its not really for former civil servants to reminisce about their ministerial bosses.. but the departure of Ken Clarke from the Commons merits an exception (he never stuck to rules either..)
I first came across KC when I was the PS/CST -- at the time Mrs Thatcher didn't really trust him so he always had to do everything as a double act with her favourite Lord Young..
then I was at No.10 and he was Chancellor - I remember a meeting where he came and wiped the floor with the then SoS Transport ..
but everything he said bore only flimsy relationship to the facts.. why didn't you say anything I asked the Transport people - we couldn't get a word in they said..
Then I returned to HMT - with Clarke still as Chancellor.. didn't have much to do with him - until he asked me to be his press secretary ..
his pitch was that he would like to me do it (nice) and would never ask me to call up and complain to editors (very nice) .. and that was true ..... he never did...
we - along with @nickmacpherson2 had a load of fun ..cramming in ministerial trips with added birdwatching as electoral defeat approached.. drinking an Ambassador under a table in Sofia.. jazz clubs in Berlin; giant steaks in DC
I could never get KC to do anything other than the 8.10 slot on the Today programme - he just refused to get up any earlier ....
it almost finished before it started - KC seemed to come very close to resigning over the euro a couple of weeks after I started .. but then we would have missed our SA/Zim trip..
but then he would not have called Zimbabwe "Rhodesia" after a meeting with Robert Mugabe - nor been hugged by a giant condom in Soweto ..
we were in SA when the BSE crisis broke.. we still thought (thanks HMT press cuttings) that all the press was still talking about the euro row. We spent a morning in Cape Town airport calling No.10 on pay phones with KC demanding no money be spent on BSE
the line kept cutting out- and the PM ignored us.. but the backdrop to the entire time were more euro rows.. and increasing tension within the Conservative party ..
culminating in KC's "off the record" lunch with two then young BBC journos.. who spilled the beans big time.. much to No.10 fury.. we tried to tape it in the office but the VCR didn't work ..
"your press office is useless" said a miffed KC - until I reminded him that we had advised him that the lunch was to be avoided at all costs... (and that was before we knew John Prescott would be at the next table)
Once on a flight I offered to swap my front of plane seat with Mrs Clarke, sitting quilting in economy. KC told me to stay where I was - the taxpayer had paid for my pricier seat - he had only bought her a cheap one..
we went to Davos - and KC got bored.. so I was told to get the driver.. "direkt zum Flughafen?" nein -- I got the driver to take KC and Gillian up to a mountain restaurant where they enjoyed the chef's "Schlachtplatte" - it tastes like it sounds..
Then the election came.. we had a final trip to an informal Finance Ministers meeting (KC always went out early and stayed for the social day - so even in an election campaign we went on the guided tour of the Rijksmuseum) - and then regime change..
twenty plus years later, those are still some of the best memories of working for a minister.. and he was a pretty good Chancellor as well..
More on KC in his own words in one of the best of @instituteforgov Ministers Reflect.. instituteforgovernment.org.uk/ministers-refl… Lets hope some more "Ken Clarkes" turn up in parliament after #ge2019. Political life is poorer without them ..
