Vince Cable letter: a square peg digging his own round hole Whether deliberately leaked by Mr Cable, rehashed by Labour from a previously published story, or whatever, Mr Cable's letter to Downing Street on the need for a national industrial policy hits a raw nerve. There are few charges the Government is more sensitive to than that of being so obsessed with deficit reduction that it is failing to provide "a clear and confident message about how we earn our living in future." As he puts the finishing touches to a Budget expected to stick rigidly to the current austerity programme, this is the sort of criticism George Osborne, the Chancellor, could well have done without. For it to have come from his own Government, albeit a Liberal Democrat who has consistently behaved more like an obstreperous back-bench MP than a member of the Cabinet, makes it doubly infuriating, the more so as Mr Cable's strictures seem to contain at least an element of truth. It's not just Mr Cable and the usual suspects in opposition who believe Britain is failing to articulate a credible industrial strategy; his views are shared by many in the business community and in the Tory hierarchy, including Michael Heseltine, the former deputy prime minister, who has long been a vocal champion of a more interventionist approach. Some of what Mr Cable says makes sense; few are going to disagree with the need for more joined up government thinking in support of business, or even using public procurement to develop uniquely British supply chains. But as one colleague put it last night, "if that's what Vince wants to do, why isn't he doing it? After all, he is the Business Secretary. He claims frustration from budgetary constraints, but industrial strategy has to be about more than just handing out grants or otherwise spending taxpayers" money. Many on the Right would argue that state interventionism of the type Mr Cable advocates is precisely the wrong approach. When Nicholas Ridley became Secretary of State for Trade and Industry under Margaret Thatcher, he told bewildered civil servants that he couldn't really see the point of the department at all, as the correct role of government when it came to business was simply to stay out of the way. Some business leaders describe Mr Cable as possibly the worst Business Secretary they've ever had - and that's quite an achievement. Bankers were spivs, he told the Lib Dem conference little more than a year ago, while capitalism killed the competition. A square peg in a round hole if ever there was one, Mr Cable makes a peculiarly inappropriate cheerleader for business. There are a few sound ideas here amid the wider command and control environment Mr Cable aspires to, but perhaps he should move over and let someone else do the implementation.