Clarke's account of pragmatic conservatism

Clarke places his own politics in a Conservative tradition that he associates with evidence and practical administration. He argues that this remained influential until the Thatcher period and declined as an older generation left politics. Another participant questions whether it lasted that long. Clarke accepts that people in the tradition made mistakes because they could lack information or ask the wrong questions. His defining preference is to decide what government must accomplish before determining its size. This remains his interpretation of a political tradition and its decline.