Has Vince Cable really been consistently right on the economy?

If you listen to the BBC you might think that Vince Cable had been right all along and totally consistent in his views on the economy. Of course this is propaganda spread by an organisation desperate to prevent the Conservatives winning the general election. Of course the BBC would prefer a Labour victory but a Labour/Lib Dem alliance is definitely preferable to the 'nasty party' winning. Hence the BBC's boosting of Vince Cable and talk of a hung parliament.

So I was interested today to see that The Sun have turned on Vince Cable:

'LIB DEM deputy leader Vince Cable is today exposed as a hopeless "flip-flopper" who cannot make up his mind on what's best for the economy.

Wobbly Mr Cable - who triumphed with viewers in TV's Ask The Chancellors debate last week - has been caught out making a series of embarrassing U-turns on key policies.

It shatters his image as the wise and cool-headed "recession guru" who voters could trust to put Britain back on course.

Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Mr Cable, 66 - who could still land in the Cabinet if there is a hung Parliament - made these five monster flip-flops:

He slammed the Government in January last year for printing more money in a bid to kick-start the economy. He declared: "This is the Robert Mugabe school of economics."

Nine months later he claimed the plan was RIGHT and said: "There is a Robert Mugabe school but this is not it. If I gave that impression, it clearly was wrong."

Mr Cable said in December 2003, that Britain should not be "panicked" into cutting public spending by the International Monetary Fund.

But last September he claimed: "I argued that there was a problem in relation to asset prices and borrowing...

"I don't think I launched a sustained attack on the IMF."

He said in October 2008: "It is entirely wrong for the Government to stimulate the economy by yet more public spending."

In February last year his message had changed to: "We believe the Government stimulus is right and necessary."

When Mr Cable was asked in 2008 about Gordon Brown's backing for Lloyds TSB's takeover of stricken HBOS, he said: "We have no quarrel with what he did. That seemed the right approach."

Just four months later he said: "It looks increasingly as if Lloyds is being dragged under by the dead weight of HBOS." Mr Cable later admitted: "It's fair to say I did change my position on that issue."

He told the Lib Dem conference in September 2008: "The Government must not compromise the independence of the Bank of England by telling it to slash interest rates."

Only weeks later he said the Chancellor should urge the Governor of the Bank to make "a large cut in interest rates".'

Of course these five flip flops will not affect the BBC's pro-Vince 'narrative' in the slightest, after all there is an election to be affected.