Vince Cable goes solo after Daily Mail fanbase

It was clever, funny and powerful enough to be a leader's speech. Vince Cable, suddenly an elder statesman of the British political scene, was showing off his peculiarly effective speaking technique - reassuringly unpolished and unprofessional - at the Liberal Democrat spring conference. Aides said he had spent a long time in his hotel room beforehand practising how to look spontaneous. They probably shouldn't have done.

It was love: the minute's standing ovation would have lasted much longer if the bossy chairwoman on stage had not told the auditorium to shut up so they could debate motion F16, changes to the party's position on legal aid. As we filed out, it was impossible not to wonder what might have been if Vince had stood for the leadership.

While Nick Clegg is still struggling to define himself - and aides admit that he hasn't really managed it yet - Vince is making his own private pitch for Middle England, designed to attract traditionally un-Liberal Democrat Daily Mail readers. He is attacking the City and it's "whine of self-pity" (ironic given Cable's background as an economist in the oil industry), picking a fight with Tesco by accusing them of tax avoidance, and telling foreign millionaires who don't want to pay British taxes to go home.

His pitch is as the man to fight vested interest on behalf of the average family and Paul Dacre:

We cannot tolerate a two-nation society divided between the taxpayers and the tax dodgers. The extent of tax avoidance amongst many rich people has become a national scandal.

Cable's ambitions did not disappear when he stepped down as acting leader. He has a fanbase and an ego, and is not yet sure how to feed either one. This is potentially a problem for Clegg in the future, and he needs to show the delegates when he stands up at the podium tomorrow why he, and not Cable, is now leader.