The Times (London) today runs a glowing leading article praising the diplomatic skills of Prince Charles and the unaffected “sincerity and grace” of the Duchess of Cornwall during their visit to the Middle East:

” … on his present tour of the Middle East and India, Prince Charles has shown that, in areas where he is engaged and can speak with authority, he can prove extraordinarily effective in conveying the right message at the right time.”

Praise indeed. Oh that the current political establishment extended him the same compliments.

Both in Egypt and in Saudi Arabia, the Prince has voiced the well-founded concern in Britain that Islam appears to be floundering in the modern world. “I think we need to recover the depth, the subtlety, the generosity of imagination, the respect for wisdom that so marked Islam in its great ages”, he told Saudi ministers, clerics and students …

The Prince argued against a rigid interpretation of religious texts by praising the “great ages of faith”. He upheld the example of Muslim scholars who “had grasped the meaning of God’s word for all time and its meaning for this time”.

He also used a visit to a Saudi technical college to demonstrate his experience in inculcating a greater respect for work among “a gilded, disaffected youth”, culled from years of running the Prince’s Trust in Britain.

The Times also praises the Duchess for her natural ease of manner: “Two things have aided him on this tour: his own more relaxed manner after his marriage, and the gift the Duchess of Cornwall has shown for putting at ease those she meets. This visit … to two countries in the Middle East where suspicion and radicalism threaten to undermine friendly relations, has been handled with imagination and aplomb.”