The heir to the throne hasn’t changed, says brendan o’neill, it’s the rest of us who have |
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Twenty years ago he was the 'Wacky Windsor' the media loved to mock. Today, he is the 'brave voice of reason' on everything from McDonald's to medicine.
When Prince Charles suggested in Abu Dhabi this week that Big Macs should be banned, health campaigners congratulated him for publicly "making the connection between healthy eating and wellbeing."
In December last year, when it came out that the Prince was building an 'eco-palace' complete with solar-powered heating and wood-chip boilers for his son William, he was heralded as a 'role model' by greens. When a report he commissioned recently suggested that alternative therapies - including acupuncture and herbal remedies - should be made available on the NHS, he was gushingly described as 'courageous'.
How times change. In the past, Charles was |
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| Why is the one- time oddball now considered a role model? The Prince hasn’t changed; he’s as cranky as ever |
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looked upon as a blithering buffoon. When he revealed in the 1980s that he liked talking to his plants, the Sun published a picture of the Prince on his own with the caption: "A loon with his thoughts".
When he declared he'd had a 'mystical experience' courtesy of his 'spiritual guru', the Daily Mirror expressed horror at the prospect of Charles sitting "cross-legged on the throne wearing a kaftan and eating muesli". Even the Guardian, bastion of muesli-eaters, reacted to his interest in mysticism by accusing him of "dabbling in the occult".
Why is the one-time oddball now considered a role model? The Prince hasn't changed; he's as cranky as ever. The truth is, we've finally caught up with him - mysticism, homeopathic remedies, greenness and all.
When, in 1980, the Prince proposed putting a bottle bank outside Buckingham Palace, one commentator mockingly wondered whether the Palace would soon have "allotments with windmills creaking away... and composting lavatories." Today, we wouldn't expect William's new home to have anything else. 
FIRST POSTED MARCH 1, 2007
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