Who's for Ken?

Alex

What Peter Mandelson says and thinks are two entirely different things.

George Laird

Dear All

If Cameron wants to project that he and the Tories are the future of England then surely there can be no return for Ken Clarke.

He is a dinosaur, a relic of a bygone age.

He is past it.

Finally, I am surprised that Michael Portillo would think that Clarke is credible for a return to the front bench.

David Davis should be appointed as Shadow Chancellor.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Ray

Clarke is the past. Not least, his Europhilia now looks desperately out of touch with both the sad reality of what Britain's EU membership has become and the gathering perception of voters that this mosntrous superstate is not working and is not what they want.

Tiberius

That is a very interesting split, and clearly there are pros and cons in the argument.

I judge that it is rather a siren call that Ken be brought on to the shadow front bench. Fraser's arguments are very compelling and there is little that Charles Moore would ever say that I would disagree with.

TGF UKIP

About the only people who would be even more delighted than me to see The Mouth & Ego back are Gordon & Mandy and the Today programme.

Some enterprising bookie could even open a book on which of his colleagues or which Tory policy he slagged off first as "bonkers" at 8.10 am. Certainly wouldn't take long given the Mouth's noted intolerance of anything or anyone not conforming to his own europhile, One Nation SocDemmery.

As there few things I can think of more likely to disrupt and lead to the disintegration of Blue Labour, please God let Dave bring the Mouth back in as prominent position as possible.

PS As a foretaste of things hopefully to come, when Mandy was asked on Today this morning who else actually supported the 2.5% VAT cut, he was delighted to immediately cite none other than K. Clarke. Please Dave, Please!

JONNY

The game's gone too far.
Cameron must appoint Ken.

If he doesn't he'll be rightly pasted for being weak and irresolute. And bending to the will of old dinosaurs like Tebbit and Moore. And the younger ones like Montgomerie and - and what was the fellow's name...

JONNY

The real problem TGF is that he'll make Osborne and Cameron look like silly little schoolboy toffs.
And the rest of the shadow cabinet, shadows indeed.
And we can't have that now can we.
And when the great Election comes we'll have no experience to put beside Gordon's, and go and lose the bugger.
Incidentally if we're talking dinosaur Charles Moore is the biggest of the lot. Another veritable Rees Mogg,

Poor old Tories - they're born losers. Brown has healed old the old wounds and brought back his big beasts.
We still go on muttering dark things about Europe. And present a weak and juvenile team.
Hopeless.

TrevorsDen

Cameron quoted Clarkes dismissive comments on VAT today.

If people from UKIP want to believe what Brown and Mandelson say - well thats up to them.

William Church

Charles Moore only quipped that Clarke wouldn't save the Tories. Does that amount to saying that his return wouldn't be a good thing? Surely something can be a good thing without single-handedly solving a problem?

Morus

I am heartily in favour. If it weren't for Europe, we wouldn't be asking 'whether', we'd be asking 'where'.

Given that the Europhiles are an endangered species in the party now, I don't think people should worry about that side of him.

Cogito Ergosum

One day the tide will turn against the 21st century Isolationists in the conservative Party. Then we might have a chance of winning an election.

Yes, I would like my duty-frees back, which I would examine under a 150W filament light. But small-minded shunning of Europe will get us nowhere.

TGF UKIP

JONNY, unusual given our spats but there is hardly a word in your 7.02 post I would really disagree with.

Sorry!

strapworld

Kenneth Clarke is no "dinosaur, a relic of a bygone age". nor is he "past it".

He may have views on the EU which many of us do not like. But let us face it the opnly way out of the EU, now, is a WAR with the rest of Europe. We are trapped. So the EU is over as an issue, until the British people wake up - if ever!

Kenneth Clarke would worry Brown and Co to death. A Far superior Chancellor than Brown a man who is closer to the people than any of the Labour Cabinet and would be the leader of the Party if a true vote was taken.

John Redwood is another who must be brought into the shadow team as well as IDS and Davis. They have got to fight and fight like never before.

Brown wants to deliver us broke and defenceless to Europe.

TGF UKIP

TrevorsDen, I don't readily believe Brown or Mandelson but I do believe my own ears and they heard Clarke's support for a VAT cut on the Week in Westminster (if my memory serves me correctly) a few weeks ago) and he was then confirming what he had said previously.

Whether he qualified it in his original comment by referring to affordability as he did on WiW I know not, but he certainly he indicated it as his choice for ecomomic stimulus.

To madden you even further can I also point out UKIP would also be absolutely delighted to see Dave give Clarke a really prominent role. It would swell even further the ranks of disenchanted former Tory voters seeking a new eurosceptic conservative home.

To compound matters even further I can sense a double whammy here for Gordon as well if Dave doesn't now appoint The Mouth.

Whichever way, Today will have him on double quick and, if not appointed, Clarke will have no compunction in agreeing that it was because there was no way that the right of the party would have accept him. Enter Gordon and Mandy chanting "same old right wing Tories" and "weak, weak, weak Cameron."

Serve Dave right in every way.

Pete Hoskin

William Church: check out Moore's 'Spectator Notes' in tomorrow's issue of the magazine (up on the website tomorrow morning). It's a little more emphatic...

Steve.W

I suppose for some people going on about the Clarke 'bounce' is light relief for hearing so much about the Brown one. I loathe them both equally.

Paul B

I disagree vehmently with Clarke over Europe. That said i recognise talent, and he is a unique talent, and you have to find room for unique talent in a team. Hes a game breaker, in the same way Berbatov and Rooney for Utd, and you have to take the rough with the smooth.

Some what if a few old primadonna Tories p off to UKIP if DC brings him back,good riddance is how I feel about them. Clarkes return will bring in far more votes than it losses. UKIP are just a useful idiots party imo now- hardly worth a mention.

Mark

UKIP are a busted flush and a waste of a good vote. Simple.

JONNY

Spats with you TGH?

Not on your sweet Nelly.
I'm one of your biggest fans (confidentially I even might prefer you to Verity. Now I've put my foot in it.)

Ian C

Clarke did clarify in an interview as having said in his original off the cuff remark re. VAT cuts "if they can be afforded" - but that it was off the cuff and was qualified was never reported. DC did well not to go to that as his explanation in PMQ's.

The case for Clarke is not the magic bullet one but in order to use his skills/experience and to have him singing from a collective hymn sheet.

The case against is, as always, that as Home Sec. he put his considerable weight behind Maastricht and admitted he had not even read the Treaty. Something Mandelson will no doubt remind him of if he is placed opposite him.

"Indolent" was the word used to describe Clarke by Tebbit on yesterday's Daily Politics. The evidence is there to support the description. Tomorrow's men should be brought forward and yesterday's A list given formal senior advisory roles so that such speculation does not occur.

Tim Carpenter LPUK

Clarke is a Federast, which makes him bad for the UK. He is the EU's "useful idiot".

As far as I am concerned, all the Big 3 need to split and reform, for they are all in a mess and are grouped dysfunctionally. Ken's return to the Tory front bench may well be one of the steps in that process.

Drakes Drum

Ukip was a good idea. But then charlatans took over that group. The people at grass roots level are good people. The lot at the top I wouldn't trust with anything.

Sorry. Been there and got out, quickly. A protest vote only.

Farage is a legend in his own mind. Loves the trappings of being a leader within the EU!!!

He epitomises what they say about empty barrels.

richard

Clarke getting up on stage with Heseltine and Blair for the launch of "Britain in Europe" was unforgiveable.

Verity

I find myself persuaded by the comments above. I now think bringing back Clarke would rightly be seen as a panic move. And Clarke would be impossible to control.

Surely there's someone else with a big, engaging personality and a strong sense of individuality in the Tory ranks? What about ... er ... The Conservatives under Cameron are controlled and conformist. No big personalities. Not allowed.