Fergus Finlay: On both sides of the Irish Sea, political leaders are in trouble

Micheál Martin stands accused by his own as being massively out of touch over the fuel protests while Keir Starmer is under fire over the Peter Mandelson debacle

Taoiseach Micheál Martin and UK prime minister Keir Starmer at Fota House, Co Cork, last month, for the second UK-Ireland Summit, aimed at reviewing progress and driving implementation of the UK-Ireland 2030 programme. File picture: Paul Faith/AFP via Getty Images

'To lose one elected leader may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.’ Oscar Wilde’s Lady Bracknell didn’t quite say that, of course. 

But if we all, the poor benighted electorate of these two neighbouring islands, were standing in front of her, timorously trying to explain the mess in which both of our leaders find themselves, she might well have.