The Periscope Post

The Telegraph

No one has been quite sure where the new Business Secretary, Vince Cable, nails his political colours. Is he a “Leftie reformer” or a “hard-hearted “axeman”? Following his first major speech in the new job, The Telegraph concluded that his “heart may be hard, but it is also in the right place”. Cable promised to make the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) the “department for economic growth”, cut red tape, put the focus on business rather than borrowing, and start killing off and merging many of the 74 quangos attached to his department. “This is the right direction of travel, and the sense of urgency is impressive,” said the paper.

The Independent

Not for the first time when it has come to the coalition government, The Independent was in unison with The Telegraph. Vince Cable showed both of his sides yesterday, hailing economic liberalism but also stressing his willingness to take on “cosy cartels” and judge capitalism by its results. “It was all compelling – and intelligent – stuff,” said the paper. But there remains scope for internal coalition battles, not least over capital gains tax and short-term speculation. Moreover, warned the paper, Cable is in charge of “the micro, rather than the macro economic world”. His success will largely depend on the influence he can exert over the latter.

The Times

While BP’s corporate reputation, and coffers, sink in the Gulf of Mexico, its chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg remains “missing”. His “lack of status on the political circuit s now a serious disadvantage,” said The Times. Other corporate leaders have tried the “disappearing trick” in testing times, including, most recently, the chief executive and chairman of Prudential. But such behaviour is anachronistic: “The era in which business decisions were taken in private is over.” The paper’s message was clear: BP “needs a heavyweight public diplomat rather than the absentee who is presiding over a disaster in silence.”

The Guardian

Both the Minister for International Development, Andrew Mitchell, and David Cameron have promised a “transparent, accountable and empowering aid agenda”; but, warned The Guardian, “they overstate their case”. The government believes that it needs to prove to taxpayers that money is well spent but “measuring outcomes can result in a distorting bureaucracy that misses the complexity of a problem”. Is development a “moral imperative” or a “tool of foreign policy”? Both cases have been made. “In opposition, the Tories used their conversion to the importance of aid as proof that they were nasty no more. It’s a card that plays both ways.”