Sam Leith:
Ken Clarke eats pork pies, smokes cigars, and strikes
me as the sort of man who would break wind loudly in a crowded lift and
shout: "Look out! Who stepped on a duck?" He’s not Demosthenes,
exactly, but he’s a start.
All of which is why this column is proud to stand up for the ignorant majority and say: Ken Clarke’s the man.
As good a method as any of picking a leader.
In
My favourite bit was: “My more learned colleagues read Hansard as others read Harry Potter; refer to the committee of backbench Tory headbangers by its pet name, “the Twenty-Two”; hail Black Rod, for all I know, as “Rodders” …”
Headbangers! Young people these days. Where’s the respeck?
Only a few non-Thatcherite conservatives such as Ken Clarke and Michael Portillo were clairvoyant enough to understand early on the real ideological origins of “New Labour”- statist social-democracy with a fascist twist, and were truly willing to fight against that threat
Ken Clarke is what the Americans would call a RINO (Republican In Name Only). It’s why he is the favoured candidate of the left and the media and why he has been rejected as Conservative Leader twice already. His inclinations are centralist, statist and europhile (his statements to the opposite notwithstanding). His election as leader of the Conservative party would deprive the country of a real alternative to NuLabour and instead offer more of the same with a slightly bluer tint.
The current adulation of KC we see in the media is merely a slightly disguised version of the perenial “suggestions” from the left for conservatives to move leftwards in order to win more support. Strange that this particular call should come from the Telegraph, unless of course it’s a peice of reverse acclaim. If it isn’t Sam Lieth should consider a move to the Graun or maybe Viz.
What is actually required is a conservative leader with a manifesto that is radically different from that of the current circus in office. This would allow the Conservatives to expose Tony’s mob for the stealth socialists they really are and would simultaneously re-ignite political debate in Britain. The most successful conservative leaders in the past 50 years have been Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II, none of whom have been pale blue social democrats.
A propensity to make jokes about flatulence (assumed or real) doesn’t qualify one for the highest office in the land in my opinion. To be honest Ken Clarke could demonstrate that he could fart the first four bars of the French national anthem and I’d still think he were only qualified to appear on a music hall stage.
Nope, Ken’s not the man. His election to the Tory leadership would merely consign the party to another five years in opposition.
RM
Wow!
Just read my comment above and realised it was a bit of a tirade.
Normal daft comments will resume as soon as I get the new, industrial strength “special smarties” from the doc.
Either that or I must stop punishing the bottle of 12 year old before reading Tim’s blog.
RM
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