The Return of the Keni

You couldn't get a starker contrast than Ken Clarke and Peter Mandelson.
Mandelson is the man who defined New Labour, someone who played a significant part in transforming a party notorious for its resemblance to a disorganised rabble into a slick election-winning machine that spoke in sharp slogans rather than laboured philosophy.
But he is also a political operator of the first order, financially accident-prone, and unforgiving of perceived enemies.
He was characterised by former lobby correspondent Paul Linford as 'the proverbial riddle wrapped in a mystery wrapped in an enigma'.
Trying to put journalists off stories he didn't like, he would tell them quietly: "I think you will find that story will remain an exclusive".
Clarke, on the other hand, is the model of 'take me as you find me'. I bumped into him at Newark and Notts Show once to find not a sharp-suited high flyer with a retinue of minders in tow, but a bloke in a battered Barbour wondering which stand his lady wife had wandered off to.
The Rushcliffe MP is a words-and-deeds man who probably doesn't give two hoots for spin doctors.
He will be merciless with Mandelson on two fronts: the Government will be lambasted for having a Business Secretary who isn't even in the House of Commons, while the good Lord himself will be lampooned for an obsession with presentation rather than policy.
You can also expect Clarke to make the most of the fact that he has business experience where Mandelson doesn't. While the former Chancellor has never run a business, he has been a non-exec on a number of PLC boards and has a useful City network.
Mandelson will counter that Clarke remains a divisive figure in Tory circles, whose warmth towards things European is out of step with the party's natural ambivalence towards the Euro state.
He will also wonder aloud what wannabe Tory Chancellor George Osborne thinks about having the Real McCoy sitting alongside him.
Will he have a different take on business? A no-nonsense bruiser like Clarke may well suggest that while the Government has delivered some headline initiatives aimed at softening the recession, it was also responsible for a shower of little measures that make everyday life a real hassle for business.
If David Cameron and George Osborne allow, a QC like Clarke will also have little difficulty taking on Gordon Brown.
For all Clarke's blokish amiability, those Hush Puppies can deliver a very sharp kick.
UPDATE: THIS analysis supports the view that Ken Clarke has not returned to the Tory front benches simply to bait Lord Mandelson.