David Maddox: Clarke takes centre stage

As a new boy down in Westminster I had never really appreciated until this morning how much the Conservatives need the presence of Ken Clarke, hush puppies and all, to give their top team substance until this morning.
The City raid by the three top men who hope to be running Britain's economy from about 7 May (Cameron, Osborne and Clarke, pictured above in slightly happier bigger poll lead times) represented a high risk strategy.
You can read more about it in tomorrow's Scotsman, but essentially the message is one of economic Armageddon if Labour win. It can't be ratcheted up much higher than that really.
However for this message to work you need somebody of experience and substance to deliver it. Neither Cameron nor Osborne have it yet and the warnings from them do not sound credible, which is why the floor was essentially thrown open to the former Chancellor for most of the presentation.
There is far more to Mr Clarke than the girth of his waste which suggests a long experience of business lunches. He sounds and looks like a man who knows what he is talking about, which given that he left the economy in a healthy state, is true. His two "senior" colleagues in comparison look gauche and in Osborne's case quite clearly in need of the Clarke endorsement he received.
The only problem with this strategy is that you cannot help but think the Tories might be further ahead in the polls if he was the one due to reside in 11, Downing Street or even the more famous address next door the Tories might still be further ahead in the polls.