MEP's Tribute to Leading Local Liberal Democrat

12.00.00am GMT Fri 5th Feb 2010

Graham Watson MEP today paid tribute to leading Liberal Democrat Sir Chris Clarke OBE, who died on 15 December 2009. Speaking at the memorial service held today at Wells Cathedral, Watson said;

"Chris Clarke combined sympathy and a concern for human dignity with a passion for politics and a belief in its transformational power. Those who worked with him were all enriched by his pollen.

"Chris was a born leader. He led the Liberal Democrats at District, County and Regional Assembly level before leading our councillors nationally on the LGA. He chaired a primary care trust and the Arts Council South West. The South West Regional Assembly was his creation. He might not be flattered to be likened to a Toyota - but with Chris too there was always a danger of the accelerator getting stuck at full throttle.

"Yet for his many achievements, Chris would often appear remarkably relaxed. Like the swans on the moat outside, he seemed to glide serenely over the surface while his feet were always paddling ten to the dozen underneath.

"Perhaps his greatest strength was his ability to inspire others. Every single member of that Group of county councillors who squeezed into the meeting room at the Bear Hotel in Street in the early summer of 1983 was made to feel valued, as were so many others in Chris's life.

"If he always had a point of view, you knew it derived from a clear vision of the kind of society he sought to create. He sometimes put his views over sharply; but Chris was sharp, in every sense of the word. He was able nonetheless to empathise with conflicting views, and to disarm through humour. I recall him asking somebody on one occasion "Is your indecision final?"

"Nothing if not tenacious, I remember him asking the Prime Minister a question about regional devolution at a meeting in Bristol. "You set the pace", Blair replied; "you make it happen". Chris did. And in the process he developed another great quality which was latent in him: the ability to work across party lines with tact, self-deprecating wit and great skill.

"If history is the record of an encounter between character and circumstance, Sir Chris Clarke made history.

"Tenacity was not his only British bulldog quality. Chris combined a healthy scepticism for the establishment with an ever ready concern for the underdog. To Chris, injustice anywhere was a threat to justice everywhere. His heroes included Shirley Williams and Conrad Russell.

"I knew Chris to be a committed European. He preferred the continental concern for the less able and the less fortunate to the Victorian values which blighted Britain. I admired his commitment to the work we did together to bring structural funds to the parts of this region worst hit by the ever widening gap between rich and poor.

"When I picture Chris in my mind's eye he is leaning back on a chair balanced precariously on its hind legs, clasping his hands around the back of his head and laughing jovially. Or he's showing off his latest electronic gadget. If I hear his voice on the phone it is Chris saying "Hi there Graham. How're ya diddlin'?"

"Had Chris been selected to fight Wells at the 1997 general election I predict he would have won. He was a great worker for Wells while endowed with a wider vision.

"The Duke of Wellington is reputed to have said that the mark of a great general is to know when to retreat and to dare to do it. Chris had that rare quality too. He knew when the time had come to hand on the baton to others.

"But the enduring memory of Chris will be his sense of fun. He was, quite simply, a great person to be with. Well informed, since his ear was always so close to the ground it bore the grazes; quick witted; and never taking himself too seriously.

"There's a piece of poetry by Tom Paulin I'd like to share with you. To me it speaks of Chris Clarke.

"'Juniper. Green Juniper. Tougher than the wind. Rugged, fecund, with resined spines … its springy resistance skirting the warped polities of other trees bent in the Atlantic wind. On this coast it's the only tree of freedom to be found.'"