QUESTION AND ANSWER WITH VINCE CABLE

As a Scot I understand there is growing evidence that an increasing number of students from our more deprived areas are now attending universities in England, Wales and N.Ireland in comparison to Scotland over the past 2-3 years. What is the best EVIDENCE based answer to the Tuition fees question on the doorstep?

Should we as a country and as a party be trying to increase public investment in science as a % of GDP - which is low by international standards, and falling - and what trade-offs do you think we should be prepared to make to achieve that?

Would you be prepared to support the Liberal Democrats going into Coalition with the Labour Party after the General Election?

Lib Dem manifestos for years have included replacing business rates with a tax based only on the value of the site. There’s a very strong economic case, with the IFS saying that “this is such a powerful idea, and one that has been so comprehensively ignored by governments, that the case for a thorough official effort to design a workable system seems to us to be overwhelming.” What do you think of the prospects for this reform over the next few years, and what do Lib Dems need to do differently to make it happen?

Policies such as the benefits cap and the “bedroom tax” have been designed to cut welfare spending as part of the Government’s austerity drive. Added to this there are ideological attacks on the poor coming from the Conservative Party and right wing tabloid newspapers. Capitalism works best when it works for the whole of society not just the wealthy at the top of society. How do we best protect the welfare state and oppose Tory ideological attacks on policies designed to redistribute wealth to the most vulnerable in society?

John Stuart Mill and Jo Grimond were big supporters of co-operatives and Liberals have always supported workers’ rights. Today there is a big power gap between executives and their employees, furthermore there are few mutuals on the high street. Co-operatives are needed to tackle inequalities in power and to ensure a fairer share of profits throughout their companies. What do you think should be done to promote co-operatives and to empower workers in their workplaces?

I'm a big supporter of small businesses and 'keep trade local' approach. It keeps our high streets and employment versatile. While we have small changes in the Localism bill to vary some elements of business rates - wouldn't it be great to devolve the power to set rates to local councils in entirety - allowing micro business (>9 employees eg) to have much lower rates than the huge conglomerates such as supermarkets which march in and push smaller places out of the market? You've discussed different rates for small businesses in the past - what chances are there of achieving something like this?

Vince, Legal highs are a topical issue - and the shops, completely legitimate, often attract negative activity including illegal drug use, antisocial behaviour and related crime. Having secured licences for lapdancing venues, I wonder if a similar approach could be taken for legal highs. For example, a council can 'licence' the shop - therefore keeping it away from troubled areas, or schools, at the request of the public. I appreciate this is really a Home Office Question - but I'd be interested in your perspective on this. Kelly-Marie

UNISON says that 220,000 care workers are illegally being paid less than the minimum wage of £6.50 an hour. These care workers are essential to society and provided much needed care for the disabled and elderly. Some of them would be parents and these low wages lead to child poverty. The union is calling for you to instruct HMRC to investigate the situation. Can you please tell me what you plan to do?

Thanks to the Lib Dems, reports to Council committees in Kingston carry paragraphs which outline the environmental implications of any recommendation, as well as the resource and legal implications. Should Parliament be forced to consider the social implications of any economic laws and regulations?

Given the rising costs of essential public services - notably health - and the vital work Social Liberals want to see on housing and welfare, shouldn't we be slowing down our efforts to reduce the deficit? How can we promise to reduce it fairly if we stick to the same (revised) timetable as the Tories? [Declaration of interest: I argued at the Spring Conference in 2010 that we should only aim to get rid of the deficit over 2-3 parliaments]

Membership of political parties is way down, church attendance has collapsed, local pubs have shut, Britain's High Streets have been monopolised, more old people are living in loneliness, the distance from home kids are allowed to play has diminished to zero, and the vast majority of social capital (both within and between socio-economic groups) indicators are on a precipitous downward trend. Considering that the aim of economics is to facilitate human ends, what should economists and the government aim to do to reverse the collapse of British civil society and our communities? Why are these types of issues, rather than the more dismal parts of the dismal science, not something that political parties seem keen to engage with as a political and electoral priority?

Before the 2010 changes in the tuition fees regime, you openly argued for a switch to a graduate tax. Do you regret introducing a tuition fee system which is effectively a graduate tax in all but name, but which is almost as costly as the old system (and may well prove in the next few years to be more costly - either way, it will be borderline) when the stated objective of the new system was to cut costs & make savings which have patently not been made; and which massively underestimated repayment levels, which will already necessitate further changes to the system, probably early in the next parliament? As such, do you accept that if and when further changes are made to the system of student fees (probably involving students paying yet more money, and involving less favourable terms for repayments, with the various "progressive" concessions eliminated), it will be as a result of your failure to have come up with a system that is both sustainable and fair?

Many people are very concerned that the TTIP deal could lead to situations such as in Canada where an attempt to ban fracking is being challenged under a similar trade agreement. Do you share my relief that the proposed investor-to-state dispute settlement (ISDS) has been dropped and my belief that trade deal could easily unfair trade and that it is the opposite of free trade?

As a party in coalition with a party who seems intent on growth through reduction in public spending while the economy is weak, do you think the Lib Dems can still consider themselves a Keynesian party? As an economist, which school of academic economics (e.g. Keynsian, post-Keynesian, neoclassical, Minskyian, Austrian etc) has come out of the Great Recession and its aftermath with its credibility most enhanced?