Will The Real Prince Charles Please Stand Up?

And be counted.

On a documentary to mark his sixtieth birthday, he came across as possibly Britain's pre-eminent paleocon, with his work in support of traditional arts and crafts; his appreciation of the relationship between Truth, Goodness and Beauty; his opposition to zoning, whether by function (residential and commercial) or by class; his understanding that Communism would come back if capitalism were unfettered; and his championing of so many other causes dear to the hearts of those of us who are conservationists and not environmentalists, even down to saving the red squirrel.

But he also came across as pro-EU, which paleocons occasionally are, because they see it as Christendom, which is exactly what it is not.

And then there was the syncretism. And the environmentalism instead of conservationism, which has brought him back into the news this week. And the silly yet nasty cult of the silly yet nasty Dalai Lama.

We certainly need the real Prince Charles. Many of us would be proud to be called, as it were, Carlists: Dios, Patria, Fueros, Rey, indeed, just so long as the Patria in question were the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.

It is rubbish that a constitutional monarchy must be "purely ceremonial". Liberty and democracy are not the same thing, and the role of the House of Lords as a check on majoritarian tyranny has been ruthlessly subverted by New Labour, although the powers are still there if Their Lordships were minded to use them.

As much as anything else, when the media that so insist have driven from the parliamentary process all but a very narrow (and not very popular or widespread) view, then someone still has to stand up for traditional arts and crafts; for the relationship between Truth, Goodness and Beauty; for opposition to zoning, whether by function (residential and commercial) or by class; for the realisation that Communism will come back if capitalism is unfettered; and for so many other causes dear to the hearts of those of us who are conservationists and not environmentalists, even down to saving the red squirrel.

Someone still has to stand up for Dios, Patria, Fueros, Rey, just so long as the Patria in question is the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.

But no one can do that who is away with such things as European federalism, or syncretism, or environmentalism instead of conservationism, or the silly yet nasty cult of the silly yet nasty Dalai Lama.