Enda Brady

It's bad.

It's very bad.

I mean, they look at you.

They look at your character.

They sit down with you.

There's a verbal interview, a questionnaire.

They look at your financial history.

They're looking at every aspect of you as a person.

Can you be blackmailed?

Is there anything in your private life?

They ask you very blunt questions about sexual history, internet usage, your lifestyle, your beliefs.

You know, and I'm speaking now, say if it was one of us as an Irish person in a million years going to work at the high level in the UK government, they will be asking about your background, your views on Irish politics.

Have you any links to Republican organizations?

They would ask about your partner.

They would ask you about your bank statements, you know, have you any financial problems?

They're looking at anything that is going to cause embarrassment or lead to you being possibly manipulated by a foreign actor or state.

And that's the process that all these diplomats sail through, because if you look at any of the top level people I've met, you know,

you'd be hard pushed to get an opinion out of them on anything.

Vanilla is the phrase that comes to mind.

And I'm sorry to say, Peter Mandelson turned out to be anything but vanilla.