Stop trying to reinvent the wheel, Princess warns younger royals
Anne urges the next generation to learn from the past and return to basics of public service
YOUNGER members of the Royal family need to remember the basics of public service, the Princess Royal has warned.
She said the younger generation should be looking at methods that have been tried and tested before when engaging with the public rather than continually seeking new ways to work.
In an interview with Vanity Fair to mark her 70th birthday this year, she described herself as “the boring old fuddy-duddy at the back saying, ‘Don’t forget the basics’.”
Princess Anne, who carried out more than 500 engagements last year, said: “I don’t think this younger generation probably understands what I was doing in the past and it’s often true, isn’t it?” she said. “You don’t necessarily look at the previous generation and say, ‘Oh, you did that?’ Or, ‘You went there?’
“Nowadays, they’re much more looking for, ‘Oh let’s do it a new way’.
“And I’m already at the stage, ‘Please do not reinvent that particular wheel. We’ve been there, done that. Some of these things don’t work. You may need to go back to basics’.”
Speaking of her work, which includes 50 years with the charity Save the Children, the Princess said: “It’s not just about, ‘Can I get a tick in the box for doing this?’ No, it’s about serving.
“It comes from an example from both my parents’ way of working and where they saw their role being.
“I mean, my father served. It was a more direct form of service, I suppose you could argue. And the Queen’s has been a lifelong service in a slightly different way, but they both have that perspective of service which is about working with people.”
Vanity Fair did not detail which younger members of the Royal family the Princess may have had in mind.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have previously emphasised their ambitions to appeal to a new “global” generation through their work, saying earlier this year that they had sought to “carve out a progressive new role within this institution” before deciding to leave it.
Now, they said, they “intend to develop a new way to effect change” with a non-profit organisation.
In recent years, both they and the Cambridges have concentrated on delving “deeper” into key causes, rather than each taking on hundreds of patronages like their grandparents, aunts and uncles.
In an interview about her career, charity work and family, Princess Anne was also asked about her decision to decline titles for her children, Peter and Zara Phillips, more than four decades before the Duke and Duchess of Sussex decided the same for their son, Archie Mountbatten-windsor.
“I think it was probably easier for them, and I think most people would argue that there are downsides to having titles,” the Princess said of her own children. “So I think that was probably the right thing to do.”
Her two children have gone on to forge their own careers. Zara Tindall, 38, is an Olympic medal-winning equestrian who is free to take business deals, and Peter Phillips, 42, has worked in banking and sports management. Earlier this year he was spotted advertising milk on TV in China.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex agreed to stop using their HRH title when they stepped back from public life in January.
In the interview, which took place at St James’s Palace, the Princess Royal also talks about her riding career, happy experience at boarding school, and her habit of making her aides’ lives “more difficult” by cramming lots of engagements into her schedule.
She has no plans to retire now she is 70, pledging to continue in public service as long as her patronages find her useful. The full interview is available in the May issue of Vanity Fair, out in print and digital tomorrow.
‘I don’t think this younger generation probably understands what I was doing in the past and it’s often true, isn’t it?’