At the weekend, we stayed in Hillsborough Castle, official residence of the secretaries of state for Northern Ireland. There, in the 1770s, came Benjamin Franklin. He was said to have got on so badly with Lord Hillsborough, then acting Secretary of State for the Colonies, that he went home and declared the independence of the United States. There, in the 1990s, came numerous Peace Processors; and there, in April 2003, came George W. Bush and Tony Blair to discuss the Iraq they had just invaded. Things have got quieter since then, and our visit was intended as a tour of aspects of the province’s history kindly laid on by the present Secretary of State, Owen Paterson, and his wife Rose. But an accident of timing stirred things up. Our fellow guests included Lord Ashcroft, the owner of the conservativehome website, and Tim Montgomerie, its editor. The BBC led on Friday with Montgomerie’s claim that three Cabinet ministers had told him that the government should drop its Health Bill.

The Spectator’s Notes | 18 February 2012
issue 18 February 2012
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