Ken Clarke the pragmatist suspends his pugilism over EU

It’s said that Ken Clarke would cross a motorway to pick a fight with a political opponent. His aggression is one reason why he thrived (eventually) under Mrs Thatcher: ambulance drivers, teaching unions and local government were all given a bunch of fives when Clarke reached Cabinet in the late ‘80s. Chris Patten (in the course of saying that he would go into the jungle with Clarke) told the late Hugo Young that ‘the key to Clarke is that he is anti-establishment – any establishment’. Yet pugilism is but one side of Clarke. He is not, by temperament or conviction, an ideologue. What matters is what works. And it worked for him. His reputation as a flexible and effective administrator was such that he was tipped to succeed Thatcher before he decided to be the ‘token peasant’ in Douglas Hurd’s coalition of grandees, which formed to unite the party after the defenestration but was soon vanquished.