The Spectator’s Notes | 20 August 2005

There are certain political moves which have now become regular, almost ceremonial features of our national life. One is the IRA’s announcement that the conflict is over. This is repeated once a year or so, flagged by the BBC and No. 10 as ‘historic’, and used as a reason for further concessions to Sinn Fein. Another summer visitor, though only every four years, is a bid for the leadership of the Conservative party by Kenneth Clarke. The form goes like this. Friendly journalists write that Mr Clarke is ‘a fully paid-up member of the human race’ and polls are published showing that many voters have heard of him and some like him. Mr Clarke then indicates that he still wants to be prime minister (a job which, in his old-fashioned way, he believes goes with being Tory leader). Then the script takes one of two forms. Either it says that Ken is a very pragmatic fellow and is quite happy to do a deal to moderate his euroenthusiasm, or it says that Ken is a man of rocklike integrity and that the Conservative electorate must just take him as it finds him, euro and all.