Potty Prince Charlie

One hesitates to intrude on private grief. As an Irish citizen happily resident in the UK, the English Royal family are not my problem, but it was hard to stifle a cheer when Education Secretary Charles Clarke finally broke the ministerial taboo which prevents public criticism of the Royal Family and made it clear (in a BBC Radio 4 interview) that he thought Prince Charles’s recent leaked thoughts on education, were, well, balderdash, In a leaked memo, Charlie had apparently ranted about a “child-centred system which admits no failure”. Today’s “learning culture”, opined Britain’s future monarch, “gave people hope beyond their capabilities”.

Well, well. This from a guy who has £7 million a year in unearned income (and a net worth of £300m), who despite the best education money could buy barely scraped a couple of A-levels, was admitted to Cambridge with them while hundreds of students with four straight As were rejected, and even then could barely manage a 2.2 in his degree. This from a guy who works about one and a half days a week, employs three butlers and four valets, has 2,000 hand-made suits (@ about £2,000 a throw) and requires that his liveried footmen bow before addressing him. And yet this pompous toff — who would have a tough job holding down a job as manager of a bottle bank — seems to have no qualms about aspiring to Britain’s top sinecure? Who gave him this “hope beyond his capabilities”? Er, the hereditary principle which ensures that, no matter how idle or dimwitted one is, the plum job eventually falls into one’s lap.