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Prince Charles' letters reveal a quirky, old-fashioned brand of conservatism
The Week ^ | 19th May 2015 | Michael Brendan Dougherty

Posted on 05/21/2015 6:44:01 PM PDT by naturalman1975

For a decade the anti-monarchist British newspaper The Guardian fought for the release of letters Prince Charles wrote to government officials, including former Prime Minister Tony Blair. The prince was lobbying the government, and so these letters collectively received a sinister name: the "black spider" letters.

Was Charles pinning parliamentarians down on certain votes? Was the palace engaged in a quiet, pen-and-ink coup against democracy? Would a future King Charles become a meddling, overbearing tyrant?

If only!

A small batch of 27 letters was finally released after much fighting between Buckingham Palace and the government. Prince Charles was indeed revealed — but as what?

.....

ut in focusing on their shared qualities, it would be easy to miss the truth. Far from being a full-throated Guardianista, Prince Charles is his own kind of conservative: an ecological preservationist, an arch-traditionalist, and a tiller and keeper of the soil, rather than a devotee of capitalistic creative destruction.

In his letters, the prince lobbies specifically for the toothfish, a species of cod he worried was being overfished to the potential decline of the species (and a classic English dish). He criticizes the "education experts" who he feared were turning children into "better robots," rather than fully capable and enquiring human beings. He worries that British armed forces were being given inadequate equipment for the tough job they were doing in the war on terror.

(Excerpt) Read more at theweek.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: princecharles
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I've known the Prince of Wales for very close to fifty years now since he was sent from the UK to attend the same school as me for a while. I've known him well for about seven (reestablishing my relationship with him through his brother). This article is the best I have found at describing the man I know. He is often presented as a caricature in the media, especially by the left-wing press who seem to like caricaturing anybody they know to be conservative, while they also excessively praise about the only issue they agree with him on, his environmentalism, and I really think it gives people an unfortunate and inaccurate impression of the man. Except on his environmentalism - which is a position he adopted before it became a very trendy lefty position - he's actually a conservative on a great many issues who would fit in quite well at Freerepublic if his membership of such a site was not a bad idea constitutionally and politically. He is a Christian (he believes in respecting the beliefs of others, but that doesn't mean he shares them). He is a patriot dedicated to the idea of preserving western civilisation. He is a staunch supporter of the military and of veteran's rights. He is a gun owner and a sporting shooter, who believes such things should be legal. He is utterly dedicated to the idea of following his nation's constitutional laws (including when they put specific limits on him personally). He's no paragon of virtue. He's no genius. He's a decent man who has made some mistakes, he's intelligent and educated, but not brilliant. By accident of birth, he's inherited a role his nation wants preserved, and he does his duty as he is asked to do.

I don't know if he will be a good King - I don't know if anybody can know that. I do know that he will try his best to do his best, as he has always done when he had been told he has a duty.

1 posted on 05/21/2015 6:44:01 PM PDT by naturalman1975
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To: naturalman1975

Thank you for that.


2 posted on 05/21/2015 6:47:44 PM PDT by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: naturalman1975
He criticizes the "education experts" who he feared were turning children into "better robots," rather than fully capable and enquiring human beings.

That is an encouraging insight, at odds with today's preference for well-trained serfs over educated citizens.

3 posted on 05/21/2015 6:51:40 PM PDT by Always A Marine
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To: naturalman1975
"In the 1980s, he compared the result of modernist architects unfavorably to the Battle of Britain. "You have to give this much to the Luftwaffe: When it knocked down our buildings, it didn't replace them with anything more offensive than rubble," " Can you deny he is right? Look at this monstrosity...
4 posted on 05/21/2015 7:02:47 PM PDT by Beowulf9
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To: naturalman1975

Bump


5 posted on 05/21/2015 7:03:02 PM PDT by Fiddlstix (Warning! This Is A Subliminal Tagline! Read it at your own risk!(Presented by TagLines R US))
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To: naturalman1975

Good post..


6 posted on 05/21/2015 7:05:18 PM PDT by cardinal4 (Certified Islamophobe..)
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To: Beowulf9

I actually like the Gherkin. But the Prince would say I’m a philistine. :)


7 posted on 05/21/2015 7:12:50 PM PDT by naturalman1975 ("America was under attack. Australia was immediately there to help." - John Winston Howard)
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To: naturalman1975

He comes across well in the excerpts from the letters that I have read.


8 posted on 05/21/2015 7:18:42 PM PDT by PAR35
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To: naturalman1975

Thank you for posting.


9 posted on 05/21/2015 7:19:03 PM PDT by headsonpikes (Mass murder and cannibalism are the twin sacraments of socialism - "Who-whom?"-Lenin)
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To: Beowulf9
This is the one I hate:

It's presence and location spoils the views of much more traditional and impressive buildings, and its purpose means I really think something more traditional was called for - it's the City Hall for London. A two thousand year old city full of history being governed from that monstrosity... I can forgive to some extent, buildings that are simply office buildings like the Shard or Canary Wharf and which probably won't be there in one hundred years - but the City Hall should have been a building for the ages.

10 posted on 05/21/2015 7:21:02 PM PDT by naturalman1975 ("America was under attack. Australia was immediately there to help." - John Winston Howard)
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To: naturalman1975

Gerkin? looks like a party condom to me...


11 posted on 05/21/2015 7:24:22 PM PDT by Chickensoup (Leftist totalitarian fascism is on the move.)
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To: naturalman1975

Thanks for the note. We’ve talked about your thoughts on this before, and I’m glad for the opportunity.

There have been things that bothered me about Charles, but they seemed to be fairly straightforward things I wouldn’t respect about anyone else, so I haven’t been focused unfairly or unreasonably on him.

I like the way Britain is set up. I wouldn’t like it here, but I respect the way they handle things there concerning the royalty. The had a royalty in the past, and it keeps the tradition alive.

As for Charles being a nature lover, many of us are. We aren’t stark raving mad like the Left in the U. s. is, but we value nature, animals, and reasoned sustainability. We just aren’t mentally disturbed about it.

I don’t see Charle’s as displaying unreasoned interest in the environmental issues touched on here.


12 posted on 05/21/2015 7:26:22 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Conservatism: Now home to liars too. And we'll support them. Yea... GOPe)
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To: Chickensoup

Under certain lighting conditions, the building looks quite green, and I suspect that’s when it got this nickname.


13 posted on 05/21/2015 7:29:41 PM PDT by naturalman1975 ("America was under attack. Australia was immediately there to help." - John Winston Howard)
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To: naturalman1975
You are the first person who has written about the Prince, that I have read, that does not have an agenda. Accordingly, I will change my opinion of him. I have always wondered about who he really is, because we only read about him through the filter of people who do have an agenda.

I know good people who have made terrible decisions, but they do not have their names drug through the press.

I do not agree with a lot of his opinions, but I also disagree with my brother even more.

14 posted on 05/21/2015 7:49:56 PM PDT by fini
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To: naturalman1975

I didn’t know you knew the Prince. Good post naturalman. :)


15 posted on 05/21/2015 7:51:04 PM PDT by max americana (fired liberals in our company last election, and I laughed while they cried (true story))
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To: naturalman1975

OK, A green party condom.


16 posted on 05/21/2015 7:52:17 PM PDT by Chickensoup (Leftist totalitarian fascism is on the move.)
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To: naturalman1975

Disgusting man!


17 posted on 05/21/2015 7:59:11 PM PDT by BunnySlippers (I Love Bull Markets!!!)
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To: Chickensoup
looks like a party condom to me...

Is that where the phrase "jerkin' yer Gerkin" came from?

18 posted on 05/21/2015 8:08:19 PM PDT by Defiant (Amtrak train derails, therefore......Republicans.)
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To: naturalman1975

hideous.


19 posted on 05/21/2015 8:12:55 PM PDT by Beowulf9
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To: naturalman1975

Thanks for your post.


20 posted on 05/21/2015 8:20:08 PM PDT by IncPen (Not one single patriot in Washington, DC.)
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