If Cameron thinks, in the portly shaped Ken Clarke, he has a ‘yes man’ who will listen to the collective wisdom of his cabinet then he would be mistaken of thinking whom he would be saying yes to and which collective wisdom he would be listening to. The three times spurned leadership hopeful may find he has more in common with his new opposite number Lord Mandelson than just having George Osborne as a dining partner. Commandante Clarke, who is known for his cigar totting left of Tory policy ways, having just finished reading a book on the left wing Labour party leader Michael Foot, now finds himself returned to the front bench as the Shadow Business Secretary. Despite recently decrying a return to front line politics because; “It's tedious being an opposition spokesman.”
So could there now be a fifth columnist on the Tory front benches?
Well, when we consider some of the views of the new Shadow Business Secretary, one has to wonder where he and his opposite number on the government benches disagree. In fact, this extract of an interview during the Tory leadership election back in October 2005 shows what he really thinks of Team Cameron:
"He was Michael Howard's right-hand man all the way through to the last election… he is a bright guy but I never thought of him as being particularly on the left of the party.. …[being] involved in the last election campaign and the party's presentation of itself. I have never previously looked on any one of the other three [Mr Davis, Mr Cameron and Liam Fox] as being a centre-ground politician."
Other examples of derision of his new boss are not hard to come-by. Notably, he described Cameron and Osborn’s Bullingdon days as “stupid” and that the former was too easily swayed by the tabloid newspapers. He called Cameron’s proposed plans to scrap the Human Rights Act back in the summer of 2006 as, “xenophobic and legal nonsense”. Cameron’s flagship policy of recognizing marriage in the tax system is not only something Clarke is against but also it was he dismissed when Chancellor.
But hang on I hear you say; The ‘Big Beast’ has been brought back to take on the Tory slaying Lord Madelson, what does old disagreements matter?
It would seem Clarke agrees with Lord Mandelson more than his party leader. Only last November in The Times water again opened up between Cameron and Clarke on the economy, Cameron described the VAT cut as “a criminal waste of money” compared to his new Shadow Business Secretary who endorsed the idea and agrees in principle with the Fiscal Stimulus. In another area where they both agree is on
Clarke, who is a long advocate of further EU integration and joining the Euro, not only supports the Lisbon Treaty but he also agrees that there should not be a referendum on the matter. In effect what the new appointment of Kenneth Clarke does is shine a mirror up towards the re-branding of the Conservative party by David Cameron. What is shown back in the reflection tells us that their Damascene journey, to centre ground politics, appears not to have been able to pass the gates of
What may also be interesting though, is something that went unnoticed in that article in the The Times last November. It’s something that might give us an insight into where Clarke’s experience might actually come in handy for Team Cameron. Ken admitted of being involved:
“in fighting successfully for tax cuts only to get into power and find it was impossible. We've fought elections on tax cuts when you can't afford them and usually we've lost - we did actually win one in 1992, which was a considerable embarrassment to me when I was Chancellor because there wasn't the slightest chance of any tax cuts.”
This might be a warning and something to remember when we hear Cameron talk about cutting basic-rate income taxes on savings, and any other pre-election bribes. But if we really should trust this former Chancellor who left a “Golden Legacy”, then we should take his advice and do the first thing he did as Chancellor… not listen to Cameron’s economic advice and not employ him!
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