THE CRUSADER: PRINCE CHARLES’ PLANS TO BE CAMPAIGNING KING
PRINCE CHARLES is determined that his campaigning and charity work will continue when he becomes king, emphasising the importance of what he calls ‘‘sticking to your guns’’.
In a rare interview, Charles let it be known that he wants the trusts and charities he has set up, covering a broad range of social and environmental concerns, to carry on after he becomes king.
That raises the prospect of a future Charles III being seen as a supporter of causes, some of which may come into conflict with the views of the public or even the government of the day – a scenario that could cause complications in Britain’s constitutional monarchy.
Asked what would happen to his charities when he became king, Charles, said: ‘‘Well, if we would have any chance of anything continuing, then you have to endow the main ones, somehow. You never know, there may be another member of my family who might be interested. But they might not.’’
Friends and observers believe the remarks suggest his determination to leave his mark on Britain – exemplified by the work of The Prince’s Trust charity with inner-city and deprived children and the Prince’s Regeneration Trust’s efforts to save historic buildings – will not end.
Indeed, Charles gives the impression he feels vindicated in his years of campaigning over issues such as agriculture, the environment and architecture, and sees no reason to stop. He said: ‘‘All I can do is try to demonstrate what I mean on the ground in a different way. If people don’t like it, they don’t like it. But those who do – maybe there’s something there for them to pick up.
‘‘The problem in my case is what I was trying to suggest 35 years ago . . . wasn’t considered, I suppose, as any way sensible whatsoever. I don’t know.
‘‘Anyway, it wasn’t very easy, but if you stick to your guns, sometimes 35 years later, whatever it is, you suddenly find that some of these things are starting to appeal to people.’’
Charles singled out the biological sewage system he installed at his official residence Highgrove, which was widely mocked. ‘‘It was ridiculed and rubbished and everything else, but of course suddenly everybody wanted to come and look at it. Now you find them all over the shop,’’ he said.
During the interview, as if to prove he has lost none of his instinct for touching on controversial topics, Charles – who famously attacked modern architecture with his ‘‘monstrous carbuncle’’ speech 30 years ago – criticised current city planning, saying: ‘‘It’s the fact that nothing is placed in relation to anything else. Everywhere you go, you find buildings plonked in mad angles to each other, great open spaces, and there’s no rhythm any more, there’s no sense of street.’’
Charles has commissioned a report, through the Create Streets organisation, which champions ‘‘mid-rise solutions’’ to the problem of housing shortages, with what he calls the ‘‘traditional and timeless approach’’, using mansion blocks, squares and terraces.
He denies being anti-modern, saying: ‘‘I think it’s being modern to reflect the realities that we are human. But the danger is that we think we’ve become – or have the capacity to be – our own technology, which we don’t.’’