Deirdre Heenan: ‘Ordinary soldier’ Beattie must lead UUP into battle with DUP

The new Ulster Unionist Party leader needs to carve out a position that is more than DUP-lite for the party to have relevance

Doug Beattie, the new leader of the Ulster Unionist Party. Picture: Pacemaker

In the memoir of his distinguished career in the British military, Doug Beattie refers to himself as an “ordinary soldier”. This is despite the fact that he was awarded the Military Cross for his involvement in an operation to retake the town of Garmsir in Helmand Province in Afghanistan

The book offers an insight into his extraordinary experiences serving abroad including in Bosnia and Iraq and charts the now 55-year-old’s rise from a ranger to ...