Prince’s one birthday wish: please take care of the countryside
THE Prince of Wales will today celebrate the milestone of his 70th birthday with a manifesto on the future of the countryside, in which he warns his may be the last generation to enjoy the “life-enhancing, timeless opportunities” it offers.
The Prince, who features in a series of warm family photographs with his wife, sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren released in honour of his birthday, said the landmark moment had given him pause to consider how Britain had changed.
Joking that he had undergone the “alarming realisation that I have reached the biblical threshold of three score years and 10, with all the scars that go with it”, he urged the public to look ahead in their own lives to “try to think ahead to what our grandchildren will want and need”.
Guest editing an issue of Country Life magazine, the Prince has written a 1,960-word letter in which he warns that the countryside and its people cannot be taken for granted. His elder son, the Duke of Cambridge, also contributes, disclosing how he hopes to emulate the Prince in teaching his own three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, about the natural world.
The family will today celebrate the occasion with a glamorous private evening party at Buckingham Palace, after the Prince and Duchess of Cornwall spend the afternoon taking tea with a group of septuagenarians linked to their favourite charities.
Reflecting on his birthday, the Prince writes: “Yet even as we grow older, the countryside that is such a special part of our lives somehow manages to adapt to the march of time, changing with the generations as much as with the seasons. So perhaps this is a good moment to reflect on how rural areas have changed over the course of 70 years. What have we learnt in that time and what might the future hold?”
Outlining how a “drive for efficiency” has led to negative changes to Britain’s
countryside, leaving “farms amalgamated, hedges torn out, ponds and wetlands drained, [and] rivers dredged”, he noted the social change that has seen the closure of village shops, rural railways lines and pubs.
“Perhaps the clearest way to understand how much is at stake, and what we might want to do as a result, is to try to think ahead to what our grandchildren will want and need,” he writes.
“Seventy years ago, some aspects of our lives today would have been quite simply unimaginable. Others, such as the pleasures of a walk in the country, good food from local farms, traditional craftsmanship, the beauty of the landscape, gardens and nature, and a sense of community have changed little. So the question is how can we ensure that those same life-enhancing, timeless opportunities are there when future generations look for them?”
He added: “I have spent 40 years of my life trying to warn of the dangers – let alone the waste of money – of losing a vital sense of balance, in so many areas that impact, for example, on the countryside, on the marine environment, and on the planning and design of the urban environment.
“I have now lived long enough to see it all beginning to change – but at what cost? Should we recognise the more timeless aspects of our natural and human environments, which need to be maintained for generations yet unborn?
“I am not suggesting it will be easy, but we may be the last generation fortunate enough to experience the wonderful people, skills and activities of our countryside, some of which I have tried to highlight in this special edition of Country Life.”
On Britain’s place on the global stage, the Prince said: “As a relatively small island, I cannot see how our food production could ever compete within the world’s commodity markets. Perhaps, though, we could seek to establish the United Kingdom as the most environmentally-friendly food producer with a unique ‘brand image’, as an island offering the highest standards of quality and natural goodness?”
The issue also sees the Duke of Cambridge disclosing how he hopes to raise his own children with the love of nature his father instilled in him.
“His unwavering commitment to rural issues and the countryside has been a big inspiration to me and something I am keen to emulate and teach my children about. No one understands farmers or the issues they face better than my father.”
In an amusing aside, he adds: “He is infatuated by the red squirrels that live around the estate in Scotland – to the extent that he’s given them names and is allowing them in the house.”
Prince Charles said: “Sometimes, when I leave my jackets on a chair with nuts in the pockets, I see them with their tails sticking out, as they hunt for nuts.”
The Prince of Wales’s 70th birthday edition of Country Life magazine is out now.