Political Survivor of the Month: Ken Clarke

My Mum won’t be pleased with me posting this, but (mainly because I’m fascinated by political survivors) I enjoyed this profile of Ken Clarke, the shadow Business Secretary, and former Chancellor, Home Secretary, and just about everything else.

The short film was made by the Guardian and played at a Fringe meeting at the Conservative Party Conference, before Andrew Rawnsley interviewed Clarke.

Ken Clarke rises in my estimation due to two moments in the interview. One in which he says (like Tony Blair) that he wishes he’d studied History at University, as reading Law was pointless ‘I learnt things like how to free a Roman slave’, and another in which he rescues a brilliant line from the dust of political history. To quote from Andrew Sparrow’s write-up:
‘Clarke says he’s more liberal than younger MPs.
He quotes Lord Melbourne, a Regency prime minister surrounded by Victorian zealots. Melbourne said: “Why do you want to change things? Aren’t they bad enough already.”