Serial letter-writer

Blithely disregarding the adage that if a story's dying, don't give it the kiss of life, Prince Charles' office robustly defended his right to take up political issues with government ministers.

They claim he's only been speaking common sense, on a raft of issues from human rights to red tape, in a series of letters to ministers.

It's not quite in the league of his namesake, King Charles the First, demanding taxes or storming into parliament, but it's instantly reopened the classic divide in British life between cavaliers and roundheads.

Michael Crick has been wondering what all the fuss is about.

MICHAEL CRICK:
They say letter writing is going out of fashion but not at St James's Palace it seems. It won't be long one imagines before publishers start bidding for the collected letters of our future king.

First, last Sunday, it was reported the Prince had written to Tony Blair backing up a Cumbrian farmer who told him ministers wouldn't dare treat blacks and gays in the way they were dealing with fox hunters.

Now today, PC showed he was even less PC in leaked letters to the Lord Chancellor . "I am struck by the degree to which our lives are becoming ruled by a truly absurd degree of political correctness", he wrote. One human rights: "The Human Rights Act is only about the rights of individuals. This betrays a fundamental distortion in social and legal thinking". One the regulation of care homes: "The quality of residents' lives is impoverished by our inability to keep rules in proportion and to see the wider consequences of our actions".

The curious question is who leaked these letters and why. With today's Lord Irvine response, one theory is someone in Government is telling the prince to shut up. Concern that Charles is showing him increasingly at odds with New Labour. Privately, some quite eminent Labour figures welcome the leak almost with relish, talking of the Prince as being cranky and a member of the green ink brigade; signing himself, they joke, disgusted of Highgrove. More seriously, the Prince's remarks may fuel demands for reform of the monarchy. If the next incumbent is so openly committed the powers of the monarch need to be codified properly.

Kenneth Morgan, the distinguished historian and a Labour peer chairs a commission set up by the Fabian Society, the Labour affiliated think thank, which is currently considering the future of the monarchy.

LORD MORGAN:
(FABIAN COMMISSION ON THE MONARCHY)
Hostages to fortune are beginning to line up. He is entitled to give his views as an individual. The Prince of Wales is not a constitutional position. Whether it is prudent to spray his views, which are likely to be leaked in the hard and unkind world, is open to debate. I should have thought perhaps that recently he had been pushing against the limits rather severely.

MICHAEL CRICK:
If you were his adviser what would you say?

LORD MORGAN:
I would tell him to lay back, to cool off a bit.

MICHAEL CRICK:
As Prince Charles surveys his future kingdom, his office today insisted that writing to ministers was part of his role as heir to the throne, explaining he likes to relay British voices that may not otherwise be heard in Whitehall. Palace officials wouldn't say how often he puts pen to paper. While Lord Irvine welcomed his letters, some Labour MPs quickly stuck the boot in.

TONY BANKS MP:
We all have views but we have elected representatives as well. If we wants to get involved in party politics let him stand for election. I think he would probably make a very fine politician. At least it is honest and open and on the surface. All this going on is the Prince using his privileged position.

MICHAEL CRICK:
It is almost got to the stage where the prince has more clear cut policies than the Conservative Party. Repeatedly for instance, he has attacked genetically modified food as tampering with nature. Three years ago he boycotted a banquet for the Chinese president in protest at China's occupation of Tibet. In June, having been appointed the so-called hospital design tsar, he condemned the stark brutality of modern hospitals. Then, last month, he urged Tony Blair to do more to help farmers fleeing from Robert Mugabe's regime. But Charles's supports would argue these aren't matters at the epicentre of political debate.

PROFESSOR BEN PIMLOTT:
(CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORIAN)
I don't think the issues were serious. They were referred to the fact that people get very litigious around various things. They refer to an excess of political correctness, a series of grumpy niggles that had been irritating the Prince. It is arguable that he does need to be careful because although he has freedom constitutionally to express his opinions, while he is just Prince of Wales, if and when he becomes King and one assumes he will, he will have to close down on expressing opinions publicly.

MICHAEL CRICK:
The striking thing is how recent kings and Queens have kept their personal political inclinations so well hidden. The stark exception being the short-lived Edward VIII with his sympathies for Nazi Germany. One irony is that letter writing is isn't the New Labour way of doing things. People with real influence tend to have a quiet word here and there rather than rush to fill the sheets of headed note paper.

This transcript was produced from the teletext subtitles that are generated live for Newsnight. It has been checked against the programme as broadcast, however Newsnight can accept no responsibility for any factual inaccuracies. We will be happy to correct serious errors.