which will come back to the people. Admit that the real reason for the so called austerity measures is so that tax breaks can be given to the middle and upper classes just before the next election if you manage a five year term. Personally, I think that when there is lib-dem wipeout in May, it'll only be a matter of months if not weeks before a new general election.
Pitty he couldn't see the undercover report at the end of the desk though, LOL!?
Or the student riots at the end of the year after him and his leader Nick Clegg lied to us about Tuition Fees & EMA after their broken Election Pledges ?
It seems to me your average LibDem can't see beyond the end of their current , and ONLY , role in the Coalition as Yes men to the Tories.
It's Bit late to start looking ahead now Vince ! We needed you to speak out seven months ago when your Party did a deal with reactionary millionaire Tories like Cameron & Osborne & let the Devil in the back door of Number 10 ...the voters won't forget this LibDem sell out for a VERY, VERY long time to come !
Lets face it, current politics is a lost cause. We need a whole new way of rational thinking but we'll never get it. Sad.
Same old dinosaur politician,applies to all 3 mainstream parties.They just do not get it do they? Voting turnout has generally speaking been dropping for over 30 years,not a word of explanation is offered by the leaders of the OLD gang as to why that is so.
The expenses scandal is STILL relevant,and these people want to pretend that we have confidence in them,and that they really do represent us,and all the alleged fiddling has stopped ,really? We need a whole new view and a new party or parties to Really support us and start to build up some trust.Get rid of the lot and make a fresh start...........
Yes Mr Cable. You've just woken up from your dream and switched on your lamp. Thats the light.
how can anyone believe anything that comes out of this mans mouth???
If you do your very nieve............
this cable must be looking down a different tunnel from the rest of the country, a bit like the lies both his party and the tory party gave out at the last election. their moto seems to be we are all in it together, ONLY WE WON'T BE PAYING ANYTHING TOWARDS IT.
Light at the end of he tunnel eh?
The whole basis of our economy is based on the gamblers and insider information crooks of the City of London...and until this is addressed life for the rest of us will tax and more tax.
No matter what so called government we have at Westminster..if the money men say jump,MP's say how high!
The coalition will sort out the ecomony,sorting out the damage created by years of Labour borrow and spend policies.
for the socialists the way to sort out our ecomony has been reduced to taxing the greedy bankers ,.never do they explain how we will replace the lost tax revenues when the banks and bankers relocate abroad.
,socialists want every citizen to be sucking on the public sector teat, either by being employed on the state payroll or be in receipt of some handout ,.
its going to take the coalition 5 years to get rid of the deficit , it will then take another 100 years to address the debts,
The light could be a train coming towards him!
Debbie Abrahams is, I believe, campaigning on the police cuts issue with the support of Lewis from Morse.
The LibDems at Stockport repeatedly called the police to an innocent prostester at the town hall, who after a decade of trying to get counselling help for his daughters adopted from Stockport Council and who had a terrible time with their birth parents, decided to stand outside Stockport town hall until they did help him. There were over 150 times the police called, 49 arrests, one with the police called with blue flashing lights for using the town hall public lavatory when he had written permission from the Chief Exec to do so. He was arrested for trying to attend his own benefits tribunal at Stockport Town Hall when told to claim benefits by a judge. One court case dropped on the day of the hearing which I assume police had to prepare for. Sentenced to 2 years house arrest 8am to 8pm, a crown court trial for alleged assault with a sneeze which the court found didn't happen, multiple imprisonments in Forest Bank prison, a further £10,000 per day 3 day crown court jury trial for going to a council department, being told to go to Stopford House to speak to Assistant Chief Executive Ged Lucas, where the Council promptly had him arrested again for entering Stopford House. The LibDems Councillor Foster Grime and MP Andrew Stunell both moaned in their election leaflets about not enough police presence. If Mr Stunell's political chums at Stockport would stop using the police to persecute an innocent man and do their jobs instead, the the police would be able to catch real criminals.
In the serious case reviews of Andrea Adams who tragically jumped from a tower block after contact with Stockport Council and Alison Davies who jumped from the Humber Bridge with her 9-year-old autistic son Ryan, Stockport Council vowed to help people who came to them requesting assistance for troubled children. They imprisoned the town hall prostester instead.
This case must have cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds in total.
Don't ever believe a word any LibDem ever says.
No matter what the Rt Hon Vince Cable says thereality is that fuel prices are shooting up. Many are going to end up with no money at all and falling into debt. This is what I did to cut down on my fuel bills and also help the government reach its green tagets.
REDUCE YOUR FUEL BILL BY 40% AND MORE!
I USE A FUEL THAT COSTS ONLY 0.00000010 OF A PENNY!
I hope this helps you. The price of diesel and petrol is shooting up daily. If you need to cut fuel costs, read on!
Fuel Cells are easy to install use only water as a storage mechanism, no danger of fire like there is with Petrol or Diesel. Imagine a fuel costing 0.00000010 of a penny. Installing a fuel cell that produced Browns gas (Oxygen and Hydrogen) on demand enables saving of potentially 40% on your fuel bill. We will also tell how you can make some other improvements that will enhance this figure.
Fuel Cells use water & a litre can produce 8,000 litres of Browns gas. Water costs 86 pence for 1000 litres so the cost of one litre of Browns gas is 86 pence divided by 1,000 & then divided by 8,000 = 0.00000010 of a penny.
Fuel cell are easy to install. it fits in most cars & just about any Taxi, Bus, Truck, Static engine for pumps and generators, Narrow boats, Fishing boats, Tugs, huge road equipment using diesel or petrol engines. Fuel cells save huge amounts on diesel & petrol. Find info ... Tfuelcell dot com. Oh! it is NOT fed through diesel injectors so no problems there.
A middle eastern country has installed them in their jets fighters to enhance performance, save fuel & increase range.
Savings on my installation are as high as 28 % on fuel, emissions from 1.7 to .8 then to .75 within a week.
the problem that vince cable has..........no one believes a word he says anymore......or any lib dem mp......they are all there by false broken promises and will be lucky to have 10 mps left after the next election