The bizarre saga of Prince Charles's lobbying letters to government ministers - which are now set to be released under Freedom of Information legislation following a 10-year court battle by the Guradian - are widely expected to be most diverting.
But what will they actually contain?
A taste of the potential quackery we may get to enjoy is to be found in the forthcoming issue of the British magazine the Spectator.
The esteemed writer Max Hastings quotes from "a copy of a letter allegedly written by him some years ago to a cultural institution" in which he claims Prince Charles says, "There is a DIVINE Source which is ultimate TRUTH… that this Truth can be expressed by means of numbers… and that, if followed correctly, these principles can be expressed with infinite variety to produce Beauty."
The U.K.’s supreme court has ordered the release of the letters, known as the black spider memos, because of the prince’s scrawled handwriting, which include correspondence with seven government departments. The Guardian has been battling for the release of these memos for a decade, because it says they will shed light on whether the monarchy is maintaining its mandated political neutrality.
Hastings writes, "The heir to the throne is entitled to believe such things, but if he aspires to influence public affairs, he has no claim to keep his interventions secret. The Supreme Court last week reached its only credible decision, by acceding to the Guardian’s demand that his lobbying correspondence should be published."
Hear hear.
