Politics, eh? Best avoided I generally find - people only get upset. Political correctness (either too much or not enough thereof) also tends to upset folks. I couldn't, however, let this go.
Regardless of what one thinks of the controversy caused by Prince Harry at the weekend (and I'd hazard a guess at opinions ranging from "misguided" to "downright stupid" it strikes me as somewhat ludicrous that the media have now decided to pounce upon his father, Prince Charles, for calling a longstanding Indian friend "Sooty".
Clearly for the media it's not good enough for the man in question, Kolin Dhillon, to insist that HRH is a man of "zero prejudice" or to assert that "I enjoy being called Sooty by my friends who I am sure universally use the name as a term of affection with no offence meant or felt." Nope, troublemakers like the BBC's royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell - of whom Charles once memorably said "These bloody people. I can't bear that man. I mean, he's so awful, he really is" - seem to think it's okay to pose the question on the BBC's 10 O'clock news "in spite of the fact that the man in question (Dillon) seems not to have a problem with the nickname, does this in fact hark back to a more sinister, racist age?"
No, Nicholas, it doesn't. The only issue here is the relationship between Prince Charles and his friend. If they are mutually happy with the way they communicate then that's all that matters. What anyone else thinks is irrelevant and for all I care they could be calling one another all the names under the sun and what I, or anyone else for that matter, have no right to do is to get upset by something that doesn't concern me.
Charles was right - I can't bear that man...he's so awful, he really is.
