that's worth celebrating,
It appears that during all those years he's had to pause
Prince Charles has been cerebrating,
and wishing he could use his Royal prerogative
to influence his country's laws
by being actively interrogative
in letters about many a legal cause.
But though he might like to help things from going to their worst,
shouldn't he also remember that they beheaded Charles The First?
HZL
3/2715
The Execution of Charles I, 1649 - EyeWitness to History
www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/charlesI.htm
King Charles I was his own worst enemy. Self-righteous, arrogant, and unscrupulous; he had a penchant for making bad decisions. His troubles began the ...
The time has finally come for Prince Charles to put his cards on the table. As preparations for his kingship gather pace, it has become clear that the 66-year-old heir wants to rule in a far more outspoken way than the taciturn Queen. He plans “heartfelt interventions” in national life, whisper allies. “A quiet constitutional revolution is afoot,” said his friend and biographer, Jonathan Dimbleby.The 27 missives were sent between Charles and ministers in Whitehall departments ranging from business to farming and health. Do they contain demands on fox hunting, complementary medicine and traditional architecture? Is this something truly explosive? We don’t yet know. What is clear is that, after the judges ruled, a royal aide was quick to suggest Clarence House was “relaxed” about the letters’ publication. Perhaps Charles is hopeful his messages will play well with the public, so that he might win their approval and escape the shackles of political neutrality that underpin Grieve’s thinking about how a monarch should behave. Some observers believe the winds are blowing in Charles’s favour.
“I used to think it would be fatal for Charles to depart from impartiality, but two recent events have made me rethink,” said Robert Lacey, the royal historian. “When he intervened to call for action over the flooding in 2014, there was a positive public response, and on his trip to Saudi Arabia he raised the case of the blogger Raif Badawi who was threatened with 1,000 lashes. He got a result and the man has not been beaten since. That again was well received by the British public.”
Royal aides and Downing Street will monitor public reaction closely. In January, a poll by YouGov found that 54% of people believe it is “appropriate for the prince to speak out about issues he feels strongly about”, while 34% think he should keep quiet.
But even if his messages please some, there will be a powerful backlash from enemies of both Charles and the monarchy, at Westminster and beyond. Paul Flynn MP has suggested that any question about Charles’s neutrality could trigger a groundswell of opinion in favour of Prince William leapfrogging his father to the throne. Already 31% of people would prefer to see William become the next king, according to YouGov.
Certainly every nuance of the would-be king’s views will be debated in public forums, along with his right to express them, all when palace spin doctors would prefer to be focusing on the imminent arrival of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s second child – a more serene, if more bland, vision of the monarchy’s future.
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