I know he’s quite a nice old thing even if he has to have a valet to put toothpaste on his toothbrush. I believe that, from his rather narrow perspective, he means well. Yes, Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, is probably a decent bloke if rather eccentric and over-sheltered from reality. I don’t usually mind him dressing up in silly clothes, after-all it’s one of his royal duties along with shaking hands and being nice to people he doesn’t like.
But….
Does he really have to dress up as a Saudi Arabian in a country that the United Kingdom should be criticising not encouraging? I know, you don’t need to tell me, yes, Saudi Arabia is oil rich and it doesn’t like Iran but is that enough to warrant diplomatic crawling?
Human Rights Watch’s 2013 World Report said: ‘Saudi Arabia in 2012 stepped up arrests and trials of peaceful dissidents, and responded with force to demonstrations by citizens. Authorities continue to suppress or fail to protect the rights of 9 million Saudi women and girls and 9 million foreign workers. As in past years, thousands of people have received unfair trials or been subject to arbitrary detention. The year has seen trials against half-a-dozen human rights defenders and several others for their peaceful expression or assembly demanding political and human rights reforms.’
——————————————————————————————————————-
My novel, Stephen Dearsley’s Summer Of Love, was published on 31 October 2013. It is the story of a young fogey living in Brighton in 1967 who has a lot to learn when the flowering hippie counter culture changes him and the world around him.
It is now available as a paperback or on Kindle (go to your region’s Amazon site for Kindle orders)
…or from Amazon: