'Cablegate' is political reprieve for Lib Dems

Unless Vince Cable is forced to resign due to the media furore surrounding the 'Cablegate' controversy, it will prove a victory for the Lib Dem propaganda machine.

The Telegraph's revelations are superbly timed for a party at a historical low in terms of public relations. The tuition fee fiasco threatened to blow the Lib Dems apart and seriously eroded their credibility, but recent controversy surrounding Vince Cable and other senior Lib Dems - such as Norman Baker, Michael Moore, Ed Davey and Steve Webb - acts, in a bizarre way, to rehabilitate their sullied image. They may be stooges, but at least they're not complete stooges - or so the journalistic stings would have us believe.

Call me cynical, but I think it's highly unlikely that all these senior Lib Dem figures could be duped by undercover journalists. Surely, as experienced public figures, they have more political nous. Instead, it smells like a co-ordinated media ploy to resurrect their reputation as an unsilent partner which is curtailing the Conservative right and championing progressive politics. The sidelining of Cable also has the convenient side-effect of removing senior Lib Dem officials from the firing line of front line government. For now, the Lib Dems have shifted the focus. Instead of spineless political chameleons, they look like spineless political martyrs too enamoured with power to stand up for their crumbling beliefs.

If the Lib Dems had any backbone at all then they wouldn't boast to undercover journalists, they would resign. All Cablegate has shown is that the Lib Dems lack all sense of political principle. Let's hope in the local elections next May - and future General Elections - the electorate doesn't forget the Lib Dem betrayal or their continuing love of 'old' politics.