Ken Clarke is back. Will this help the Tories?
Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2009 1:47 pm
I'm not quite sure why David Cameron has done this. Sometimes, when a big player within the Party has made the odd mention of standing for the leadership, as Clarke said on a couple of occasions in recent years, that person is promoted in order to buy them off and stop them standing. John Major did this with Michael Heseletine when Major was the PM. Tony Blair did it with that semi-literate moron John Prescott aswell.
The promotion of Clarke to a frontline position is strange though. His utterings of wanting to stand for the leadership seemed to die down a few years ago. He is also older than most of the Tory front bench, and he is seen as being associated with the Party's disasterous past - just like Michael Howard was.
I remember him having major problems with many people in the Tory party back in the 1990's, back in the days when the Party was totally split on the issue of Europe. His views on Europe were so unpopular with a certain wing of the Party that some people were briefing against him, running a smear campaign against him, and were bad-mouthing him to everyone. At one point Ken Clarke went to the Conservative Whips and said "tell your kids to get their scooters off my lawn!" (his exact words). He wanted it all to stop, and was a bit hacked-off!
Bringing him back will please some, annoy others, be seen as pointless by some potential voters, and be regarded as a step back to the bad old days by others. A mixed bag there. I don't personally think it will help Cameron's chances of winning a general election. What are other people's views?
The promotion of Clarke to a frontline position is strange though. His utterings of wanting to stand for the leadership seemed to die down a few years ago. He is also older than most of the Tory front bench, and he is seen as being associated with the Party's disasterous past - just like Michael Howard was.
I remember him having major problems with many people in the Tory party back in the 1990's, back in the days when the Party was totally split on the issue of Europe. His views on Europe were so unpopular with a certain wing of the Party that some people were briefing against him, running a smear campaign against him, and were bad-mouthing him to everyone. At one point Ken Clarke went to the Conservative Whips and said "tell your kids to get their scooters off my lawn!" (his exact words). He wanted it all to stop, and was a bit hacked-off!
Bringing him back will please some, annoy others, be seen as pointless by some potential voters, and be regarded as a step back to the bad old days by others. A mixed bag there. I don't personally think it will help Cameron's chances of winning a general election. What are other people's views?