Vincit Omnia

Vince Cable is the expert economist Liberal Democrat who wasn't made Chancellor when they went into coalition with the Tories. The job went instead to Gideon George Osborne, who hasn't a single qualification in the field and who has never worked outside politics.

Vince is bored by his job in the Business Department, and uncomfortable in alliance with the Tory Scum.

Thankfully, he's lashed out today at overpaid Vice-Chancellors of universities. Yes, the pay gap between company directors and workers is at record levels (85 times average shopfloor earnings now) but he can't do much about that.

Obviously, I wouldn't dream of offering an opinion on whether or not there's an inverse relationship between the competence, intellectual vision and management skills of my dear leader and her wages. I'll just point out that, with inflation taken into account, I've taken a pay cut and she very much hasn't. As to the bonus scheme for upper management… but no, this is a family blog.

I'll just leave you with Vince's words:

The business secretary, Vince Cable, has launched a scathing attack on university vice-chancellors over their generous pay packages, accusing them of being out of step with reality and having little sense of the "self-sacrifice" needed in the current climate.

The Liberal Democat said he had been "taken aback" to discover thatsalaries had risen last year by more than 10% and the government was sending a "very strong signal" that high awards were unacceptable at a time of a funding crisis in the sector. 

"There is some gap between reality and expectations in some of those institutions and although it is not our job to control pay – it is an independent mechanism – we want to signal to them that there has got to be some restraint."

Contrasting the attitude of the university heads with that of managers in the private sector, where some were taking pay cuts to help keep their firms afloat, he said: "I just get absolutely no sense in the university sector that there is the same degree of realism and of self-sacrifice which is going to have to happen if we are going to preserve the quality of university education. There is clearly salary escalation at the top level that bears no relation to the underlying economics of the country."