One way to foot the Bill

Amid hopes that former US president Bill Clinton will lecture at the new Rothermere American Institute at Oxford University, some more cautious souls may be wondering about the bottom line. Mr Clinton allegedly earns some $100,000 for his speeches these days. But Queen's University, Belfast, where he spoke yesterday, struck a bargain. Queen's refuses to make any comment about the financial details, but Mr Clinton's normal fee is understood to have plummeted, less out of regard for the beleaguered higher education system than for his old friend, Senator George Mitchell, Queen's chancellor.