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For Church and country: the last british Governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten

“My experience has been that more people worry about me being a Conservative rather than me being a Catholic. I have never found a sense of hostility to me because I am a Catholic.”  There have, he concedes, been odd moments when his religion has caused a few raised eyebrows. “I got into trouble as a junior Minister in Northern Ireland [in 1983] when I attended a civic lunch in Derry and made the Sign of the Cross as we said grace. This was taken by some there from the DUP as a great sign of my incipient treachery.”