DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Cash for honours and public's right to know

DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Cash for honours and public’s right to know

The future success of the monarchy rests above all on two things; its probity and its ability to remain above the fray of petty politics.

The cash for honours allegations engulfing Prince Charles and one of his main charities throws both those qualities into question.

Did the Prince of Wales know his closest aide, Michael Fawcett, was offering a Saudi billionaire a knighthood in return for a huge donation to The Prince’s Foundation? And if not, why not?

At best, he failed to keep a check on what was being done in his name. At worst, he was complicit. Either way, it is a very bad look for the future king.

Did the Prince of Wales know his closest aide, Michael Fawcett (pictured), was offering a Saudi billionaire a knighthood in return for a huge donation to The Prince’s Foundation?

The Prince has hung on to Mr Fawcett despite a string of scandals, including accusations of bullying and selling off royal gifts. Mr Fawcett has now resigned as head of the Foundation, but the damage has been done. He has exposed the Royal Family to the whiff of corruption.

The BBC made matters worse yesterday by wheeling out one of Charles’s principal apologists, Jonathan Dimbleby, who inevitably blamed the press for ‘turning a non-bombshell into a bombshell’.

He even likened criticism of the Prince to Boris Johnson’s attack on Sir Keir Starmer over his failure to prosecute Jimmy Savile – a comparison described by former Coalition minister Norman Baker as ‘insulting’.

Yet the normally Rottweiler-ish presenter Nick Robinson played meekly along with this ‘nothing to see here’ narrative.

Such obsequiousness does the monarchy no favours. If knighthoods are being sold in the name of the heir to the throne the public has a right to know.

Instead of trying to shoot the messenger, the Prince and his sycophants should learn lessons. The monarchy is largely funded by the taxpayer. It must be open to scrutiny.

The Queen’s advisers have helped her play a deft and skilful hand through recent crises. Those around Charles, by contrast, have failed him miserably. If he is to be a successful monarch when his time comes, he will need much wiser counsel.

Clegg cashes in

SIR Nick Clegg’s rise up the ranks of one of the world’s most venal firms has reached its zenith. He is now Facebook’s president of global affairs on a telephone-number salary.

An industrial-scale tax avoider, the social media giant stands accused of invading privacy, abusing copyright, condoning hate speech, spreading fake news and putting astronomical profits before the safety and wellbeing of its users.

Still, Sir Nick shouldn’t have any trouble being a mouthpiece for such a company. What principles he had were thoroughly compromised during his spell as Deputy Prime Minister. He promised to oppose raising university tuition fees, then reneged. He promised to support Parliamentary boundary changes, then reneged. So we know integrity isn’t his strongest suit.

But then neither is leadership. In just five years, he took the Liberal Democrats from a major force in British politics to the electoral wilderness. Facebook beware!

Second-class justice

It’s one of the enduring mysteries of the Post Office computer scandal that the very organisation behind the wrongful convictions of hundreds of innocent postmasters and mistresses was also given responsibility for helping them achieve restitution.

Is it any surprise that of nearly 700 victims, 576 have so little trust in the Post Office that they haven’t come forward to have their convictions overturned and claim compensation? The Mail hopes that now the independent Criminal Cases Review Commission has taken charge, those victims will finally engage in the process.

They have suffered a monstrous miscarriage of justice. The sooner their good names are properly restored the better.

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