Vince Cable in Court

The Court Room at Brown’s in St Martin’s Lane was the unusual venue for this evening’s Westminster LibDems’ annual dinner; in past years, it has tended to be in the House of Lords. In the dock, so to speak, was the party’s Deputy Leader and Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Vince Cable, who gave an impassioned defence of Liberal policies on matters as diverse as Northern Rock, tackling the culture of binge borrowing, and pressing for a referendum on Britain’s continuing membership of the European Union (rather than on the Lisbon Treaty). It was a magisterial performance. After his brief spell as Acting Leader during the final months of last year, one expected nothing less.

On Monday, he will be in a working court, as he is appearing in a case largely instigated by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT), regarding the continuing suppression of information relating to British arms deals with Saudi Arabia. Vince memorably took a principled line in refusing to snuggle up to the Saudi King on his state visit to Britain last year, and is still pressurising the Labour government to come clean not only on what they have been covering up, but also the previous Conservative administration. It is always risky for a political party to claim the moral high ground, but Vince repeatedly demonstrates that he actually occupies it, doing the Liberal Democrats huge credit in the process and winning approval across the board.