At his monthly press conference at 10 Downing Street, British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, was asked about Prince Charles and whether, as some say, he interferes in Government business. After a rueful joke, he went on to give the Prince his support:

“I think Prince Charles does an amazing job for the country,” he said. “He’s perfectly entitled to express his views and personally I find no problem with it at all.

“It is completely unreasonable not to expect that he has views or that he trasmits them to Government ministers, but they are not views that I have ever, ever, regarded as party political.”

The Lord Chancellor, Charlie Falconer, was only a little less understanding: “It is perfectly appropriate for somebody in the Prince’s position to have views about the countryside, climate change, about big environmental issues.”

However: “There is obviously a line where it gets party political. It would be inappropriate for the Monarch to cross that particular line.”

Other Government ministers and Labour backbenchers have been less generous to the Prince, who has probably achieved more good in the world than all of them put together.