Headline news in the UK is Prince Charles comparing Vladimir Putin to Hitler in a conversation with a museum assistant during an official royal tour of Canada. Charles is taking over many of the duties of the Queen as she approaches 90; the three and a half day whistlestop tour involves 41 engagements.
Charles was being shown round the Canadian Museum of Immigration by Marienne Ferguson who had fled to Canada from Danzig/Gdansk in 1939. Her parents, two sisters and grandmother had managed to get permits to sail from what was then a free city established under the Versailles Treaty. Other members of her Jewish family had been unable to leave before the Nazis invaded and perished in the extermination camps. Ms Ferguson had explained her background to Charles in a private conversation but it was overheard by a reporter from the Daily Mail.
It was heard by several witnesses. Mother-of-three Mrs Ferguson said: ‘I had finished showing him the exhibit and talked with him about my own family background and how I came to Canada.
‘The prince then said “And now Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler”.
‘I must say that I agree with him and am sure a lot of people do. I was very surprised that he made the comment as I know they [members of the Royal Family] aren’t meant to say these things but it was very heartfelt and honest.
While the monarch is expected to refrain from political statements because of their role in advising Prime Ministers, the restriction is less for the heir. The then Princes of Wales Edward (who later became King and abdicated) toured the country and seeing the poverty at the height of the depression declared "
something must be done". Charles has been even more "activist". As well as his interests in conservation and organic agriculture, he has been particularly outspoke about modernist architecture. In
1984 he famously described the extension to the National Gallery in London as a "a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much loved and elegant friend." He has also lobbied ministers in the now notorious "
black spider letters"
In the case of the Putin comments; Clarence House, Charle's official residence in London which also refers to his office including spokespeople, refuses to answer questions on the grounds this was a private conversation between Charles and Ms Ferguson. The deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is supportive of this view:
He told BBC Breakfast: "I have never been of this view that if you are a member of the Royal Family somehow you have to enter into some Trappist vow of silence."
On the other hand Nigel Farage, the leader of the far right United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) who sits in the European Parliament in a
group including neo-fascists, disagrees and thinks the Prince should keep quiet and surprisingly came out once again as a Putin apologist (not a good idea the day before the UK votes in the European Parliament elections!):
"Prince Charles has made those comments. I know some people feel that way about Putin. I think there’s a difference and the difference, I think, is that right from the very start Hitler was expansionist and we haven’t seen much evidence of that until now from Putin.*
"And arguably what’s happened in the Ukraine is because he’s been poked with a stick by the rest of the world.
http://www.politics.co.uk/...
*Farago appears to conveniently forget Georgia and his pandering to separatists in Moldova.
One Labour MP has called for Charles to resign and stand for election himself (watch what you wish for!) however a former British Ambassador to Russia, Sir Tony Brenton suggested it might well restrain further Russian expansion into Ukraine:
Speaking to BBC News, Brenton said: "It will be picked up in public circles in Russia .. The Russians have taken over Crimea, they are debating with themselves about where to go next. The fact that they have generated the impression in some minds that they are behaving a bit as Hitler behaved, while I think is a false judgement, will help [them] to reconsider a little bit."
Brenton added: "Hitler is the ultimate ogre in Russian public opinion ... The fact that Russian policy is generating these sort of reactions ought to have a calming effect there."
http://www.theguardian.com/...