1 OCTOBER 1994, Page 30

Non-executive parent

SIRING IS tiring. Europe's ministers meet- ing in Brussels have recognised that, but Swift got there first. 'He bears the gal- lantries of his lady' (Swift wrote of the Lieutenant Governor of Ireland) 'with the indifference of a stoic, and thinks them well recompensed by the return of children to support his family, without the fatigues of being a father.' And, under the new Euro- rules, with three months' paid leave.