On becoming a Canadian citizen in 1973, I swore allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her heirs and assigns. The next heir appears to be a crank. Via The Guardian: 'Black spider memos': Prince Charles lobbied over NHS homeopathy funding. The "memos" are letters from Prince Charles to various government figures; The Guardian spent years trying to get them released. Excerpt:
The release of the letters unexpectedly cut short another battle over the publication of the prince’s correspondence with ministers. Following a supreme court judgment in March, 27 letters were released in May. The government was expected to resist the publication of this latest batch, sent to senior Labour ministers from 2006 to 2009, but decided to publish them at short notice.
Recipients included two of the current contenders for the leadership of the Labour party, Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper, both of whom appeared well-disposed towards the Prince’s interventions.
In 2009 Burnham, then health secretary, wrote to the prince to suggest a meeting on topics including the possibility of a study on integrating complementary and conventional healthcare approaches in England.
Burnham chose to make the traditional sign-off to the heir to throne in his own handwriting: “I have the honour to remain, Sir, your Royal Highness’s most humble and obedient servant.”
The prince had written to Burnham’s predecessor, Alan Johnson, to demand greater access to complementary therapies in the NHS alongside conventional medicine.
The prince told him that “despite waves of invective over the years from parts of the medical and scientific establishment” he continued to lobby “because I cannot bear people suffering unnecessarily when a complementary approach could make a real difference”.
He opposed “large and threatened cuts” in the funding of homeopathic hospitals and their possible closure. He complained that referrals to the Royal London homeopathic hospital were increasing “until what seems to amount to a recent ‘anti-homeopathic campaign’”. He warned against cuts despite “the fact that these homeopathic hospitals deal with many patients with real health problems who otherwise would require treatment elsewhere, often at greater expense”.
In another exchange, Cooper, then housing minister, responded positively to the prince’s lobbying. The prince wrote to Cooper in August 2007 about housebuilding, and in particular the party’s “eco towns” initiative. He promoted his architecture charity’s “expertise … on the vital matters of design and environmental sustainability”.
His charity, then known as the Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment, is considered a bastion of traditional architecture and a conduit for the prince’s often controversial opposition to modern design.
Cooper wrote back four months later and said: “I am strongly of the view that the prince’s foundation should play a significant role in encouraging and advising on the design elements of eco towns, drawing on its well-established expertise and experience.”
Labour MP for Newport, Paul Flynn, who sat on the political and constitutional reform committee, warned about Charles’s specific efforts to promote homeopathy or complementary medicine. He said: “It’s bad science. Completely irrational arguments put forward by him [Prince Charles] and pro-homeopathy people are causing money to be diverted from where it is needed in the NHS into voodoo medicine.”
