A royal welcome

IT’S fair to say that Prince Charles and Donald Trump don’t see eye-to-eye on many of life’s subjects.

Last year, the future king reportedly snubbed the US President during his fourday visit to Britain (vociferously denied by royal aides). Instead, he attended a more prosaic board meeting at Highgrove and an event with Gloucestershire Police. The Prince of Wales, a noted environmentalist, surely abhors Mr Trump’s climate change views and populist politics, and would have been deeply unimpressed by repulsive comments the lecherous tycoon made about Princess Diana.

So it’s commendable Charles will put personal opinions aside to host the President for tea at Clarence House on his state visit to the UK next month. Yes, Mr Trump may be crass and conceited. But he is the elected leader of our staunchest ally.

(And contrast the prince’s dignified stance with Jeremy Corbyn’s preposterous Marxist virtue-signalling in refusing an invitation to attend the State Banquet.)

Increasingly, Charles acts like a monarch in the making. IN large swathes of rural Scotland, they are nothing less than a financial lifeline. But free ATMs are vanishing at the startling rate of 32 a month – and it is a process that appears to be accelerating.

One in five free cash machines is set to be axed within the next year, either shutting down or imposing fees for withdrawals.

This represents a shameful abdication of social responsibility on the part of ATM operators – and one that government must unequivocally condemn.