22 July 1999 Edition
Back issue: Another babbling Brooke
Peter Brooke, the ninth colonial administrator to take over at Stormont since 1972, has all the qualifications needed for this office.
The son of a baron (and a baroness in her own right), Brooke is a highly paid underwriter at Lloyds, the London insurance company, and a former shareholder in a Swiss finishing school for upper-class girls. For the last two years, he presided over the Tory Party during its most disastrous period for a decade.
As if these qualities do not already mark him out perfectly for the post of British direct ruler, he can also lay claim to some Irish ancestry, being related to Sir Basil Brooke, later Lord Brookeborough, the third premier of the Stormont parliament, who helped form the B Specials and who once swore he would never have a Catholic around the place.
For the faceless non-entities - Labour and Tory - who rule part of Ireland for Britain, the only requirement needed for the job is unswerving commitment to maintaining the Union Jack over Belfast and Derry.
The son of a baron (and a baroness in her own right), Brooke is a highly paid underwriter at Lloyds, the London insurance company, and a former shareholder in a Swiss finishing school for upper-class girls. For the last two years, he presided over the Tory Party during its most disastrous period for a decade.
As if these qualities do not already mark him out perfectly for the post of British direct ruler, he can also lay claim to some Irish ancestry, being related to Sir Basil Brooke, later Lord Brookeborough, the third premier of the Stormont parliament, who helped form the B Specials and who once swore he would never have a Catholic around the place.
For the faceless non-entities - Labour and Tory - who rule part of Ireland for Britain, the only requirement needed for the job is unswerving commitment to maintaining the Union Jack over Belfast and Derry.