Ken Clarke is Shadow Business Secretary

Robert Leigh

Toeing a party line also tricky.

Phil C

"Towing a party line is a very hard task" You're right, it is. It should be "toeing".

Ronnie

Are the Vietnamese not allowed to buy fags then?

It will just be nice to hear a politician speaking English again and not behaving like a robot.

Sally C

3 years ago was before Cameron and when the party was seen as pulling ever further to the right - and endless opposition.

Andrew Woodman

In the register of interests, Clarke has only one directorship in the Independent. As that'll probably go bust this year as well then it won't be a problem

Aless Bieri

Losing Alan Duncan will be a huge loss.

I think their best bet would be putting Duncan as Shadow Chancellor and slinging that useless waste of space Osborne back to the seat in the fourth row that he deserves.

Duncan showed himself of fantastically at the party conference, with a public speaking ability second only to William Hague. He would be able to get the public right behind the Tory policy, something Osborne has continually failed to do.

Verity

I'm surprised. Cameron has a weak person's fear of strong, confident people.

Dan

Overall, this is a good move. Will the electorate be that bothered about the Euro issue in the face of the current economic meltdown?

Colonel Madd

Too timid given the state of the economy-should have been Chancellor,unfortunately he will only point up Osborne's uselessness

Moxon

This is the right decision - gravitas, experience, the plain, unvarnished style. The shadow front bench lineup is less monochrome, for it now includes someone who will jolly us into keeping the home fires burning (as well as saying 'I told you so') 'midst the gloom and doom present and to come.

Fergus Pickering

Come along, Verity. If Cameron ihas a weak person's fear of strong, confident people then why... I'm not sure I shoud go overboard for strong, confident people. Blair, Mandelson and Alistair Campbell are all s. c. p. Along with Lenin, Mussolini, Saddam Hussein and Cap'n Bob.

Rush-is-Right

This man is toxic, radioactive waste to the conservative party. He has no business still being a member of it, let alone a spokesman. He is irretrievably linked with the latter years of the John Major government and the fall out over Europe was largely his fault.

This is a bad mistake.

Archie

Verity: again, impossible to disagree!

Damien

Labour took a gamble with bringing back Mandelson and Cameron has matched that with Clarke.

I doubt if anyone realistically expects Clarke to stay on message, but then why should he?. The public is very forgiving to 'straight shooters' and Ken has a lot of credibility with his experience.He passes the 'explainability test'. He's jargon free speaker,the perfect antidote to all this 'swaps and derivatives' nonsense
that got us where we are now. I cant see the bankers bluffing their way past Ken if they came asking for 600 billion!

Fair to say politics has just become a whole lot more interesting now hes back on the front bench. The Euro is bound to come up soon in discussion as a precondition to any bailout as the economy inevitably deteriorates.

Ray

How can any sane, rational Tory who loves his country possible support the Lisbon Treaty?

Forlornehope

Had the Conservatives made Ken their leader after Major, it would have made not one iota of difference to the relationship with Europe but Labour would not have got beyond two elections, possibly not beyond one. Those Conservatives who stopped Ken need to look at their own responsibility for the mess that the country is in now. You could have prevented much of the damage that this government has done but you chose to behave like a bunch of student socialists.

THX1138

Dave's not listening to Fraser then! Good the Tories might win the next election.

Rush-is so Wrong he was a great Chancellor & Home Sec.

The country isn't intrested in you "nasty party"right wing views, they have kept the Tories along from power for many a long year.

You need to read Danny F in last weeks Times

"The hard, cruel party. How does that sound?"

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/daniel_finkelstein/article5511750.ece

PS just heard Boy George on the Today Prog saying it was all his idea. Yeah right. And doesn't he have an annoying condescending voice & manner -Yuck.

Looks to me we now have two shadow Chancellor's Cable & Clarke & one embarrassing problem child nobody is sure what to do with.. If Dave sacked Osborne I doubt anyone outside the bubble would notice.

Mike, Brighton

A bad mistake. The Europe "issue" will now explode for the Tories through NuLabs media contacts in the BBC and elsewhere.

Paul B

I`m happy with his return. He`s the bloke next door, who you can enjoy a pint & pie with down the local "boozer" Its all about his winning at this stage-as Fergus has rightly pointed out- and this is the star striker, albeit slightly moody, returning from injury. He will bring in many votes, far than he loses, and will assist enormously to increase the eventual Tory majority, come the next election.

Contrary to Verity, I believe thats DC`s decision is a sign of his strength and confidence in his own leadership.

BRIFFS

Following your previous psot about Labour being toast, don't you think that it is now unnecessary. I suppose the deal was done before the latest round of polls. I like ken Clarke and your point on the analogy with Vince Cable is a good one. However when one does a risk/benefit analysis, I think that as we now stand the tories have more to lose than to gain

Oberon Houston

Rush-isn't-Right, Ken Clarkes legacy in the Major Govt. (along with Eddie George at the BoE) was to pull Britain out of a recession and put it on a platform of recovery and growth. So in this he is linked with the latter years of the Major Govt., which were very successful.

The Laughing Cavalier

Yesterday's man.

TrevorsDen

I am anti Europe but quite sanguine about Clarke being back. He lost three leadership elections but that does not mean he cannot still be a cabinet minister.

Europe is not the real issue right now - everyone thinks the Euro will melt down anyway. And the party opinion is still firmly against Clarke's vision on Europe.

No the immediate issue is getting elected and dealing with the immediate aftermath. Come hell or high water the nation needs to vote Tory at the next general election.

Steve.W

Getting Ken Clarke back is being sold as a 'good thing' for the Tories. The return of Mandelson for Nulabour was a 'masterstroke'. But now the Tories lead in the opinion polls by 13 points; so what happens next?

JONNY

I see already the loony Right is a-howling. And sneering as only they can sneer.

Full marks to Cameron. He's landed it bang on the nose.

David Bouvier

Oberon Houston - we should not forget the Clarke (unlike Lamont) supported the ERM policy though his reputation benefited from our departure from it.

If Clarke really does get on with the job of pouring derision on Labour's economic record and smoothly avoids being used as a 'split' story all to the good.

Matt

Mandy will not find Ken a pushover. Ken has people like Mandy for a light snack, never mind breakfast!

TGF UKIP

Hooray, hooray! The Mouth is back and Bullingdon rules OK!

Clarke may well have promised Dave he will "behave" (which he won't) but you can also bet your bottom dollar that The Mouth will have extracted from Dave a promise that he will be kept in the same position in the still unlikely event of Dave forming the next government.

So then we would have the most europhile member of the Tory Party in charge of the government department most closely involved with Brussels -and some of you Cameron Crazies still want to cling to the notion that Dave might really be a conservative eurosceptic. Dream on!

Meanwhile, continuing to occupy the post of Shadow Chancellor is the lightweight, sleazy, unimpressive figure of Boy George whose reedy voice and obnoxious manner were tuned out by the vast majority of voters many months ago. In the Cameron Tory Party, Bullingdon truly does rule.

Nicholas

I think that the idea of a Tory split is just Labourite wishful thinking. The current Labour "strategy", in the face of appalling poll results (which possibly represent only the tip of the iceberg in terms of public disillusionment with and detestation of Labour), seems to be focussed on attacking the Tories, mostly with pretty old hat and irrelevant jibes (toffs, sleaze, splits, etc.).

A government with a crisis as big as this one to contend with look pretty stupid just parroting that the opposition, who can't do anything anyway, are a do nothing party. Labour's faith in trite soundbites and epiphets was never more exposed than in the invention of this one, which didn't catch on as they hoped.

Hopefully Ken will soon contribute to the growing awareness that Brown and his motley crew are the "do one thing after another but still can't get it to work" party.

They will no doubt try to spin "split" into this, and expect some European dirty tricks from Mandelson and Co.

Oberon Houston

David, as far as I understand it Major was the one that pushed Lamont into the ERM decision - but the key supporter was the Labour shadow chancellor, Brown, who also supported ERM entry.

Ivy Eileen

Agree with TrevorsDen, Europe is a non-event at the moment. People are now beginning (really beginning) to appreciate the financial mess we are in with Brown.

If Mandelson et al try to provoke mischief over Europe, play the ball straight back to them - Labour are split too on Europe, but they try to disguise it by putting the spotlight on the Tories .... same tactic as Mandelson adopted with Deripaskagate.

Verity

In surrounding himself with OEs/Bullingdon Boys, David Cameron showed that he can think of nothing but himself. ("Who will I be most comfortable working with? Oh, I know! People just like me!") Despite his frightfully hail-fellow-well-met manner, I think David Cameron feels slightly uneasy around ordinary people because he doesn't know how to read them. He would prefer to take the risk of jibes that the Tories are the party of snobs and toffs than risk behaving in a genuinely collegiate manner with less elevated people. I don't think it's malice. I think he is genuinely uncomfortable outside his own group. He's never been in the armed services, it goes without saying, so he has never been forced to mix around with, and damn' well get along with, absolutely everyone. Unlike Prince Harry, who is a real man of the people, who doesn't choose his mates from one group.

'David Short'

By bringing back Clarke, Cameron is matching Brown's incoherence in bringing back Mandelson, but at least Clarke is a recognisable member of the human race.

hadrian

The public like Ken, even we ultra Euro-Sceptics, and as long as the issue does not get embroiled in the economic issues I think most of us realise he's hemmed in by most of his Tory colleagues. His good humour, unflappability and cheerful disregard for the PC concerns will chime in with lots of Tory and potential Tory voters. So, provided he plays the Euro thing cannily, which as an old hand I think he is perfectly capable of doing, I think this a shrewd move. Still- in keeping John Redwood out Cameron's lost the chance of what could've been a 'double-whammy'.

Chickenshometoroost

'The rationale is that Clarke will embody the message 'we handed Labour a golden economy in 1997' - You've hit the head on the nail here Fraser. All these years most of the population have fallen for the lie that we had mass unemployment, high inflation and a seriously ill economy when Labour came into power. Now is the time to put the record straight and to nail the lie. We all know that the reality was that Labour inherited an economy where unemployment was falling at a rapid rate, as was the budget deficit and where inflation was at a record low. All this came to an end when Gordon Brown stopped sticking to the Conservative spending plans in 2001. Ken Clarke's high profile new role will terrify the Labour Party as they will find it much harder to continue peddling their lies.

Frank P

The censorship here is really amusing at times; what a milky lot you are. Heh, heh, heh.....