The Firm: The Troubled Life of the House of Windsor (36 page)

My meeting with Prince William in the pub was entirely off the record. Paddy Harverson was taking a chance. He hoped that if the royal writers could sit down with Prince William, chat over a pint, look him in the eye and see him as the likeable, vulnerable human being that he is, they would feel less inclined when things went wrong to kick him in the teeth in print. It had worked with Man United stars, but it was a brave departure from anything that has ever been done before with the royals, and only time will tell how successful it was. Only one paper used the story – despite being told not to – and the reporter apologized at once; luckily no harm was done and William was happy to meet journalists a second time before the interview and photo sessions in November.

Lord Salisbury, who, as Viscount Cranborne, was a minister in John Major’s government, believes that dialogue with the media can be hugely beneficial. Just over ten years ago the then Prime Minister asked him to organize the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

I just spent an awful lot of time talking to people, thinking and taking advice, seeing what the veterans themselves wanted, what the monarch wanted, talking to the reptiles [the press] and saying, ‘You can make a complete fool of me, it’s not very difficult, but I’ll do a deal with you. I’ll tell you everything, but I will expect you to support me in return; not for my sake, but we’ve got to make a good show of it for the veterans and if you’ve got any suggestions they’re very welcome.’ And we got along fine and when things went wrong, they covered it up for me. And I think in a sort of way that’s the relationship the monarchy needs to develop with the public as a whole, so that they have a feel for trends and the way people are thinking.

Of course you have to include the press. They are the villains of the piece; they are the people who are causing the trouble. You’re not going to get anywhere by saying how ghastly they are and keeping them out. The only hope you’ve got is gradually, gradually, to see whether you can’t make them part of the conspiracy.

Who is my friend at the
Sun
? Trevor Kavanagh, the political editor. He and I have lunch together, have done for years, and because we’re quite good friends, he’s kind enough to waste his time with me, and we still keep talking. He works for Rupert Murdoch, which is very helpful to me because Rupert and I agree about Europe, and he was very helpful over the ‘No campaign’. What matters is not the fact that his boss is anti-monarchist, but the fact that you have a personal relationship with a key person, and I have always found it extraordinary how much sympathy springs up, even though you disagree. You’re not going to change Rupert’s views about the monarchy but you’re going to make it much more difficult for the people who are his servants to be gratuitously rude about people who have become their friend.

If members of the Royal Family don’t meet journalists face to face and nurture friendships then they are all the more dependent upon the quality of the people who work for them. Guy Black believes direct contact is not the way to go. ‘Part of the magic of the Royal Family,’ he says, ‘is the mystery, and if you cease to have that mystery, what makes them special? On their own they’re not particularly remarkable people; one’s a pensioner, one’s a dotty middle-aged man, one’s a quite nice lad who’s at university and goes shopping at Tesco, and we see pictures of him with his shopping bag. What makes them remarkable if they’re not mysterious? You
destroy the mystery if they have a direct relationship with the media.’

But doesn’t the Tesco carrier bag detract from the mystery?

I don’t think they’ve yet got to grips with problem of William wanting to appear like any other human being. I was part of that in a way; there was a clear view that he had to lead a normal life at university which meant doing what everyone else does and that photo was part of the price to pay for giving him a normal life. From his point of view it was the right decision to take. But it has the danger of persuading the public that there’s nothing special about him, and if you go too far down that route – that he’s just one of us – then you get into all sorts of difficulties. But I don’t think we’re there yet. People know he’s different; but if he went out and got a nine to five job in the City and wandered around with sandwiches at lunchtime that would soon begin seriously to erode the mystery.

Prince William hasn’t yet decided what he is going to do when he leaves St Andrews. The City is not a likely contender. He has been reading Geography and has neither the qualifications nor the interest. The Army seems the most likely place, which he spoke about that night in the pub and again during his television interview. He has been mulling over a few ideas with his father and various friends and relations, but it is clear that whatever he does do with the next stage of his life, it will be largely his decision and not a plan devised by a council of wise men. Times have changed since the Queen called for advice on what the Prince of Wales should do with his life; and the dynamics were different. Charles was heir to the throne; William is second in line so he has more leeway. But his decision is likely to give an indication of what path the
monarchy is likely to take in the future – whether it will go down the route of becoming ordinary or whether they will try to keep some of the mystery.

Says Guy Black:

The Army retains the mystery and it is an established pattern of royal life, but it won’t play into the hands of the people who think they must make him popular and ordinary, and it’s not an institution which will necessarily endear him to his peer group and he’s anxious to be liked by people of his age. Anyone below the age of forty wouldn’t begin to understand why he’d be going into the Army and he’s very sensitive to that, and his advisers will be sensitive to that. But if he’s allowed to do something he wants to do he risks getting into Prince Edward territory and maybe doing something he’s not terribly good at. With Edward it didn’t matter at the end of the day, but when was the last time a Prince of Wales or heir to the throne went out and did something ordinary? If he goes down the path of the ordinary it will be the first time and they cannot be clear about the consequences; they may be letting a genie out of the bottle that would be very difficult to put back in.

The way William spoke about the Army seemed to suggest that a mixture of nature and nurture had moulded his decision – with some youthful idealism – and an awareness of how he might be able to use his position to do something useful. The Armed Forces nominally fight in the sovereign’s name – at that moment they were putting their lives at risk while the government was disbanding age-old squadrons. Prince William made it clear he knew that by joining their ranks he could demonstrate to those men and women how much their service and sacrifice was appreciated.

On 11 November 2004 he joined the rest of the Royal Family for the annual Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph in Whitehall. He particularly wanted to be there, believing that, by his presence, he could speak for young people.

I just thought what with the Iraq war and troops being abroad and particularly the Black Watch going through a very tough time – I thought it was just the right time for me probably to make an entrance and be there for the youth and make a point that the young still haven’t forgotten and still very much appreciate what’s been done for everyone.

The Army is obviously a lot more in the spotlight at the moment … The Remembrance service really does bring it home when you’re there and there’s actually a war going on somewhere at the time and the guys are fighting their hearts out.

The difficulty he will face in the Army is whether he would be allowed to fight, something he has agonized over.

The last thing I want to do is be mollycoddled or wrapped up in cotton wool, because if I was to join the Army I’d want to go where my men went and I’d want to do what they did. I would not want to be kept back for being precious or whatever, that’s the last thing I’d want. It’s the most humiliating thing and it would be something I’d find very awkward to live with, being told I couldn’t go out there when these guys have got to go out there and do a bad job.

Remembrance Sunday, when the sovereign leads the nation in paying tribute to Britain’s war dead and those of the Commonwealth who fell fighting for King or Queen and country, is one
of the most important dates in the royal calendar. Up until 1956 it was held on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, to coincide with the end of the First World War on 11 November 1918, but it was moved, for greater convenience, to the second Sunday in November. More than a million men and women from the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth died in the First World War and nearly half a million in the Second, and they are remembered – along with the many thousands more who have died in lesser conflicts since 1914 – by a two-minute silence. Since the end of the Second World War there has been a seamless sacrifice of young lives – only one year has passed when not a single British serviceman has been killed on active service. The toll of those lost in Iraq up to the Remembrance service that November was twenty-one.

Prince William said how proud he had felt to be British as he watched the ceremony which never fails to be profoundly moving. Whitehall is filled each year with detachments from the Royal Navy, the Royal Marines, the Army, the Territorial Army, the Royal Air Force, the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets, the Coastguard, the Merchant Air Services, the Civilian Services and thousands of veterans, some in wheelchairs, polished medals proudly pinned to their chests. Just before 11.00 the Queen, dressed in black, and senior members of the Royal Family, dressed in military uniform, emerge from the old Home Office building and stand to attention facing the Cenotaph. Other members of the Royal Family traditionally stand and watch from the Home Office balcony – as William did last year. At the first stroke of Big Ben at 11.00 a.m. a single round is fired from a gun of the King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, in Horse Guards Parade. And the silence that follows is not solely an act of remembrance; it is also a moment of
dedication when all those who still live undertake to be worthy of those who died. And with the leaders of the different political parties standing side by side, and the leaders of the country’s many denominations and faiths standing side by side, along with men, women and children of every colour, creed, class, community and country, it is an affirmation of unusual national unity.

Two minutes later a second round of gunfire breaks the silence and the Last Post is sounded by buglers of the Royal Marines. The Queen then steps forward to lay the first wreath of poppies at the foot of the Cenotaph, followed by members of the Royal Family, the Prime Minister and leaders of all the political parties and other organizations present. One wreath alone is different. The Foreign Secretary’s wreath is made up of flowers from the UK Overseas Territories and he lays it on their behalf. A short religious service follows – mirrored in churches all over the country and the Commonwealth – led by the Bishop of London, with the same hymns every year, ‘Oh God, Our Help in Ages Past’ sung by the Gentlemen and Children of the Chapel Royal, wearing their scarlet and gold coats. Then it’s reveille sounded by the trumpeters of the Royal Air Force, the National Anthem and possibly the most moving sight of all, thousands of veterans slowly marching past the Cenotaph – led last November by the Normandy veterans and, close on their heels, members of the Black Watch Association, wearing desert camouflage armbands in recognition of their boys serving at that point in the most dangerous area of Iraq.

A senior civil servant at the Home Office, now retired, used to be part of the royal reception committee on Remembrance Sunday and had the same conversation with the Queen Mother every year as he escorted her up the stairs to the balcony. She had seen the high commissioners forming and used to ask who was the one wearing the carpet – ‘It was rather naughty but
she wanted to see my reaction. There was a woman in the Home Office who was ready to escort them to the loo in case they wanted it; they never did. While the Queen Mother was talking to me she would find a way of looking and acknowledging this woman’s curtsey. There must be thousands of people who can give you reminiscence of a little encounter like this and they remember it.’

In addition to the Cenotaph service, the Queen Mother used to visit the Garden of Remembrance outside Westminster Abbey every year, where ex-servicemen laid more poppies. ‘It was always a cold November day,’ recalls Michael Mayne, the former Dean of Westminster,

… and we were always told she would be there for half an hour and she would never stay less than an hour, sometimes longer. She used to end up in St Margaret’s to sign the visitors’ book, and when she got there she sometimes could hardly hold a pen her hands were so cold. In the Garden of Remembrance she had wanted to speak to every single person she could. You saw the effect and it was quite remarkable. Like all of us she had her failings, but she had that extraordinary quality, that charisma, which you saw reflected in people’s faces.

That is the star quality the monarchy needs. As a Privy Councillor and member of the House of Lords points out, the Royal Family is not the only one that lives in multiple houses with servants and security.

Squillionaires live at least as unreal a life. If the Royal Family had connected in other ways I don’t think people would mind so much. The Queen of Denmark is good fun, smokes like a chimney, she’s totally natural, highly intelligent, a
good egg, strong views, but everybody likes her and would never let on what her strong views are, no one would ever let her down. The Danes love her, she’s got flair. All this Way Ahead Group seems to me to be completely hopeless. What you really need to do is ask yourself ‘How am I going to produce a spark?’ A very good case in point – Queen Elizabeth: we all loved her dearly but she was a tough old bag, she really was. Did people give a damn about her overdraft? One smile and she had them, and it’s that one smile that they’ve lost. Overdraft and extravagance; she liked to drink and was very funny, quick as quick, and she made people feel a million dollars. She had star quality; just that.

Diana was a complete disaster. Johnny Spencer’s family solicitor was staying the weekend with us when the engagement between Charles and Diana was announced, and I said, ‘I don’t know this one.’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘you know Sarah. This one’s got a quarter of the brains and twice the determination and I smell trouble.’ But she had star quality. Even from the grave she is doing damage to Charles and will continue to do so. Charles hasn’t got that star quality and self-indulgence is not good. You’ve got to say, ‘If I really want the monarchy to survive and prosper, it can only do so if I’m a success and I’ve got to be a king.’ Then you’ve got to deny yourself certain things to achieve that, you just can’t bloody well have it every which way.

Camilla. I didn’t think it was right to install your mistress in Clarence House, even in 2003. Henry VIII might have done it but our monarchy can’t. Marriage is a problem, but it’s one solution. I think he should have been rather Victorian about it and keep her hidden away. Okay, the paparazzi, yes, but if you’re doing a good job elsewhere, people will say, ‘Oh, poor chap, he needs a girl. That’s his
girl’ and people come to accept that. What I find difficult is this in-your-face stuff, ‘I want it every way and I expect to be treated as monarch’ without any sense of propriety or self-sacrifice for doing so. We all behave frightfully badly, I’m sure, but he’s got to keep the show on the road and he’s taking risks that are not paying off. Do they have a duty to be exemplary? No. They have a duty to do an exemplary job. Nobody’s perfect, and people are very understanding. If the Prince of Wales has a mistress I think the country would have been perfectly happy about that; it’s just that he seemed to want to keep her as his wife while not actually being his wife and that does violence to the institution.

I’m not one of those who thinks hypocrisy is a bad thing, none of us can get by without a little bit of white lying and hypocrisy; it’s how you manage it that matters. All you have is process. You can’t define it, it’s feel; and if he had Queen Elizabeth’s touch and clear dedication without self-indulgence, and Camilla Parker Bowles had lived in even a grand house in London, but he hadn’t rammed her down our throats, I think we’d all have been perfectly happy.

And there’s the history, the Diana factor. The more you push Camilla the more you reinforce what people think. The more the public believes there were three in the marriage, the less sensible it is to confirm their prejudices by ramming Camilla down our throats. Maybe if he had concentrated on the job and doing it with flair and building relationships and being sensitive – as well as all the great things we admire him for – we’re not asking much of the poor chap, are we? – then maybe everybody, including the paparazzi, might not have minded too much about Camilla and got used to her being in the background.