Charles the activist
He won’t be the silent kingk
PRINCE CHARLES has decided he will be an ‘‘activist’’ king who will remain outspoken on issues he cares about, according to a new biography, provoking ‘‘tensions’’ with Buckingham Palace about the royal succession.
The book, by Catherine Mayer, Time magazine’s former London bureau chief, claims that Charles is resisting pressure to ‘‘taper off’’ his interventions on green issues and architecture.
The Sunday Times understands Charles has repeatedly rebuffed attempts by Buckingham Palace officials to get him to spend more time preparing to be head of state.
Senior figures around the Queen fear he intends to remain ‘‘an advocate’’ for his passionately held views.
Mayer – the first of four biographers set to publish in the months ahead – describes Charles as ‘‘a royal activist’’ who is compared by some who know him to ‘‘a British Al Gore’’, the former American vice-president who has become an outspoken campaigner on climate change. Courtiers say Charles will ‘‘cast his ambitions far wider’’ than simply green issues.
Mayer’s book, which is being serialised in The Times, claims: ‘‘Charles is increasingly looking for ways to build his activities into the head-of-state role rather than tapering them off, as some of the Queen’s officials would prefer.
‘‘His independence, asserted over many years, is . . . not something he will readily cede,’’ Mayer writes.
An ally of the prince says that ‘‘he won’t be silent’’ when he does assume the throne.
Royal sources have told The Times there have been ‘‘tensions’’ between courtiers in Buckingham Palace and allies of the prince who are encouraging him to use his time left as heir to pursue his in-
Catherine Mayer
terests with vigour.
One royal aide said: ‘‘He’s trying to pack as much as possible into what he sees as the time when he can be an advocate, because he knows that when he is king he can only be a convener, and only a gentle convener at that.’’
Sir Christopher Geidt, the Queen’s private secretary, has encouraged Charles to adopt more of her responsibilities and to begin to merge the operations of Buckingham Palace and Clarence House. But Mayer says Charles has assumed extra official duties in preparation for the crown ‘‘joylessly’’.
There were tensions between officials in Buckingham Palace and Charles’s team over his trip to Sri Lanka in 2013 for the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm), at which Charles stood in for the Queen for the first time.
A royal source told The Times: ‘‘There was an attempt to say, ‘There’s a very well-oiled machine at Buckingham Palace and here’s how it goes about delivering something like Chogm’. But at the same time there’s a recognition that he has carved out an area where he operates to great effect, and while he is still in a position to do that, he should be able to do that.
‘‘The tension is: how much time do you commit to those two processes? The Prince of Wales wants to commit as much time as possible to the advocacy, and there are people within Buckingham Palace who wanted to commit a little more time to understanding the head-of-state role. That’s where the tension is.’’
Insiders say Charles rebelled when Buckingham Palace tried to merge the entire royal press office into one team, an effort designed to get him to understand how the palace operates and bring him closer in line with the Queen’s apolitical stance. The experiment was considered a failure because the prince felt hemmed in when he still wanted to campaign loudly on his pet issues.
One source said: ‘‘Anyone who believes passionately in something, on being told they have to curtail that interest, would find that dispiriting.’’
Charles pulled back his press team to Clarence House and promoted Kristina Kyriacou, a former PR for entertainer Cheryl Cole, to be his director of communications because she encouraged him to be himself, a source said. ‘‘She understands that he wants to be proselytising about his core themes,’’ the source added.
Last autumn it was reported that Kyriacou would only advise
‘Charles is increasingly looking for ways to build his activities into the head-of-state role rather than tapering them off, as some of the Queen’s officials would prefer.’
the prince part-time. Now she has signed up as fulltime communications secretary, running a separate operation at Clarence House.
Charles is also set to replace William Nye, his private secretary and most senior official. The new figure will have a remit to protect the prince’s independence.
Charles’s determination to remain publicly vocal has provoked concerns that he will spark constitutional problems for a future government.
A Supreme Court ruling, expected in the next month, will determine whether 27 ‘‘blackspider memos’’ – written in Charles’s crabbed hand to ministers over eight months – can be disclosed.
An informed source on Saturday rejected as ‘‘absolute rubbish’’ claims in a tabloid newspaper that Charles wants to overhaul the honours system when he becomes king.
The source also insisted that Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall never discuss the succession but ‘‘live for the job they are doing now’’.
A Clarence House spokeswoman said: ‘‘This is an unofficial biography and the author has not had the access that is being claimed. No-one in the prince’s employ or within the royal household has ever speculated on what sort of king the Prince of Wales would make and nor will they do so now.’’