Prince Charles zoomsby on his annual
high-speed visit to Cymru
by Sue Davies
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it anything worthwhile? No, it's Charles, our so-called “Prince of Wales”, n his annual royal tour, racing round Cymru like a demented road-runner or Billy Whizz o, a few minutes here, a few minutes there and then it's hurridly back to dear old England for a well-earned rest from all those damned Welshies. Phew!
It's all so insulting because it gives the distinct impression of Charles doing just enough but no more in order to fulfil his usurped title and to ward off criticism of the little time he actually spends in Cymru, but of course our uncritical royalist media – almost all of it owned, controlled and (in senior positions) mostly staffed from outside Wales – laps it up.
On his annual jaunts, much media mention is made of how the Welsh always turn out in force. But the crowds are not all Welsh. I suspect this time of the year was deliberately chosen for the annual tour because Wales will be full of English tourists. And they can always be relied upon to pack out the crowds.
Craving an "honour"
Given the bloody swathe cut across Cymru by the English royal family's ancestors, why is the Welsh media so royalist? I asked a South Wales Echo journalist this some time ago (she has since moved on).
"Simple," she said. "Almost every newspaper owner and almost every editor craves a mention in the honours list – a lordship, a knighthood or one of the many other gongs on offer. They're not expected to omit every single word of criticism of the monarchy on the news pages or in the letters columns but you can bet a lot gets put aside or watered
down."