Harry: I’ll be a campaigning Prince
Harry praises eco-warrior father during 9-minute BBC interview
PRINCE Harry vowed yesterday to ‘play his part’ in society by campaigning on important causes.
Shedding the last vestige of his playboy image, he said it was his ‘job’ to ‘shine a spotlight’ on social issues as part of his ongoing commitment to royal service.
Harry, 33, also praised his father Prince Charles, 69, for his activism and foresight on environmental problems, and revealed that he ‘picks his brains more now than ever’.
The young royal made his pledge to be a campaigning prince during his guest editorship of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday.
Harry said: ‘Part of my role and part of my job is to shine a spotlight on issues that need that spotlight, whether it’s people, whether it’s causes, issues, whatever it is. So I will continue to play my part in society and do my job to the best of my abilities so that I can wake up in the morning and feel energised and go to bed hopefully knowing that I’ve done the best that I can.’
He revealed his passion for issues such as mental health, the Armed Forces and youth crime, appearing to take on his father’s mantle as a campaigning royal. Harry interviewed Charles during the programme, allowing the pair to discuss environmental issues close to their hearts.
In an affectionate nine-minute exchange, Charles called his son ‘darling boy’ and Harry referred to him as ‘Pa’. Harry praised his father’s vision on climate change dating back many years and his campaign to highlight threats to the environment, saying he could talk to him about it for ‘hours and hours and hours’.
Charles told his son: ‘The issue really which has to go on being focused on, big time I think, is this one around the whole issue of climate change.
‘Which is now, whether we like it or not, the biggest threat multiplier we face because what is happening now is what I was dreading.’ The Prince of Wales added his views on the environment ‘may not have been as dotty’ as his critics first thought.
After a discussion about why biodiversity matters, Harry told his father: ‘I totally see it and I totally understand it because of all these years of conversations that we’ve been having and I do end up picking your brains more now than I ever have done.
‘So rest assured that all of that information that you have that I know can be incredibly demoralising I suppose because you are not seeing the results, yet you know what is happening, or you could see 15 years ago what was going to happen today, and sure enough it is all happening.
‘Despite the fact that we have had these conversations and despite the fact that I know how you must feel.’ Charles was thrilled his son was listening to his concerns, saying: ‘Oh dear boy, the fact you are saying this [ that something must be done about protecting nature]…Well, darling boy it makes me very proud to think that you understand.’
Harry, who is engaged to marry US actress Meghan Markle, 36, in May, also used his role as guest editor of Today to highlight the issues of mental health and work productivity, the sacrifice made by Armed Forces abroad over Christ-
mas, youth crime and the public’s relationship with charities. The prince – who was an Army officer for more than ten years – praised the ‘absolutely amazing’ personnel serving overseas, adding: ‘As Edmund Burke once said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing.”
‘And I really believe that we, as the British public, have to have the appetite to know that our people are ready to serve – they are ready to do what is necessary.’ But he would not be drawn into a discussion about defence cuts and the future of the military, saying: ‘I am not going to get involved in politics, I can’t.’
Harry remained optimistic about the future and the positive impact of campaigning, saying: ‘I think somewhere along the line in the last 15 to 20 years this mind set has crept in that “we’re just one individual, what difference can we possibly make?” Well I can safely say that if everybody has that understanding, that impression, then we’re never going to get anywhere.
‘[But] if everybody accepts that “I am one person and I do my bit” and everybody has that mentality and we’re able to influence others, then great change, good things are going to happen in 2018 without a question.’