Cameron defends Charles’s ‘right to write’
PRIME MINISTER David Cameron has defended the Prince of Wales’s “right to write letters to government Ministers or politicians” following the publication of some of Charles’s correspondence.
Some 27 documents – 10 from Charles to Ministers, 14 by Ministers and three letters between private secretaries – were released following a 10-year campaign by Guardian journalist Rob Evans to see the documents after a freedom of information request. They were known as the ‘black spider’ memos after the ink and handwriting.
But Mr Cameron said he hoped to create a situation where such letters “shouldn’t necessarily be made public” and praised the Prince as “a man with huge passion about public life”.
He said: “I’ve had correspondence with Prince Charles. I have regular... relatively regular meetings with Prince Charles and I think the heir to the throne should have every right to write letters to government Ministers or politicians.
“We’ve restored the situation so that these letters shouldn’t necessarily be made public and I think that’s right. I find in Prince Charles he is a man with huge passion about public life, about improving the lot of our country and everyone who lives here, and I hope he goes on having the strong views that he does.”
In the letters, the Prince of Wales tackled former prime minister Tony Blair over a lack of resources for the Armed Forces fighting in Iraq. The Prince also lobbied Mr Blair and other Ministers on a range of other issues from badgers and TB to herbal medicine, education and illegal fishing.
The Prince of Wales was on duty yesterday with the Duchess of Cornwall embarked on a series of engagements in Liverpool. The only time the Prince wrote was to sign the visitors’ book at the World Museum in the city.