Apologies if this has been done but couldn’t see anything obvious.

Listened with interest to the recorded conversation between Clark and Riffkind yesterday evening. Although it’s been claimed that it was an unguarded moment does anyone else think that it sounded a little too scripted and designed to spoke Gove’s wheels?

To be honest I thought he looked like he had a little too much to drink at lunch time.

Having said that, he’s a pretty experienced operator and I can’t for the life of me imagine he would talk unguarded like that in a TV studio.

Set up!

Ken and Rifkind are too seasoned operators. They knew exactly what was going on. He even glances down the lens at one point. If they didn’t I suspect the lanuguage would’ve been much more robust.

This.
A little mischief by the Hush Puppied one.

It has been done, but it was 100% planned. You’re not in the game for as long as they are, 100 years between them, and do something like this.

One thing I’m sure they wouldn’t let slip was that Ken Clarke was Paymaster General when the Al-Yamamah oil for arms deal was set up:

According to legal sources familiar with the records, BAE Systems made cash transfers to Prince Bandar every three months for 10 years or more.

BAE drew the money from a confidential account held at the Bank of England that had been set up to facilitate the Al-Yamamah deal. Up to £2bn a year was deposited in the accounts as part of a complex arrangement allowing Saudi oil to be sold in return for shipments of Tornado aircraft and other arms.

Both BAE and the government’s arms sales department, the Defence Export Services Organisation (Deso), allegedly had drawing rights on the funds, which were held in a special Ministry of Defence account run by the government banker, the paymaster general.

Those close to Deso say regular payments were drawn down by BAE and despatched to Prince Bandar’s account at Riggs bank in Washington DC.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91UbgEXq0sE[/video]

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0B0LFd5oPQ[/video]

In fact, many of the people in this photo of Ken Clarke’s wedding (‘The Cambridge Mafia’) were involved in setting up the Al-Yamamah deal:

But to avoid straying too far off topic, where does Michael Gove fit in to all this?

He started his career writing speeches for Peter Lilley and Michael Howard*, both members of the ‘Cambridge Mafia’

*(Michael Howard was in the Department of Trade and Industry, responsible for liasing with the City of London when the Al-Yamamah deal was set up… in this role he was under Leon Brittan)

Not forgetting Theresa May’s role in editing the letters of the Lord Mayor of the City of London, Fiona Woolf, regarding her relationship to Leon Brittan when she was chosen as the 2nd head of the child abuse inquiry…

Calculated propoganda. He must have been aware the mics where on, he was sat in the studio.

As above he looked worse the wear after an epic lunch

Yes he knew exactly what he was saying.

well known Tory europhile probably going to retire soon, gets his revenge in first.

Tory in slagging off another Tory shocker….

One of the last big beast causing mischief and having fun, IMO definitely knew what he was doing and gave Gove a real kicking.

You clearly haven’t seen me after an epic lunch. I thought he was perfectly lucid, if a little dishevelled. Just an old politician doing what old politicians do.

hot_fiat – Member
Ken and Rifkind are too seasoned operators. They knew exactly what was going on.

totally agree