Prince Charles says he won’t meddle in issues as king
Heir apparent has been outspoken on topics suc the environment and social issues
Britain’s Prince Charles said he will stop speaking out on issues he feels strongly about when he becomes king, as he is “not that stupid”.
Speaking ahead of his 70th birthday next week, the son of the reigning 92-year-old Queen Elizabeth II said that the role of monarch was completely different to his current position as Prince of Wales.
“The idea, somehow, that I’m going to go on in exactly the same way, if I have to succeed, is complete nonsense because the two — the two situations — are completely different,” he told the BBC.
Asked whether his public campaigning will continue, ■ he said: “No, it won’t. I’m not that stupid.” Britain has a constitutional monarchy, where the monarch has a formal role in the formation of governments but an obligation to remain neutral and no practical political power.
Charles has been outspoken on topics such as the environment and social issues. In September, in an interview with GQ magazine, he defended his activism as heir to the throne, which includes founding the Prince’s Trust charity in 1976 to support vulnerable young people. He said: “If it’s meddling to worry about the inner cities as I did 40 years ago, I’m proud of it.”
‘Saving the world’
Beside his outspoken views, Charles faced intrigue around the acrimonious end of his marriage to first wife, Princess Diana, and hostility in some quarters to his second wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
Camilla told the BBC that his drive to get things done spurred his activism. “He would like to save the world,” she said. Charles’ supporters say his causes — such as helping disadvantaged young people find work, inter-faith dialogue and campaigning against throwaway plastic — are often prescient.