Dynamic duo

Two of the best prime ministers Britain never had are arriving in Dublin next week. Kenneth Clarke MP, who lost the Tory leadership to William Hague, will deliver the Sean Lemass Memorial Lecture at the Royal Irish Academy on Monday, and Labour's Roy Hattersley will be here on Friday and Saturday to promote his new book Who Goes Home?. Clarke was rejected because he was too left-wing and pro-Europe for the Tories; Hattersley lost out because he was too right-wing and pro-Europe for Labour. Reviewing Fifty Years On last month Fergus Finlay said something fell into place for him when he read: "Oppositions are inclined to float on the froth of politics; governments sink or swim in the deep water." Finlay has experience of both and, from this week, of the world outside, too.