A perfect leader for the Commonwealth
As the Prince is chosen to succeed the Queen, his biographer Jonathan Dimbleby explains why he is eminently qualified
Had I been a bookie during this week’s debate about the Prince of Wales being chosen to succeed his mother as head of the Commonwealth, I would not have offered any odds against. It was a racing certainty and a done deal, probably some time ago.
Why was I so sure? Because it was inconceivable that the Queen would, in opening the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in London, have expressed her “sincere wish” for the Prince to succeed her “one day”, unless it had already been agreed. Some have speculated that she spoke as she did precisely because there was a question mark over the succession, noting that the post is not a hereditary position and didn’t have to follow the line of succession in the British Royal family in a post-colonial world.
The truth is quite the opposite. The Queen knew what was going to be announced. She certainly wouldn’t have placed herself, or her son, in the position of being gainsaid.
That agreement that the Prince should be the next head of the Commonwealth has come about for two powerful reasons. The first is practical. It is all but impossible that the 52 other heads of government, from so many disparate nations around the globe, could have agreed amongst themselves who else should be selected, and on what basis. There was, simply put, no other viable candidate, but more importantly no collective appetite among the assembled Commonwealth presidents and prime ministers for electing a here-today-gonetomorrow politician.
The second reason is both more fundamental and more positive. Since 1952, Her Majesty has demonstrated how an unelected figure can preside quite brilliantly over the development of a massive global organisation. The relationship between the Queen as head of the Commonwealth with the leaders of each Commonwealth nation is akin to her relationship, as British sovereign, with our prime minister. It is one built on absolute trust and confidentiality, the certain knowledge that she has no personal axe to grind.
In 1987, for example, she found herself in the intriguing position of being head of a Commonwealth which sought to – and did – impose sanctions on the apartheid regime in South Africa, one of its members, despite the fact that Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister at the time, was (initially at least) strongly opposed to any such action. The Queen demonstrated her ability to ride those two
Succeeding his mother is not any kind of power grab
separate horses at once. Her son will be able to do the same.
Part of her commitment to the Commonwealth has been her willingness to travel repeatedly to its member states around the world. As her successor, the Prince of Wales already has a superb track record of doing the same over four decades. We have all seen on many occasions on such trips when he has willingly dressed up in bizarre costumes,
danced in strange skirts, and rubbed noses with his hosts.
In other words, he has done everything to show his empathy with the countries that he has visited, and his delight in engaging with people from a wide range of cultures, religions and attitudes. Yes, I know he didn’t follow the example of his wife and kick off his shoes while walking on the beach during his recent visit to the Commonwealth Games on Australia’s Gold Coast. But that is hardly a crime against humanity.
From my own observations of the Prince of Wales on his travels abroad, I know that he is extremely well informed, modest, courteous and astute. As any senior Foreign Office official will confirm, he is an outstanding ambassador for Britain. By the same token, he will be an outstanding ambassador for the Commonwealth, whose 53 nations cover a quarter of the members of the United Nations, and one third of the world’s population.
I am absolutely certain that succeeding his mother as head of the Commonwealth is not any kind of power grab on the Prince’s part. He has never shown or expressed any sense of “divine right” to inherit that particular mantle. Indeed, he has frequently made clear – for example, on his many trips to Australia – that it is up to those countries where the Queen is head of state, whether they want him, in the future, to serve at all in any way. He, I know, is very easy about these things.
There have been excitable commentators murmuring about skipping a generation with the head of the Commonwealth. Might one of the younger royals be a better, more vigorous choice for the future; perhaps even the popular Prince Harry, who would probably not have to balance the crown with being Commonwealth head?
It is an 18-carat gold fact that this has never been an issue, either at the palace or in the corridors of power. Aside from the Queen, there is no other figure in the Royal family with Prince Charles’s experience. In the years since I interviewed him, and published his biography in 1994, I have seen him grow in assurance, judgment and authority.
I remember him saying to me once that, when he first started travelling to meet world leaders, he would feel that he was listening and learning from them. And then it started to change. People treated him as if they had something to learn.
He does have clear views, but he is always reassured by the fact that he is so highly regarded. This will be especially valuable in the Commonwealth, where some of the issues to which he has devoted his public life are of immense importance.
The Commonwealth leaders’ summit in London this week saw them discussing plans to work together to tackle pollution in our oceans and the threat to our planet. The Prince has been repeatedly drawing attention to these issues since the early 1980s, long before anyone else touched on them. Internationally, he is held in high esteem for espousing the cause of the environment so tirelessly.
With these topics now so high on the Commonwealth’s shared agenda, he will find a language to articulate this common concern with his characteristic combination of passion and careful argument.
He is not one for shouting the odds. As an ambassador, he has managed very successfully to bang the drum for Britain all these years without making it sound like a self-regarding, vainglorious war cry. Those skills will serve him well in his new role.
A word of caution, though: if there are those who think it will serve Britain’s national interests, after Brexit, that the Prince of Wales should be head of the Commonwealth, giving us an advantage in securing trade deals with Commonwealth nations, they should be disabused. He will be representing the 53 members, rather than the British government.
So what exactly is the point of the Commonwealth? Or, for that matter, of the UN or any other international body, when so many countries seem to act only in their own national interest? Well, the answer, in the case of the Commonwealth – as a free association of countries in a world that looks fragile and insecure – is that it believes jaw-jaw is better than most other things. Prince Charles will both absorb and reflect that belief.
And is he, in his 70th year, just too old for such a global job? So far as I know, he is as fit as they come. He may not want to run London Marathon tomorrow in what are predicted to be record temperatures, but if asked to do it, to show his commitment to the Commonwealth, I’d bet on its future head running, draped in all 53 flags into the bargain.
The broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby is Prince Charles’s biographer. He was speaking to Peter Stanford
He has never shown or expressed any sense of divine right to inherit the mantle