News about Alan Clark

MICHAEL PORTILLO: The moment is seared on my mind, not to mention captured in a thousand videos on social media. It shows me in the small hours of May 2, 1997 - 3.01am to be precise - standing alongside my fellow election candidates, with my features arranged into as neutral an expression as I could muster. I knew by then the returning officer was about to announce my resounding defeat at the hands of the Labour Party candidate Stephen Twigg, unseating me not only as MP for Enfield Southgate but as a serving Cabinet minister. It was a dramatic change. I had won the previous election in 1992 with a comfortable majority of 15,563 but now languished behind my Labour rival by nearly 1,500 votes, an 18 per cent swing that was a pivotal indication that, after 18 years of Conservative rule, Labour would win the election. It meant, to my surprise - and later amusement - the phrase 'Portillo moment' would enter the lexicon as a metaphor for a sudden, significant change in political fortunes.

I have never yet seen an election so drained of true excitement, so lifeless, colourless, sapless and noiseless. There are hardly any posters. I have yet to hear the crackling, braying sound of a loud-speaker van. It was not always so. Back in 1964, would-be prime ministers had to endure the ritual ordeal of the Birmingham Rag Market a few days before the poll.

CRAIG BROWN: A newly elected MP took his position in the House of Commons fifty years ago today. He arrived in a state of euphoria and was'monstrously inebriated,' according to his own admission. Alan Clark would barely rate a footnote in the Conservative Party's history if he had not kept a diary. Despite spending an inordinate amount of time planning for promotion, he never became a Cabinet minister, and he was furious at being overlooked. 'Am I always to be thwarted?Surrounded by nincompoops and inadequates?' In the 1980s, he wished that Kenneth Clarke, then Secretary of State for Health, would be pushed out, resulting in his own elevation. However, this could only happen if Clarke has a nervous breakdown - and it's unlikely in one so bloated - or - possibly at any moment. Clarke, who is a lot of people, knows that everything "happens" to him. One mustn't be uncharitable (why not?) However, this is still the most difficult game at the worst table,' despite the fact that it is a roughest game.'

EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: No one in Parliament has quite captured the late Alan Clark's safford style, as the late narrist and owner of Saltwood Castle in Kent, whose enthusiasm for politics was perhaps tempered by his frantic love life. However, nearly a quarter of a century after Clark's death at the age of 71, another unstoppable septuagenarian is off to fill his shoes. I can confirm that four-time married entrepreneur Marc Burca, 72, (pictured left), was selected by Reform UK as its candidate for Clark's former London constituency, which, following boundary changes, will become Kensington & Bayswater at the next general election. Burca became a magazine publisher after a brief stint in the property business. 'I interviewed Thatcher, Richard Branson, Robert Maxwell, Peter Ustinov, Charlton Heston.' Burca was also a mentor of Pamella Bordes (inset photograph) who became a House of Commons researcher and enjoyed relationships with a number of influential men before being revealed as a call-girl.

EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: None other than the Prince and Princess of Wales indulged in what could be described as fervent window shopping last Friday, when they paid a discreet and entirely private evening visit to auctioneers Dreweatts in Berkshire. They were all looking very, very interested,' a antique trade trade devotee tells me, adding that 'everybody was on twitter to see them.' It was the start of a huge champagne reception that auctioneers always have before a serious bidding event.' And there are few such spectacular sales as the one that drew in Prince William and Catherine.

Ellen Marshall, 43, suffered burns in the top half of her body in the sickening blast on April 22, 2021, in her Skegness, Lincolnshire. She was initially only expected to live if she struggled to breathe unaided, but she clung to life until she died on March 11 in Nottingham City Hospital. In a Facebook post, her daughter Paige Clarke, 25, said, 'No more pain and agony now mom.' I love you and I'll see you soon,' Paige's note with heart emojis added: 'Sleep well, and I will see you soon.' 'I love you.'

VIEWING INTERVIEW: When third tier Cardiff City defeated Premier League leaders Leeds United, it was one of the biggest FA Cup upsets of modern times. It did not get any better than upsetting a star-studded squad that featured Rio Ferdinand, Mark Viduka, and Robbie Fowler. The war of Ninian Park turned out to be more than Cardiff's spectacular 2-1 win. After an orgy of crisis that culminated in referee Andy D'Urso and Leeds players being hit by missiles and a post-match pitch invasion that culminated in sour and required riot police to break up, Cardiff's controversial owner Sam Hammam was barred from pitchside walkabouts.