The great virtue of a constituional monarch is that they say nothing, and have no opinion, and certainly no political ones.
Prince Charles, who appears to be the UK's new co-monarch, has plenty of opinions and has never been shy about sharing them. The 'meddling Prince' is famous for writing 'black spider' memos to government ministers which are rumoured to be attempts to interfere with policy.
The Times has reacted to the announcement yesterday that the Queen is to scale back her duties involving long-haul flights leaving her son to take on more of her job with a caustic editorial.
In the piece, the (paywalled) paper somewhat patronisingly refers to the Prince's 'zeal and good intentions' and says that the Prince must now learn to keep his views to himself and stop interfering.
"The Prince of Wales can no more walk silently past a set of plans drawn up by a modernist architect than a labrador can walk past a lamppost without stopping to cock his leg. When he caught sight of Richard Rogers’s designs for the £3 billion redevelopment of Chelsea Barracks, he used the Old Prince’s Network to bend the ears, over tea at Clarence House, of the Prime Minister of Qatar, chairman of the Qatari investment company that was co-funding the scheme, and of the Emir of Qatar. And was then outraged when his intervention came to light," the paper quips.
Few would disagree that Charles's greatest personal challenge is to become as discreet as his mother.
Let us hope that now that he finally actually has something to do, it may be easier for him to button his lip.
