Charles and a Jubilee folly that will never f loat my boat
THe Queen must be regret-ting the day she let her eldest son take charge of her Diamond Jubilee festivities on the Thames. in Prince charles’s world, words like ‘affordable’ don’t exist.
Britain’s broke, but the Prince of Wales requires no less than 159 staff. His personal spending in 2010 shot up 50 per cent on the previous year to £2.5 million and each day he’s assisted by valets, dressers, footmen, cooks, butlers and a huge team of Pr men and women, carefully burnishing his image.
His mother must despair — she still likes her breakfast served in Tupperware containers, and thinks nothing of travelling to Sandringham on an ordinary train.
Before one of the Prince’s team wastes more money emailing to point out the charity work he does, being a benefactor is easy when you’re a millionaire cushioned by staff anticipating your every need.
For three years now, Tim Smit, the millionaire founder of the wonderful eden Project in cornwall, has promoted The Big Lunch, a way of encouraging villages and groups of locals all over Britain to have a meal together once a year.
This is the Big Society in action, long before Dave cameron claimed ownership of the concept. Tim, unlike Prince charles, sends his kids to state school, and doesn’t just pay lip service to the notion of participation in the community — he runs a bakery and eats in local pubs.
HeSTARTED the Big Lunch to help restore social values. Forty years ago, we knew all our neighbours, babysat for each other, played together in the street and talked over the garden walls.
That sense of community has gradually been eroded and the annual Big Lunch is a simple way of re- connecting with our neighbours, regardless of whether they are posh or poor.
it’s been a huge success. This year, more than 30,000 people from 40 countries have requested party packs. now, the Duchess of cornwall has become a royal patron. This makes me queasy.
camilla is never out of the papers — hardly a day passes without a photo opportunity to polish up her image. not one more person will hold a street party because camilla hitched herself to Mr Smit’s fabulous idea.
This is a privileged woman who has already admitted she can’t cook much, and has a reputation for doing as little as possible. it all smacks of another attempt by charles to hijack his mum’s big event for his own purposes. The river pageant — taking place at the same time as the Big Lunch (great planning!) — has been fraught with prob-lems. The Silver Jubilee in 1977 was a smaller event. The Queen sailed down the Thames (in poor weather) from Greenwich to Lambeth. Back then, i judged a fancy dress competition at the street party outside my home in Limehouse, east London, and held a snooker tournament for 60 pals.
We feasted on a vat of cheap chilli con carne i’d mixed in the bath and guests donned Union Jack bowler hats and waved to the Queen as she floated past, with the Sex Pis-tols’ anthem God Save The Queen blasting out in the background. a wonderful day.
This time around, charles seems deter-mined to stage an event more in keeping with the last days of ancient rome than poor old bankrupt Britain.
Most commoners can’t afford the train fares to London, and certainly not a hotel. Like the olympics, this event is pitched at wealthy tourists. The snooty toff in charge of raising the £10 million needed to get it afloat, Tory peer Lord Salisbury, said he did not want ‘a Tesco pageant’ and has banned sponsors’ logos.
consequently, few of the FTSE 100 companies are interested, and most of the funding is from overseas.
The Queen won’t be sailing in the £4 million Gloriana, commissioned by charles and paid for by P&o, for security reasons. instead, 18 oarsmen will row Prince charles on this white elephant, at the head of the proces-sion, while his mum and dad travel behind in a converted pleasure cruiser, turned into a replica of a 17th-century barge.
and where will camilla be during the Big Float? We’re told she’s ‘not comfortable’ on water, just like she’s ‘not comfortable’ in heat on royal tours (unless they involve staying on a luxury yacht) and ‘ not comfortable’ cooking.
She’ll be sitting down at a Big Lunch, being photographed surrounded by ordinary people, pretending to be one of us. Pr job done. i’m planning another vat of chilli — this time my partner can dress up as a 17th-century oarsman!