Thank goodness for Prince Charles

[reohn2]

Leaving aside his personality, his constitutional position, his priviledges, the existence of monarchy, his accent, his forebears and the Ruling Class and whether he should publicly speak or act, what do people think about his views?

Thats just it,how can anyone "leave aside" such privilege.
If he wishes to be taken seriously he would need to "leave aside" such things to have any credibility with the vast majority of ordinary people,otherwise he's just another fantastically rich man with no idea how the other half lives.
The Americans have a term "paying your dues", he clearly hasn't.

[blackbike]

Leaving aside his personality, his constitutional position, his priviledges, the existence of monarchy, his accent, his forebears and the Ruling Class and whether he should publicly speak or act, what do people think about his views?

His views are too tied up with his background.

He seems to want to return to some golden era, perhaps about the time of Edward VII, when he imagines the world was a kinder, simpler place - which it probably was for rich people like him before democracy really got going and the proles had to be taken notice of.

His views on architecture, farming and the environment are held by quite a few affluent types who seem to resent the modern world because it has ruined things for them by allowing too many others to have cars, use aeroplanes etc. That's why he is a supreme example of the 'do as I say, not as I do' faction which so many greens belong to.

[thirdcrank]

Just while we are waiting for somebody who not only agrees with him, but share's horizon's commendable willingness to say so in the face of some quite strong opposition, in an earlier post I suggested that Chas had spent too long on his mother's wheel; IMO he's not the only one. Whatever the personal qualities of our queen - and the general opinion seems to be they are considerable - the rehabilitation and modernisation of the monarchy which began with the abdication of Edward VIII has also reinforced the class divisions in our society: the privileges of our betters are widely seen as completely normal.

Think Alf Garnett.

[Mike Sales]

... M.P.Sales ..

Having gone to some length to spell out the full monty, you've only provided your initials. Are you hiding something embarrassing in the middle such Parsifal (or even Pinafore - as in Reginald Iolanthe Perrin?)

P is for Plebeian. I came across the list of Charlie's titles somewhere, and could not resist the copy and paste. The length of the list is not my responsibility, of course.

[thirdcrank]

... P is for Plebeian. ...

Thank goodness for that, althouth prole would have confirmed you were one of us just as well. Just so long as it's not Patrician

[irc]

That's why he is a supreme example of the 'do as I say, not as I do' faction which so many greens belong to.

+1

A good starting point with many greens, especially politicians is agreeing you will reduce your CO2 footprint to the same size as theirs. Charlie's carbon footprint must be gigantic. Several houses, frequent foreign travel etc.

[kwackers]

That's why he is a supreme example of the 'do as I say, not as I do' faction which so many greens belong to.

+1

A good starting point with many greens, especially politicians is agreeing you will reduce your CO2 footprint to the same size as theirs. Charlie's carbon footprint must be gigantic. Several houses, frequent foreign travel etc.

The job of reducing green house gases or improving resource usage is the governments. The current infrastructure doesn't support green and so in order to genuinely be green you have to be somewhat eccentric and that's hardly a selling point to the general populace...

I think a better question might be how green is Charlie compared to how he could be?

[snibgo]

I don't know what Charles has been doing recently, but I always enjoyed hearing his views on a multitude of topics. For me, he seemed the best type of English eccentric -- thought-provoking, mostly harmless, somehow combining common sense, sensibility and total insanity within the same paragraph or even the same sentence. The world would be a poorer place without him.

[thirdcrank]

.... I always enjoyed hearing his views on a multitude of topics. ....

I think the point is that he doesn't have to be sending numerous private letters to government ministers to give you that opportunity and to the extent that they are private, you have no idea what he's saying. A blog has to suffice for most of us or joining an internet forum or two and it's also much more open to scrutiny. If most of us want that sort of access to decisionmakers, we have to contribute zillions to party funds.

[snibgo]

I have also written numerous private letters to government ministers, of various countries. And some of them have even been read and replied to. I don't suppose I have any influence at all. How much influence does Charles have? I don't know. I suppose ministers are more concerned about upsetting him than upsetting me, but does he have any more influence than other celebrities and "opinion-makers"? I don't know.

[thirdcrank]

I suspect, but don't know for sure, that when you or I lobby, if it receives any attention at all, it's from a junior sub-underling. I fancy that his stuff gets a lot higher up the hierarchy.

Some things that I have lobbied about have changed in the manner I suggested. I doubt if that's because it came from me but because plenty of other people wrote along the same lines, and / or what I wrote was a good idea*. I suppose my underlying point is that is if his judgment is so poor that he thinks it's appropriate for him to exploit his unique position in this way, then that alone is enough to justify me saying he should try to keep it shut.

* It took the best part of a decade for the decisionmakers - both elected reperesentatives and appointed officials - to accept that the applications for means-tested supplements to the state-retirement pension, need not be organised as though the typical retirement pensioner was as devious as they themselves tend to be and that if somebody qualifies at age 65, few will get substantially better off as they grow older. (I cannot believe I achieved this on my own.)

[horizon]

Somewhere in between the lines of my original post was the assumption that Prince Charles' utterances, or indeed private lobbying, concerned topics that were essentially "non-political" or at least were issues on which the major parties were united in their disregard or opposition. On that basis I thought he had "political clearance". Maybe people were horrified that their cosy non-political consensus was challenged.

[Mick F]

Two stories going back to the mid-to-late 70s:

Tale No1:
I was called one weekend to go out to fix HMS Bronington's Type 975 radar set.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Bronington
She came into the Firth of Forth from patrol, and me and my duty chap - Radio Electrical Mechanic "Yogi" Bear - were ferried out by boat. Yogi knew all about these radars, I knew nowt much about them at all! and he fixed it with the spares we'd brought with us. I just watched and looked officious and knowledgeable.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant The Prince of Wales - the commanding officer - was out on the Forth having a go at windsurfing! Later, when we were leaving, he shook my hand and thanked me. (I'd done nothing, but I didn't tell him that!)

Tale No2:
A while later, Bronington is alongside in Rosyth Naval Base, and my boss was walking along the jetty when he saw a young officer with his hands in his pockets. My boss was a stickler for dress and bearing, and strode over to this officer and was about to give him the: "How do you expect my young ratings to stand correctly without looking slovenly with their hands in their pockets when officers do it etc etc etc" ...................... when he saw who it was!
He turned tail!

Oh, how we laughed!

[blackbike]

As a young man I was grateful for the day off work in 1981 when he got married. However, I worked in the state sector at the time.

Now I work in private industry I can't see the point of giving public employees the day off for royal events if we still have to pay them the same wage for the week.

Shouldn't we get a refund on our income tax and council tax if public employees are off work on a royal occasion and not doing the work we pay those taxes for?

[Mick F]

Good question!
I remember making a similar comment about a police brass band. Why should I pay for coppers to play music?