Kenneth Clarke is a former member of the Cabinet and Lord Chancellor in the United Kingdom, and was the longest-serving Chairman of the Conservative Party. Clarke was educated at University College School, an independent school in Hampstead in North West London. He went up to Magdalen College, Oxford (B.A. Modern History and French). Clarke entered politics in the 1950s as a member of his university's Conservative Association, and quickly made his mark on local politics in North Oxford with his anti-drink driving campaigns
Clarke also became involved in national politics and served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Education and Science from 1959 to 1961. He entered Parliament in 1964 as MP for Reading, and was appointed Under-Secretary of State for Education and Science by Prime Minister Ted Heath in 1972. He remained there until 1974, when he became Financial Secretary to the Treasury under Edward Heath.
He lost his seat to Labour's Tony Benn in that year's general election. In 1976 he won back Reading for the Conservatives but lost it again at the 1979 election to Michael Foot's Labour Party. In 1982 he won back Reading once more, but left Parliament two years later when Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister.
After leaving Parliament, Clarke set up a public relations firm, C&A Public Relations Ltd., which he ran until 1987 when he joined Barclays Bank as Director-General of Corporate Affairs and Senior Vice-President responsible for Britain's financial services industry. In this role he continued to work on social issues such as crime prevention and youth social issues while continuing his work on British social policy on behalf of British American Tobacco, British Insurance Industry Group/Allianz Group, Credit Suisse , JP Morgan Chase & Co., Societe Generale , Swiss Reinsurance Company Limited , Zurich Insurance Group , RBS Group , Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Company Limited , UBS AG , Nokia Corporation , Zurich Financial Services AG .
I am sorry to upset my colleagues by saying we wasted four years in opposition, but if you do get so badly defeated as a party you do have to face up to some painful facts and you do have to change.Kenneth Clarke
However, we do not lack anti-terrorist laws. I do not believe that the recent London bombs were the result of any deficiencies in our legal system.Kenneth Clarke
