Vince Cable compared to 'all-seeing' Lord of the Rings wizard Saruman

 
'All-seeing': Business Secretary Vince Cable
Lindsay Watling16 July 2014
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Business Secretary Vince Cable was today compared to the "all-seeing" Lord of the Rings wizard Saruman by an MP calling for more power to be handed to entrepreneurs.

Conservative Richard Fuller said the senior Liberal Democrat started with the "best intentions" but had ultimately left too much control in the hands of the Government.

In the Tolkien story, Saruman is sent to Middle-earth to challenge the evil Sauron but eventually desires his power for himself and tries to take over the land by force.

Speaking in the Commons during the debate on the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill, Mr Fuller (Bedford) said: "We live in the age of the entrepreneurs.

"They look to this Bill and this Government for inspiration, and indeed there is much in this Bill that can inspire them, but alas too much in the way of intervention and regulation.

"As if the Secretary of State sees himself as a real-world version of Saruman, that character in Middle-earth who came down with the best of intentions but unfortunately took the power unto himself and believed that he alone was benign enough and all-seeing that he could create a wonderful environment...in which all would be good.

"But alas the Secretary of State has not read his [Friedrich] Hayek. He does not understand it is a far better solution for our country's economy to leave those decisions and those powers in the hands of the entrepreneurs."

Hayek, best known for his defence of classic liberalism, wrote a book against economic planning, The Road to Serfdom, shortly after the Second World War.

In it, he warned that the harmful influence of the bureaucrat was almost as much of a threat to a free society as the iron boot of Stalin.

Mr Fuller continued: "People who start their own small businesses or run their small businesses are heroes. Every day they take the risks, they work the extra hours, they manage the anxieties and they go the extra mile to create employment and wealth."

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