Clark held strong views on British unionism, racial difference, social class, and was in support of animal rights, nationalist protectionism and Euroscepticism. He referred to Enoch Powell as “The Prophet”. Clark once declared: “It is natural to be proud of your race and your country”, and in a departmental meeting, allegedly referred to Africa as “Bongo Bongo Land”.[34] When called to account, however, by then Prime Minister John Major, Clark denied the comment had any racist overtones, claiming it had simply been a reference to the President of Gabon, Omar Bongo.
Clark argued that the media and the government failed to pick out the racism towards white people and ignored any racist attacks on white people. He also however described the National Front chairman, John Tyndall, as “a bit of a blockhead”[36] and disavowed his ideas.
When Clark was Minister for Trade, responsible for overseeing arms sales to foreign governments, he was interviewed by journalist John Pilger who asked him:[37]
JP “Did it bother you personally that you were causing such mayhem and human suffering (by supplying arms for Indonesia’s war in East Timor)?”
AC “No, not in the slightest, it never entered my head.”
JP “I ask the question because I read you are a vegetarian and you are quite seriously concerned about the way animals are killed.”
AC “Yeah”
JP “Doesn’t that concern extend to the way humans, albeit foreigners, are killed?”
AC “Curiously not. No.”
While involved in the Matrix Churchill trial he was cited in a divorce case in South Africa, in which it was revealed he had had affairs with Valerie Harkess, the wife of a South African barrister (and part-time junior judge), and her daughters Josephine and Alison.[38] After sensationalist tabloid headlines, Clark’s wife Jane remarked upon what Clark had called “the coven” with the line: “Well, what do you expect when you sleep with below stairs types?”, and referred to her husband as an “S, H, one, T”…
The diaries reveal recurring worries about Japanese militarism but his real views are often not clear because he enjoyed making “tongue in cheek” remarks to the discomfiture of those he believed to be fools, as in his sympathy for a British version of National Socialism.
