BY JAMES SIMONS
The upper Tribunals of Britain’s Administrative Chamber has ruled that secret letters sent by Prince Charles to Ministers of the Labour government will be published.
The ruling follows a decade long campaign by the Guardian Newspaper to release the ”black spider memos” featuring the Prince’s handwriting, after the government’s veto on publication was declared unlawful by the Court of Appeal last year and upheld by the Supreme court 2 months ago.
The letters consisting of 27 memos which were written in 2004 and 2005 will be published subject to any ”provisional redactions”(some editing of the letters aimed to summarize its contents in one document) to protect personal data of people other than the Prince which reflect Charles’s ”most deeply held personal views and beliefs”.
INFLUENCE
The prince has several times over the years attempted to influence public opinion on matters close to his heart. In principle there is nothing wrong with any well placed individual in society trying to express their heartfelt convictions, but the issue at hand is in relation to whether the Prince had used his Royal influence to pressurize elected Ministers in changing government policy on any matters.
Laws set by Parliament are meant to be free from Royal influence, so there could potentially be serious implications if the Prince of Wales has used his powers to influence the law. However, the Prime Minister , David Cameron, is said to have found the ruling to be ‘deeply disappointing’, an the government have indicated that legislation might be introduced to guarantee a blanket ministerial veto over publication.
Cameron expressed the need for senior members of the Royal family to be able to express their views t the government confidentially, stating that he believes ”most people would agree that this is fair enough”. Well, not really, it depends what views Royal members are expressing and what influence those views have on the shaping of the law, and if the resulting law is fair enough.
Th government was ordered to make an interim payment of 150,000 pounds towards the Guardian’s costs- a victory for the Guardian paper
