SO, to recap. Man reportedly makes comment about an (arguably) morally reprehensible deportation scheme, and all hell breaks lose.
Then, man, who denies making such comments in the first place, gets told to shut up, and go back to making honey at Highgrove.
That’s right, poor ol’ Prince Charles has been sticking his sausagey little fingers into more political pies.
Allegedly describing Priti Patel’s plans to fly migrants to Rwanda as “appalling”, now he’s getting grief. Yes, yes — the royals should be politically neutral.
The Queen doesn’t vote, despite having a special relationship with the serving PM.
And by extension, her immediate family aren’t supposed to chip in with their tuppence-worth either.
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HEIRY SITUATION
Boris Johnson defends Rwanda plan after Prince Charles criticism
But, in a democracy, why shouldn’t Prince Charles have an opinion?
Why shouldn’t he be allowed to air his thoughts — right or wrong — just as the rest of us can?
He wasn’t doing a goose-step down Pall Mall and reminiscing about Germany’s glory days under Adolf.
As my colleague put it: “He’s a posh bastard but no one is more concerned for Britain, nor steeped in the love of this country, than Charles”.
In Great Britain 2022, like it or not, the Queen’s eldest son is an influencer. He has a platform. A significant one.
He may not be doing the Macarena on TikTok, but in my book, he’s a hundred times more valid than the influencers of, say, Love Island. (And thankfully we don’t have to see him in a snazzy pair of Speedos).
For more than 50 years, our next in line to the throne has used his unique position to promote sustainability and warn against climate change and deforestation.
Once upon a time, this wasn’t trendy. Not even ardent Lefties really gave a toss about the planet back in 1983.
Oh how we LOL’d when he said he nattered to flowers and hugged trees.
Now it’s all the rage to realise relationships with nature and biodiversity matter.
SHUT HIS BEAK
Two years ago, Charles launched the brilliant Sustainable Markets Initiative at the annual World Economic Forum at Davos.
Unlike the hypocritical bluster of many other royal eco crusaders — hiya Harry and Meghan! — this scheme provides a tangible roadmap for businesses to be, well, better.
His Prince’s Trust charity, founded in 1976 — again, way before it was trendy for the rich and powerful to be seen as kind, too — has done incredible work.
Again, he couldn’t have done any of this, or effected change, had he remained mute.
In short, he has done more for the Duchy of Cornwall in 50 years than his forebears in the past 700.
In 2015, The Guardian famously released a cache of secret memos between Charles and senior government ministers. He was accused of “lobbying at the highest level”.
He had called for action from then PM Tony Blair to improve equipment for British troops in Iraq (fair), moaned about the meddling EU (also fair), worried about the nutritional content of kids’ meals (definitely fair) and pushed to accelerate the redevelopment of a hospital site in Sunderland (patently, also, fair).
And herein lies the crux of the matter. Charles isn’t daft. Crucially, when he is Head of State, he will shut his beak.
Indeed, as Charles himself has said: “The idea, somehow, that I’m going to go on in exactly the same way, if I have to succeed, is complete nonsense . . . I’m not that stupid.
“If it’s meddling to worry about the inner cities as I did 40 years ago, then if that’s meddling I’m proud of it.”
Well said that man.
TIM PLAYS A BLINDER AS ROYAL OUTSIDER
KATE, Meghan, Sophie, take note: this is how you nail royal outsider life.
Mrs Princess Anne, Vice Admiral Tim Laurence, stepped in for his hard-working wife at the Founder’s Day Parade last week – and won the crowd over in three ingenious, self-deprecating sentences.
The Spurs fan (another bonus point) quipped: “Asking me to stand in for my wife at an event like this is a bit like asking Mrs Harry Kane to lead the England football team out.
“Or, possibly, to take a penalty for England as her husband did the other night.
“I don’t know Mrs Kane, and for all I know she may well have a very strong right foot, but in any case I’m sure she’d do her best, and so will I.”
PS. Over to you Kate Kane.
LAURA WHITMORE and I haven’t always seen eye to eye. But I’m with her 100 per cent here.
The Love Island host – married to the show’s voiceover Iain Stirling – was forced to hit back at “fans” who accused her of being “boring and overpaid” during the first episode.
She responded: “Iain has never had attention over the money he earns.
“Why don’t we like women earning money? I only get paid days I work.”
Laura – who also has it in her contract to offset carbon emissions from flying to and from Majorca – has put her money where her mouth is.
Admirable.
REBEL BEACH
WHAT a (gently tanned) two fingers to Putin.
Pictures of defiant Kyiv residents sunbathing on the city’s riverside beaches – despite ongoing bombardments in Kharkiv, in the country’s north – were wonderful to see.
Go suck on a Mr Whippy, Vlad.
HUNGRY FOR MY HOLIDAY
TODAY I set off for Turkey.
I say “set off” . . . it’s easyJet, so I will probably have a nice tour at Gatwick Airport before returning home a few hours later, minus all luggage, which will be in a hold on its merry way to Dubrovnik. Never to be seen again.
After paying a small fortune for two flights, and a third of my mortgage on a suitcase allowance, yesterday I was emailed with this encouraging note: “Food and drink may not be available on your flight.
“We’re very sorry. We recommend you bring your own food and soft drinks.”
How do these air companies continue to get away with it?
PS. OBVIOUSLY I’m going away during a heatwave.
ANGE A SEXIST
ANGELA RAYNER says Sir Keir Starmer looks too much like a lawyer in public and should “put some more welly” into his speeches.
Erm.
Imagine the outcry were this the other way around – and the (male) Labour leader was critiquing his (female) deputy’s appearance.
After all, this is the same Angela Rayner who hit out, in the strongest terms, against “sexist slurs” that she crosses and uncrosses her legs in the Commons to distract Boris Johnson.
Hypocrisy at its finest.
A SHOW TO LOVE
THIS week’s essential telly watching: Things I Know About Love.
The brilliant BBC series about four millennials – bear with me – makes a refreshing change from the borefest of Sally Rooney et al’s painfully woke adaptations.
Based on the novel by Sunday Times Style columnist Dolly Alderton, it features loads of awkward sex, bad drugs and posh girl rock ’n’ roll.
It’s basically Bridget Jones’s Diary for the younger, broker generation.
Give it a go.
RACISM: NOW IT’S PLANTS
JIM DAVIDSON, the Royal Family, Bernard Manning and, now, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh . . . what do they have in common?
Well, they’ve all been accused of racism.
Lest you should think the world-leading plant and conservation centre was anything but a pretty tourist attraction, and home to some 13,000 nice plants and flowers . . . think again.
A “racial justice paper” commissioned by the RBGE has accused the 72-acre nature spot of “exploitative, colonialist and racist activities”.
For example – for the bemused at the back – breadfruit, which comes from a plant collected on an expedition to Mauritius by explorer William Bligh, is cited as an example of “perpetuating colonist power structures”.
Soon there won’t be anyone, or anything, left to cancel.
*Albeit some are decidedly more racist than others . . . they know who they are.
BRITAIN, apparently, is home to the planet’s only all-female plumbing company.
And the firm’s name?
Stopcocks*.
Perfect.
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*Obviously I didn’t have a clue either – by all accounts [ie. Google], a stopcock is a “form of valve used to control the flow of a liquid or gas”.
You’re welcome.
