Vince Cable called for businesses to get greater access to loans The Lib Dems are not "anti-bank or anti-banker", party Treasury spokesman Vince Cable has insisted.In a speech in London, he said semi-nationalised banks like Lloyds and RBS were "key" to the UK's success. But he reiterated his call for them to be broken up, arguing that taxpayers must be "totally disengaged" from the risks of global investments. Government must also do more to ensure banks lend to UK firms needing funds on affordable terms, he added. Despite his criticism of their behaviour in the years before the 2008 crisis and continuing attacks on their lending and bonus practices in recent months, Mr Cable said he was not instinctively hostile to banks. 'Irresponsible'"I have said some harsh things about the banks in the past - going back a decade or more - warning that their lifestyle was dangerously unhealthy; arguing against misguided demutualisation, irresponsible mortgage and consumer lending," he told business information firm Thompson Reuters "But I haven't come here today to rehash the past, claim to be a new Nostradamus, allocate blame or give a sermon.[Read more...]