HRH Prince Charles Shows Edwardian Streak
Elaine Day is a Briton who is in the midst of a legal proceeding against her former employer for sexual discrimination and unfair dismissal. In this, she is not unique. However, the fact that she used to work for the Prince of Wales makes this a bit more noteworthy than some labor tribunal hearings. What has set the British press agog are statements in a letter read into evidence in which His Royal Highness says that modern education has made people uppity. He is, of course, right. A second-class degree at Trinity Cambridge doesn’t qualify one to be King England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Ms. Day, who in addition to being female is of Afro-Caribbean descent and may be thought to have more than a passing interest in meritocracy as a result, wrote to the prince suggesting that personal assistants on his staff with university degrees (of which she was one) be allowed to train as private secretaries, a more senior position. HRH wrote to Ms. Day’s boss, Paul Kefford, the following:
What is it that makes everyone seem to think they are qualified to do things far beyond their technical capabilities? This is all to do with the learning culture in schools.
It is a consequence of a child-centred system which admits no failure and tells people they can all be pop stars, High Court judges, brilliant TV presenters or even infinitely more competent heads of state without ever putting in the necessary effort or having abilities. It's social utopianism which believes humanity can be genetically and socially re-engineered to contradict the lessons of history.
HRH is correct when he suggests that putting in effort and having abilities do, indeed, matter. One is more concerned when he identifies high-fliers as pop stars, judges and brilliant TV presenters (one hardly thinks of Terry Wogan as brilliant, much less Bruce Forsythe – or for American audiences, Regis Philbin and Alex Trebeck). Judges and pop stars?
Where one is truly amazed is “more competent heads of state.” Had he said “heads of government” this would have been water off a duck's back, as that’s the Prime Minister. But head of state is Mummy. Had history followed his advice, the Windsors would be a rather dreadful bourgeois German family, or more accurately, they would not be hiding the fact that they are the aforementioned. Had George I remained a “wee German lairdie” and the crown remained in Stuart hands, well . . . .
HRH is a man of his environment and times; he turned 56 on Sunday last. Gordonstoun, Cambridge and the Royal Navy followed by years of biding his time amid unearned wealth have made him what he is – a conservative, fuddy-duddy and something of a crackpot. Britain still has its class structure despite the patina of meritocracy and will have for at least another generation. Ms. Day’s battle remains an uphill fight.
Had he earned himself a first-class degree at Cambridge, HRH might have learned one of Cardinal Richelieu’s most famous adages: "If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him." Or for that matter, something Napoleon Bonaparte said, "Every soldier carries a marshall's baton in his pack." Perhaps, he should stick to whinging about architecture and not put on airs.
© Copyright 2004 by
The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without
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