LONDON – Prince Charles wasn’t happy about being forced to sit in an “uncomfortable” seat in business class on a flight to Hong Kong. But he didn’t want the world to know about it.
The heir to the throne is seeking to block publication of diaries he kept during trips abroad. But so far, the exercise in protecting royal privacy has been a flop.
| Excerpts from Prince Charles’ journal:
On the Hong Kong hand- over ceremony: “For the hand-over this hall had been transformed into a kind of Great Hall of the People of Peking. After my speech the (Chinese) President detached himself from the group of appalling old waxworks who accompanied him and took his place at the lectern. He then gave a kind of ‘propaganda’ speech, which was loudly cheered by the bused in party faithful at the suitable moment in the text. At the end of this awful Soviet-style display we had to watch the Chinese soldiers goose step on to the stage and haul down the Union Jack and raise the Chinese flag. The ultimate horror was the artificial wind which made the flags flutter enticingly.” On politicians: “They then take decisions based on marketing research or focus groups, or the papers produced by political advisers or civil servants, none of whom will have ever experienced what it is they are taking decisions about.” |
A judge on Wednesday ordered the immediate release of a 1997 journal, which revealed the prince’s dislike of the Chinese leadership, his view of U.S. and British politicians and his chagrin at having to fly business class.
“It took me some time to realize that this was not first class (!) although it puzzled me as to why the seat seemed so uncomfortable,” the prince complained in one excerpt about the June British Airways 747 flight to Hong Kong.
“I then discovered that (politicians) were comfortably ensconced in first class immediately below us,” he wrote. “Such is the end of the Empire, I sighed to myself.”
More embarrassing revelations could be on the way if a High Court judge rejects the prince’s claim for breaches of confidentiality and copyright regarding seven similar journals from other royal trips.
Judge William Blackburne said Thursday he would give his ruling on those “as soon as possible.”
Charles, 57, is suing the publisher of the Mail on Sunday newspaper, which in November published portions of the diary kept during a 1997 trip to mark the handover of the Hong Kong – then a British colony – to China.
The prince’s lawyers say the document, intended for distribution to a few close friends, was leaked by a former palace employee. They are claiming invasion of privacy and copyright infringement, and are seeking to stop the newspaper publishing the seven other journals.
The Mail contends that publishing the diaries is in the public interest because they reveal the political beliefs of the man who would be Britain’s head of state as king.
Publication of the prince’s sometimes curmudgeonly political opinions – and the claim by a former aide that Charles often writes to politicians to offer his “dissident” opinions – also raised questions about the role of the monarchy in modern Britain.
Members of the British royal family traditionally keep their political views to themselves. Charles, however, has cast himself as an advocate for heritage, tradition and the environment.
Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday that he found the prince’s opinions helpful and nonpartisan.
“I think he’s perfectly entitled to express his views,” Blair told reporters at his monthly news conference.
But critics of the monarchy said Charles, often portrayed as well-meaning but out of touch, had gone too far.
“We only tolerate a monarchy in this country because the monarch should be neutral in political matters and should stay out of them,” said Stephen Haseler, professor of politics at London Metropolitan University and chairman of the anti-monarchist group Republic.
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