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  Old dinosaur Ken Clarke after something like a 12 year absence has been wheeled back onto the Tory front bench. The soft shoed Ken is widely popular with the masses, he has a good TV performance catalogue behind him, and his genial air goes down well across all the parties and across all political thinking.
  
  He has been brought back to shadow Business Secretary Lord Mandelson and to boost a flagging and anonymous Tory frontbench. How many among us could hold up our hands and say we know who Mr Grayling or Mr Grieve is. If you sat next to them on the bus would you recognise them...of course not. But not so with Ken Clarke, a household face, a big hitter, a man with wide economic experience who has been right there on our TV screens for years and years. We like him. He has something of a cuddly good humoured disposition which goes down well on programmes like Question Time.
  
  But he is not the usual Conservative. One might think he has drifted into the wrong party at times. He supports the European Union and is a suporter of the Euro, so is much in line with both my thinking and the Labour Party's position.
  
  Cameron and Osborne dont agree with that view so have put all that to one side, turned a blind eye to it if you like, in an effort to bring back populism to an ailing position.
  
  Out goes redfaced Alan Duncan who is too lighweight and always looks like the collar of his shirt is too tight. So an interesting development and certainly a good move for the Tories, but a move with risk attached.

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