Clarke enters Tory leadership race

[Taxloss]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4199540.stm

Ex-chancellor Ken Clarke has launched his bid to be the next Conservative leader saying he is "popular" enough to get the party back into power.

Mr Clarke, 65, posed on Wednesday for photos with backers including MPs Tim Yeo, Ann Widdecombe and John Bercow.

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My emphasis added. What a freakshow! Shagger Yeo, Doris Karloff, and the Gollum. It's like the SDP dream team all over again :eyes:

That aside, Clarke: a man who could return the Tories to power, or a man who could restore the Conservative civil war - which has been showing signs of weariness lately - to full throat, guaranteeing another couple of Labour victories? Or a non-starter in the face of the Davis machine? I find Tory internal politics near-impossible to read (it's like the Papal frickin' Conclave), so I'm interested to hear your thoughts.

On a related note (which made me laugh out loud): don't rule out Rifkind, says Rifkind! The man best described as "a Michael Howard tribute band" denies he is too old (he's a mere stripling of 59; Clarke is 65, Howard 64).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4183428.stm

Look at the photo accompanying that article. It needs a thought bubble. "You've still got it, Riffers, you sly old dog ... yeah, baby ..."

[non sociopath skin]

1. They say that while your parents are still alive, you remain a child.

Maybe the Tories will have to wait till Maggie pops her clogs before they get the message that the country isn't going to vote for a re-enactment of the 80s with the same cast.

The Skin

[Mr Creosote]

2. A man who could return the Tories to powr

Well the only man who can return the Tories to power is Bliar - and he's trying his hardest without much success.
As for Clarke - I think he has the best shot of any of them. The anti-war thing will play well as Iraq becomes more and more of a tragedy. I read somewhere that the Tories didn't want Clarke because the under-40s couldn't relate to him. Well fair enough perhaps. But how many under 40s have even heard of Cameron or Davis?

[non sociopath skin]

3. I wonder just how hard Clarke would push ... or be able to push ..

.. the Anti-War line.

Can't really see the Tories buying into an anti-Dubya line. Sorry.

The Skin

[tjwmason]

4. It depends on the Tory concerned

The Parliamentary party has plenty of folk who despise Dubya as much as the left does.

If you were a right-winger with a brain inside your head (to be fair, most Tory M.P.s do qualify thus far), would you be happy that the world's most prominent exponent of your ideology was a man who can barely begin to pronounce the English language?

I think that most are still pro-war - or at least of the "stay until the job's done" school of thought - but there's a hefty anti-Dubya constituency in there.

[non sociopath skin]

6. I'd like to think that you're right but if they are worried about Dubya .

... they sure as hell are staying mighty quiet about it.

The Skin

[T_i_B]

7. Well the MP for the neighbouring constituency to me...

...did endorse John Kerry at the last presidential elections, and yes that MP is a Tory (Simon Burns to be precise). However, Burns has not to my knowledge disavowed his support of the Iraq war and is very likely to support David Davis in the Tory leadership contest as he was a key Davis supporter back in 2001.

But yes, on the whole they are indeed "staying mighty quiet about it".

[moggie]

5. Oh, behave!

The BBC says:

Sir Malcolm was replying to comments put to him from ex- Daily Telegraph editor Max Hastings that he was "too old" to be the new Tory leader.

"I have still got an enormous amount of vitality and energy as Max Hastings and others will find out," Mr Rifkind told interviewer Alastair Stewart.

But Widdecombe pulled him away, shouting "leave it, Mal, he's not worth it!".

[Greeby]

8. huh?

:rofl: :spray: good one

[mr blur]

9. As usual Steve Bell nails it.

(edited for link)

[sweetheart]

10. .. on an anti-war platform

That the leading possibility of a tory PM has come out strongly
against the war is quite significant. In reading some of clarke's
speech, i can only agree with his views... he is the only potential
PM who's had the common sense to avoid an unnecessary war.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/conservatives/story/0,9061,1561275,00.html