Reporting. Just reminds me to say we have a great day. So weve got to do is identify the threats that we have its crazy confrontation let it be an arms race is on all sides very dramatic to follow only im going to resist i dont see how that strategy will be successful very critical time to sit down and talk. Welcome to alex i mean sure were doing this Global Pandemic ill be shipped election is quite late going on by me here at westminster originally no less than 5 i took the 11 liberal democrat m. P. Found to turn to being leader but one by one to feel the spend out until only 2 jimmy acting leader and favorite ed davey on the old 3 day. Today we asked former leader 13th cable to staff the strengths and weaknesses of the challenger but the crowd. Well i think that both strong and you know will be well served which of them wins i mean out and davey obviously has they experienced from a member of the cabinet after environment heavily into Climate Change negotiations things of that kind later is this is different she came in after at a coalition the completely new generation who will approach things in a fresh and different way and then former liberal democrat president ial candidate rand or pick i wonder if they had they view ends and be more of the same he looks like the favorite because hes had a lot more coverage because hes been knocked in maida but in actual fact theyve done more on stage should win because shes really the only person i have to say whos got a chance of becoming the posse if you really pen me down my moneys on lead them around because i think of this field say way. All that to come but 1st your tweets emails and messages on last weeks show on the art scene looked and which featured elaine c. Smith and got it for dale 1st joel says i really love the speak show about the theater and laughed out loud to funny story about the vehicle with their 784 local bank for the whole team keep up the good work with thank you and keep watching richard says just watch the interview with alex semin to speak about god for dos and to be great to hear about your work jumping arts in scotland and establishing a National Theatre agree with your criticism of Edinburgh Festival night dominated by comedy and commercial interests it urgently needs an overhaul fraser says its quite a relief this Edinburgh Festival is not on its so peaceful here it is exhausting heating the doing. Nelson says a fine example in further interest and encouragement in this field much attention has always been given to the to it as an industry that is of course the real task ahead in the rebuilding of industrial workplaces that once were right he says i took spanish friends last year it was dreadful we couldnt walk couldnt find a place to eat or sit and they had a very bad impression. Dave says i beat a file of the Edinburgh Festival and have introduced many of my friends and family to it its north toward raymond says was there last year for the festivals loved it one of my best vacations ever and finally i aberdeen see great to see the edge of festivals continuing as an event but knights of the liberal democrats alex is joined by the former party leader servants cable. That assesses to hosley is full of the liberal democrat leadership who better than former party leader sivans cable who joins me from his home in twickenham events welcome to the all examine show thats great to be with the other. Segments the little man on the ed davey both sav done to you when you are a liberal democrat liberal you know them a particular well i would just say the contrasting styles in the strengths and weaknesses of both candidates are well i think the book strong and you know will be well served whichever whens i mean out at davy obviously has they experienced from a member of the cabinet looked after environment heavily into prime it changed negotiations things about china and knows a lot of economics maghera groups good economic background layer is is different she came in after at a coalition a completely new generation very fresh approach and interesting cosmopolitan background and i have a mother who is palestinian shes you know absorbed in our quite a lot of that in our outlook looking International Way of looking at the world and shes buildout in the last 3 years on education shes very strong on education issues its all levels and will approach things in a fresh and different way if youve got a feeling for who might be ahead in the race thus far been you by thing any particular candidate not have come committing myself by the way i do think as a former leader its helpful but sometimes not right i dont i doubt be with either of them i would guess a david has some in the advantages because hes been around a while Everybody Knows him in the party latest trying to make themselves known that me out there but the thing with a Sporting Chance and it is of course a very unorthodox system of leadership are staying is entirely down the remote rate so we dont normally have. Its been quite difficult to generate a huge amount of publicity for the leadership contest id say the party ranks the self to do you think that thats a feature of the Global Pandemic they audit as a more a commentary on the other party only having 11 m. P. s but its a mix of both but the biggest challenge was in the same challenge i have but its now worse is that the partys breaking through 3 you know really bad elections 1517 and last year its been knocked back and i think mr chicory hard last time because we built up sent me in the last stages when i was leader to a good position about 20 percent of the polls we were doing well in the government in the year elections and we slumped again and picking our peoples in the raw in those circumstances is really very difficult so i dont envy the new leader its a major task and of course you have this additional problem that if you have a small number of m. P. s you get very little attention and tolerance its difficult to be cold in a way very much to fill a spot say after your proxy in parliamentary terms its also difficult to get into the media so its its going to be a very difficult job i found it hard enough but theyd modestly 70 you past all the Great Electoral success that you had as leader only a year ago in the european elections where you were 20 percent of the vote came 2nd in the polls labelled the tories were absolutely nowhere. As any 4 thought a few big. Staying on the taking advantage of the platform and and leaving the past into the last general election. And i think we will have mixed feelings about these things and ive made a conscious decision i want you to pass on to the next generation and get on with not i can do anything richard what im doing now but. Yeah i said. Sometimes think there you know if ive been there i wouldnt have done this i would never down that but i think whoever had been leader we were going to have problems in that december election now actually one of the fractures in interest very powerful in the kind of children leading areas they named live stock and thats you know different politics that whistle state message deterrent effect of mr cole being you know i got down off the door people saying we got to vote for you agree with you and youre a weak white guy your client say that were not going to risk having that not running the country and now unfortunately you know really did for ascribe a lot of damage but no ever been leader and would have had to contend with what was a moment last year in the aftermath of the baathist johnsons defeat in may and the Supreme Court when his policy on parliament was the clear of unlawful when his government was rocking what was so any moment. And see blacks a coalition could have been brought together with a bit of flexibility and the and change the course of history or do you think that it was an illusion that that could have happened well there was a kind of and she breaks it coalition you know we Work Together i Work Together very runway for environment and the russian nationalists never the greens now this story depicted as we had a very good operation that there wasnt in not hostile. Mention actually behind they the idea of a new a referendum on the on the outcome they negotiate it was the chemical setting and that was in large part because there was a substantial body of labor m. P. s maybe fake joining the coven himself was ambiguous can we just didnt have enough to get that over the line unfortunately that was the critical thing and with some level. A moment we have a compromise candidate as an end to the Prime Minister of a clock failure could have been a phone or was that something ruled out by the labor party while the liberal democrats were ruling out jeremy carbon what was them nothing could have been done to given the proximity of brechts the john snow to doning state while you had the chance i think that was the signal out from the right light certainly played with it now i argued for it no once of this did some good i can plug them in the well this that he is a superb character who wasnt a party leader to get commanded prosperities book that was in the name of the solution i think there was a genuine problem with the labor party is that means there was a very public musician a government that privately they might settle about certainly we you know my Parent Teacher got quite a strident position of not having the labor leader and i think if we could have got that neutral 3rd term see if we go ahead leader that we might have made some headway on that and i think historians will focus on that particular point that was there was a point at which the Campaign Starts the regular way and theres a great deal enthusiasm in the run up to the general election from the liberal democrats and indeed the s. N. P. Thats their have an election but the end game is the johnsons and domingue state with a 2 seat majority in the can basically do a lakes. Easy were fighting state of course but with that probably wasnt the wisest election to be forced ever it wasnt i mean i think i could understand why your proxy for string election and they were in and doing doing very well in the polls in scotland. I think iraq a state probably was a mistake we could have come back and try to modify the legislation on the treaty as it went through parliament. I think if we made one big mistake it was calling for revoke an hour i mean i mean we all agreed that in the final analysis revocation was the thing to do that rueful as a campaigning is here it wasnt right. Great campaign for 2 years im guessing the referendum we should start with that i think a lot of people were aware of the parts often leave me out in the correct tray idea of just cancelling may the last referendum having is one of the mistakes that some of our campaign has made and how should the potty approach but i accept no no that this as happened legally and is about to happen economically i mean whats in the past these authors youve done the deed the the 2 candidates the leadership of the host the deal with the the blacks the issue now well i think you know shouting about it probably isnt helpful nobodys listening on that sent me on the other side people made up their minds the thing is gone through it so clearly easy to sound you know a side rapes backward looking i think what were now going to see that they believe this do is to sketch out a kind of a future which is here opinion but isnt just talking back to the owner arrangements and that i think we will see in the next 5 to 10 years and an approach within europe which ally was certain countries to go its a different spade i know this is often they discuss macron his has advocated it that countries that are not toxic they have monetary and i have no intention of vain but nonetheless wish to play out an Important Role in europe from them probably are able to get back to a kind of norwegian type of close straight integration i mean i think thats thats the frame in which pro europeans and i think in your county as well would probably be quite comfortable with that kind of position. Stay with us after the big for more from vince cable as he and alex discuss the liberal democrats contest for and you will see that. I dont. Meet those goals you know some of them may contain this interview or maybe if you dont die for a mouse you by going by each. Moment. Our lives. Change your whole life change. Your welcome back as alex talks to form a liberal Democrat Party leader 3rd vince cable. Spence cable is this to teach it difficult to the liberal democrats have the keir starmer as they did paddling the labor party the feel they are not the bytes of the Center Ground the politics which decreases the the openings that the liberal democrats would have if the labor party were positioned much farther to the left is that a key strategic difficulty or the how should either of the leadership candidates seek to tackle that but i see it as an opportunity rather than as a defeat and seeing as i as i explained earlier i think one of the reasons a lot of our putative supporters backed off was because of fear of a hard left labor government and i think if you have a labor leadership which is electable look you know i care stan there i think certainly comes into africa agree that there are parts of the of the Country Park Service of england and of states in scotland where. You know people will go to the lib dems and want to go and where labor are not serious competitors around thinking my own seat you know right now a big general simple there are a lot of other places around in the start making then you know the guilt for the winter stirs which didnt go last time which would go next time some of the suburbs a bunch of stir. Era go in yorkshire places like that you know maybe there are 3030. 00 plus states which we could weigh in. With anyway that way complementary to the labor party rather than competitive. That happens you know you got serious numbers for an alternative government. Tried is there in 1970 and thats how many of us got into problems in the 1st place going to be a revolution it was a complementarity with the labor party round the competition you see a fight over their servants cable one that message of the future 3rd then to 5 for some of the the new stars and the that liberal democrat firmament will take the message forward and what would you say to them given your experience in politics will be your message to the rising stars of liberal democracy well i think you know you have to be a resilient and i think people often say dont vote so you need you know real talents in weeks and and intelligence of course those things that matter but they i think the quality more than anything that you require is stamina ability to take punishment and to keep going on and to come back that said jane simmons of my own party we got some very very good people neera will sing who you know are you know 1st i think minority candidate has come up to a general election daisy cooper and some tokens and theyre very very capable people and i think it will be in good hands so thats cable former leader of the liberal democrats demonstrating those life after politics thank you very much for joining us on the Alex Amen Phil thank you both so both cable will pay think both leadership kind of gifts like edge to edge t. V. In the race for the liberal crowd for a rather different view alec trying to form a lead them n. P. R. And political commentator lembit of paint so hes going to weigh in this liberal democrat raise a thumb to former liberal democrat m. P. Alleged opec member whos going to when little about on all day david. Its a day and 8 but i can give you more than just a casual cautiously waited response if they had dave uns or to be more of the same coming he looks like one a bit because hes had a lot more coverage because hes been Young Team Leader but in actual fact its laid out more and she should win because shes really the only person i have to say hes got a chance of becoming the party if you really pen me down my moneys on lay them around except think of the students a way so youre backing the site of according to the betting what is the special factor you think off of the liberal democrats change lets remember that davey carries a huge amount of baggage i used to share an office with mint fact and he was right down the line with the nick clegg cabal we know the name thanks about the law and nick like particularly destroyed the party wrote a book about this and sadly for the lib dems as truth right and just about every prediction of the other thing about a date is shes mired by the fact that he voted for peace to students direct break coach a call promise in the 20 time general election and really did pull the student but the lib dems you cant get away from that fact by contrast made them around wasnt there she isnt my ad by that problem and also shes quite clearly a radical left leaning libertarian shes quite characterful as well i dont think david can offer anything new i dont dislike him hes a decent man but i dont think can offer anything new whereas lead him around might be the shots in the arm that the dems need for a long and slow recovery oh let me put the conservation with only 11 members of parliament 5 in the Scottish Parliament one in the the Welsh Parliament dont deliberately have to actually need something of a governmental experience to give the the party somewhere that doesnt have the terms of numbers they dont need some governmental experience thats irrelevant. If anything its a negative because the governmental experience that day because hes with them is the baggage of a coalition which destroyed the liberal democrats under nick clegg how does he explain why he voted so consistently with the conservatives when we know thats a big minus a big turn off for many of the traditional liberal democrat voters who deserted the posse when may felt this outed by nick cleggs on of the consent of coalition by contrast then american is not tarnished by that brush thats remembered not tempt faran who has recently did well specifically because he was an outsider during the coalition with the conservatives so i dont think theres any benefits or to be absolutely pedantic about this any experience and benefit not sad davy carries with him from government is more than outweighed by the negatives for exactly the same reason that oppression a celeb or paid. O