British royalty 'elitist' - shock revelation

A former personal assistant has accused the royal household of being 'elitist, hierarchical', and run on 'Edwardian' lines. Whatever next?

Elaine Day worked as a personal assistant (PA) for Prince Charles for five years. She left Clarence House earlier this year and is now claiming sexual discrimination and unfair dismissal. She had the temerity to ask if PAs with university degrees might eventually be able to train for promotion to the status of private secretary.

A memo written by Prince Charles, and presented to the employment tribunal, expresses his horror at the idea. 'What is wrong with everyone nowadays? Why do they all seem to think they are qualified to do things far beyond their technical capabilities?' writes Charles. 'This is the result of social utopianism which believes humanity can be genetically and socially engineered to contradict the lessons of history.' In other words, it is absolutely fine for the lower orders to work for royalty, as long as they know their place.

That Prince Charles believes this should hardly be a surprise to anyone. The very notion of royalty is that some people are better fitted to high social station simply because of their parentage. This is a backward idea, and anyone remotely interested in political and social progress would want to see the monarchy abolished as soon as possible. In fact, the stupidity of the idea of hereditary superiority is very aptly illustrated by Charles himself. It's a bit rich for him to criticise others for having ideas above their station when he is an intellectual failure whose crass contributions to a variety of public debates, from organic farming to nanotechnology, make you shudder at the thought that one day he will be head of state.

Prince Charles stuck in 'Edwardian' era, Daily Telegraph, 17 November 2004