Clarke – Bad for Tory Party Health?

UPDATES

12.25 pm

Gordon has just nailed it, saying: “It’s good to have someone in the shadow cabinet who is supportive of our policies on Europe, supportive of our policies on VAT and probably quietly supportive of a number of our other policies.” Meanwhile, in a taste of things to come, the Bruges group has just attacked the decision.

12.10 pm

We’ve just been looking at the rest of the reshuffle and there’s not much to say is there? A load of faceless non-entities swap jobs. Oh, and Eric Pickles set to cheer up Tories and annoy the rest of the nation. Not known for his judgement so a particularly bad call.

12.05 pm

Just spotted this rather apposite point on Iain Dale’s diary: At January 19, 2009 10:25 AM , Cato said… I keep recalling the old story of the scorpion crossing the river on the monkey’s back.

11.30 am

John Spellar has reminded us of a great Progress pamphlet Fool’s Gold he helped write a few years ago which comprehensively demolishes the idea that Clarke left a golden economic inheritance. Read it and remember!

ANALYSIS

So, David Cameron has bitten the bullet and brought back Ken Clarke. His puffing up of William Hague last week and the spin that this was all Boy George’s idea don’t alter the fundamentals: this is an acknowledgement that Osborne has failed to make enough of an impact and that team Cameron need to broaden out from their “Eton schoolboy” base.

Labour are saying that it welcomes Clarke’s return because of his divisive views on Europe but the truth is it is a mixed blessing. Clarke does have “cut-through” – the media and voters will listen when he has something to say. But his return, on balance, is still good news for us.

That is less due to Europe, though he will definitely stir the pot on Lisbon and the Euro, whatever his assurances, than because of his approach generally. Clarke is opposed to the crude “tax cutting” tendency now in the ascendency in the Tory party. He will speak bluntly and repeatedly about economic matters that Osborne would like to remain his personal fiefdom.

The end result will be a series of off-message, contradictory statements and a demand, from the media, to know who runs Tory economic policy, the Boy George or the man Clarke. Because, ultimately, Cameron will back Osborne, Clarke’s high profile interventions will simply serve to undermine and confuse.

There is an old political saying that it is better to have your enemy on the inside of your tent pissing out rather than on the outside pissing in. Cameron now has the worst of both worlds: he has brought an incontinent Clarke inside his tent and better prepare to get wet.