World: Britain's Pragmatic Patrician

The man who is pulling the Rhodesian thorn from Britain's side once described himself as "a product of privilege." Indeed, Peter Alexander Rupert Carington, 60, sixth Baron Carrington,* bears all the hallmarks of his patrician heritage: urbanity, erudition and an icy self-assurance sometimes bordering on arrogance. He has, says a friend, "that aristocratic, flippant manner that makes him free of inhibitions or a sense of inadequacy." Though he has never held elective office, the trim, impeccably tailored Carrington is regarded as a consummate politician. He has more governmental experience than anyone else in the Thatcher Cabinet—"more than all of us...

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