GWPF | 2 Feb 2015
Queen Fears Britain Isn’t Ready For Charles & His Activism
Prince Charles has decided he will be an “activist” king who will remain outspoken on issues he cares about, according to a new biography, provoking “tensions” with Buckingham Palace about the royal succession. Senior figures around the Queen fear he intends to remain “an advocate” for his passionately held views. –Nicholas Hellen and Tim Shipman, The Sunday Times, 1 February 2015
The Queen fears that Britain may not be ready for the radical new style of monarchy envisaged by her eldest son, according to the new biography of the Prince of Wales. Catherine Mayer, the author, says that the prince intends to be a more campaigning kind of sovereign than his mother, but some courtiers at Buckingham Palace — as well as the Queen herself — feel that the country is not prepared for the “shock of the new”. Mayer also says that the Duke of Edinburgh is among his harshest critics and believes the prince to be guilty of “selfish behaviour” in putting his “cerebral passions” before his royal duties. –Valentine Low, The Times, 2 February 2015
1) Palace Tensions As Charles Refuses To Be A Silent King – The Sunday Times, 1 February 2015
2) Britain Isn’t Ready For Charles And His Activism, Fears Queen – The Times, 2 February 2015
3) Prince Charles Launches Blistering Attack On Businesses That Ignore His Climate Warnings – The Guardian 28 January 2015
4) The Man Who Sees Himself The Saviour King –The Independent on Sunday, 1 February 2015
5) Reminder: Prince Charles ‘Consorted With Labour On Climate Change’ – The Daily Telegraph, 29 June 2014
6) And Finally: Mankind Must Go Green Or Die, Says Prince Charles – The Independent, 23 November 2012
The Prince of Wales’ preparations for an activist monarchy have prompted a backlash, as a new book revealed a dysfunctional and divided court around him. Someone with close links to the Palace said: “It is no accident that he writes all those letters to ministers. He does see himself as a kind of saviour of the nation, someone who can mend the broken country. Some might see that as presumptuously messianic.” –John Rentoul and James Hanning, —The Independent on Sunday, 1 February 2015
Prince Charles has launched a blistering attack on companies that are actively seeking to delay progress on preventing runaway climate change. Highlighting the need for a radical shift in the way the economy is run, he said that over the past decade he has been met by either indifference from mainstream business leaders and economists, or outright opposition. In the more than 100 meetings and seminars he has attended since then, the prince said he had “experienced every sort of reaction to the suggestions from myself and many others that time is running out. The negative reactions have ranged from polite indifference to the pronouncement by an economist – who else – that I was ‘the enemy of the enlightenment’.” –Jo Confino, The Guardian 28 January 2015
The Prince of Wales “consorted” with Labour ministers to get tougher Government policies on climate change, it has been claimed. The prince also helped persuade Tony Blair to turn against genetically modified food, Michael Meacher, the former environment minister, said. Mr Meacher said the Prince helped him push Tony Blair for more radical action on climate change and to block GM foods. Asked whether such lobbying caused a “constitutional problem,” Mr Meacher said: “Well, over GM I suppose you could well say that. Maybe he was pushing it a bit. I was delighted, of course.” —Matthew Holehouse, The Daily Telegraph, 29 June 2014
The Prince of Wales has warned that mankind is on the brink of “committing suicide on a grand scale” unless urgent progress is made in tackling green issues such as carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, intensive farming and resource depletion. Adopting uncharacteristically apocalyptic language, the Prince said the world was heading towards a “terrifying point of no return” and that future generations faced an “unimaginable future” on a toxic planet. But Dr Benny Peiser, director of Lord Lawson’s Global Warming Policy Foundation, said the Prince’s views were still out of step with mainstream thinking. “He is really a good representative of the environmental movement as such and it is not a personal issue,” he said. But he added that the “extreme alarm and extreme concern” was “over the top and not helpful to the debate. It doesn’t convince any governments or any ministers and in the end it is over the top and won’t be heard.” –Jonathan Brown, The Independent, 23 November 2012
As future king, Charles must take care not to let his passion for such vital issues turn into political campaigning, which could lay him open to accusations of abusing his constitutional position. His frequent ‘black spider memos’ to ministers are already notorious and, in a new documentary, three leading figures from the Blair government tell how he also sought to influence public policy on his pet subjects by backstairs lobbying. Most worryingly, former environment minister Michael Meacher revealed how he and the Prince would ‘consort quietly’ to affect policy on GM crops and climate change and ‘try to ensure we increased our influence within government’. Charles is not an elected politician nor the head of some pressure group. He is heir to the throne and, as such, must remain above the fray of party politics – as his mother has done with supreme skill for over 50 years. –Editorial, Daily Mail, 30 June 2014
1) Palace Tensions As Charles Refuses To Be A Silent King
The Sunday Times, 1 February 2015
Nicholas Hellen and Tim Shipman
PRINCE CHARLES has decided he will be an “activist” king who will remain outspoken on issues he cares about, according to a new biography, provoking “tensions” with Buckingham Palace about the royal succession.
The book, by Catherine Mayer, Time magazine’s former London bureau chief, claims that Charles is resisting pressure to “taper off” his interventions on green issues and architecture.
The Sunday Times understands that Charles has repeatedly rebuffed attempts by Buckingham Palace officials to get him to spend more time preparing to be head of state.
Senior figures around the Queen fear he intends to remain “an advocate” for his passionately held views.
Mayer — the first of four biographers set to publish in the months ahead — describes Charles as “a royal activist” who is compared by some who know him to “a British Al Gore”, the former American vice-president who has become an outspoken campaigner on climate change. Courtiers say Charles will “cast his ambitions far wider” than simply green issues.
Mayer’s book, which is being serialised in The Times, claims: “Charles is increasingly looking for ways to build his activities into the head-of-state role rather than tapering them off”, as some of the Queen’s officials would prefer.
“His independence, asserted over many years, is . . . not something he will readily cede,” Mayer writes.
An ally of the prince says that “he won’t be silent” when he does assume the throne.
2) Britain Isn’t Ready For Charles And His Activism, Fears Queen
The Times, 2 February 2015
Valentine Low
The Queen fears that Britain may not be ready for the radical new style of monarchy envisaged by her eldest son, according to the new biography of the Prince of Wales.
The Queen is said to have doubts over the prince’s ambitions Danny Lawson/PA
Catherine Mayer, the author, says that the prince intends to be a more campaigning kind of sovereign than his mother, but some courtiers at Buckingham Palace — as well as the Queen herself — feel that the country is not prepared for the “shock of the new”.
Mayer also says that the Duke of Edinburgh is among his harshest critics and believes the prince to be guilty of “selfish behaviour” in putting his “cerebral passions” before his royal duties.
Charles: The Heart of a King, serialised in The Times, argues that the prince has ambitions which mean “he will never be content as just a figurehead”. Describing the prince as a man of “extraordinary achievements and sometimes equally extraordinary mistakes”, Mayer says that his passion for embracing a wide range of causes has caused disquiet at Buckingham Palace.
“In the corridors and back rooms and private apartments of Buckingham Palace there is mounting anxiety as the Queen’s reign enters what an insider calls ‘its inevitable twilight’,” she writes. “In defining his role as heir apparent, the prince has signalled a redefinition of the monarchy. Some courtiers — and the sovereign herself — fear that neither the Crown nor its subjects will tolerate the shock of the new.”
The prince, who for all his regal ambition is said by Mayer to “dread” the death of his parents, is planning to introduce “a potential new model of kingship”.
He told the author: “I only take on the most difficult challenges. Because I want to raise aspirations and re-create hope from hopelessness and health from deprivation.”
His detractors believe that he should temper his campaigning tendencies. Drawing a parallel with Edward VIII, who abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson, Mayer writes: “Some of Prince Charles’s harshest critics within the palace (his father tops the list, says a well-placed source) accuse the current heir to the throne of similarly selfish behaviour. It’s not that they blame him for choosing Camilla over Diana. They feel he puts his more cerebral passions — his activism — before his royal job.”
3) Prince Charles Launches Blistering Attack On Businesses That Ignore His Climate Warnings
The Guardian 28 January 2015
Jo Confino
Prince Charles has launched a blistering attack on companies that are actively seeking to delay progress on preventing runaway climate change. Highlighting the need for a radical shift in the way the economy is run, he said that over the past decade he has been met by either indifference from mainstream business leaders and economists, or outright opposition.
Pointing out that science had proved beyond doubt the terrifying impacts of inaction, he called on executives to collapse the chasm between how they acted at home and what they were prepared to do in the office.
“We need to start integrating the business public self with the private family self,” he told a meeting of the Corporate Leaders Group. “So that when you go home in the evenings, perhaps you think a little bit about what you are doing and whether it is the right way to go.”
