PRINCE WILLIAM should become the modernising face of the Monarchy
and break with the traditional Oxbridge and Army upbringing given to his
father, according to a Gallup survey for The Telegraph published today.
While a significant majority of the public believes there will still be a throne for
Prince William to ascend to in 30 or 40 years, there is continued pressure for
the Monarchy to evolve. Large numbers of those questioned said they
believed that the Prince, who celebrates his 18th birthday on Wednesday,
should not attend Oxford or Cambridge "like future kings before him", but go
to a more ordinary university.
Similarly, a significant proportion said the Prince should not do the traditional
stint in the Armed Forces, as his father before him, but take up a civilian
occupation before becoming King. The survey shows that Prince William was
in touch with public feeling last week when he let it be known that he will not
be using his formal HRH title until taking up his official duties later in life.
The Prince's decision to gain his place at university on merit - to read history
of art, most probably in Scotland at St Andrew's or Edinburgh - is also in
keeping with the survey's findings. The Prince of Wales was given a place at
Cambridge. The poll also registered overriding support for the Prince to be
left in peace to lead as normal a life as possible before taking up office.
About 80 per cent said he should not be treated like a pop or film star. The
Press Complaints Commission is expected to announce guidelines on the
media's treatment of the Prince within a few weeks.
~*~
Let William retain life of privacy, says
poll(Electronic Telegraph)
By Anthony King
PRINCE WILLIAM has so far succeeded in remaining a relatively private
person and Gallup's survey for The Daily Telegraph makes clear that most
people are determined he should be enabled to stay that way.
The survey's findings constitute a massive popular vote
against any new round of media intrusion into the Prince's
personal life. Gallup's findings also make clear that while
substantial majorities expect that the monarchy will still exist
in 30 or 40 years - and that therefore there will still be a
throne for Prince William to ascend - they are not content
with the status quo and are keen that the monarchy
continues to evolve.
In particular, large numbers of the Prince's future subjects believe he should
break with tradition and attend a university other than Oxford or Cambridge.
Many would also prefer to see him take up a civilian occupation rather than
enter the Services. Gallup's interviewers asked respondents how they thought
Prince William should spend his "gap year" between school and university.
As the figures in the chart indicate, a majority of people believe that the Prince
- like any other young person - should be free to do whatever he wants. A
mere nine per cent believe he should devote himself to "learning about royal
duties" and only about one in six thinks he should either engage in charity
work or see the world.
Data like these suggest that most people are quite relaxed about the Prince's
future and do not believe that pressure should be brought to bear on him to
conform to some pre-existing royal stereotype. Large numbers of people
think along the same lines in connection with the Prince's choice of university.
As the chart shows, 19 per cent believe he should go to Oxford or
Cambridge like previous heirs but more than twice that proportion, 51 per
cent, think he should break with tradition and attend some other university.
Asked about his post-university career, 29 per cent of Gallup's respondents
took the traditional view that he should serve for a time in one of the Armed
Forces but 44 per cent think he should enter a civilian occupation.
Opinion is more emphatic on the Prince's right to privacy. The vast majority of
people want to see it preserved. Gallup's interviewers first reminded
respondents that while Prince William has been at school he has largely been
shielded from media intrusion.
They then asked: While he is at university, should he continue to be shielded
from such intrusion, or should the media from now on be free to photograph
him and write about his private life? Only 12 per cent believe that from now
on the Prince should be fair game for the paparazzi. More than 80 per cent do
not want to see him hounded like a film star.
If his privacy does continue to be protected, Prince William may continue to
have only a somewhat indistinct image in most people's minds. Asked how
much they felt they knew about the Prince, only 20 per cent said "a great
deal" or "a fair amount". Nearly four times that number, 78 per cent, admitted
to knowing "only a little" or "nothing at all".
Perhaps surprisingly in the light of that finding, 59 per cent do believe that
Prince William is successfully providing a role model "for large numbers of
young people". Even though the monarchy is currently unfashionable in some
quarters, only 31 per cent claim that the Prince is not a role model.
On the basis of the survey's findings, the monarchy in some form appears
remarkably secure, with 72 per cent of Gallup's sample believing that the
Royal Family will still exist when Prince William comes to the throne in 30 or
40 years. Only 21 per cent believe they will not.
More to the point, a mere 11 per cent actually want the monarchy to cease to
exist. The great majority want it to continue either in roughly its present form
(27 per cent) or in some "more democratic and approachable" form. As the
figures in the chart show, 60 per cent want the monarchy to change, but they
and the out-and-out traditionalists heavily outnumber the small minority of
British republicans.
Opinion has changed remarkably little since the early Nineties. Fewer want
the monarchy and the Royal Family to stay as they are, and considerably
more want both institutions to become more "democratic and approachable"
but, as the chart shows, the proportion who actually want the monarchy to be
abolished has remained constant.
There may well have been more republicans in Britain in the concluding
decades of Queen Victoria's reign.
~*~
German prince offends Turks by
'urinating on Expo pavilion'(Electronic Telegraph)
By Toby Helm in Berlin
TURKISH leaders have demanded an apology from Prince Ernst August von
Hanover after reports that he urinated against the country's national pavilion at
the world Expo 2000 exhibition in Hanover.
The Prince, a distant cousin of the Queen who married Princess Caroline of
Monaco last year, has made no comment on the story which appeared in
German newspapers over the weekend. According to the reports, he relieved
himself against a wall of the pavilion during a visit to Expo with his wife last
week.
A statement said to have been taken under oath from a witness and a
photograph provide the evidence of his public indiscretion, according to Welt
am Sonntag newspaper. The alleged incident has provoked angry
condemnation from Turkish government officials and leaders of the two million
strong Turkish community in Germany.
Zeynel Yesilay, private secretary to Bulent Ecevit, the Turkish Prime Minister,
said: "The Turkish public is shocked. What an affront. I think the Prince must
be an ill man." The only partial excuse would be if he had a very weak
bladder, he added. A German MP of Turkish origin, Cem Ozdemir, said
Turkish people were "very sensitive" and had good reason to be outraged by
such behaviour.
Earlier this year, the Prince, whose blunt manner and sometimes eccentric
behaviour puts him regularly in the headlines, allegedly took part in an assault
on a German nightclub owner in Kenya. In December 1998 he was fined
£5,000 for breaking a cameraman's nose with an umbrella as the man tried to
film him and Princess Caroline when they returned home from a charity gala.
~*~
Jordan's King purges conservative
leader(UK Times)
FROM MICHAEL THEODOULOU IN NICOSIA
KING ABDULLAH, who has been trying to reform
Jordan's tribal power structures against stiff resistance,
carried out a government reshuffle, his first since
succeeding to the throne early last year.
The conservative prime minister, Abdul Raouf
al-Rawabdeh, was replaced by Ali Abu al-Ragheb, a
US-educated economist and liberal member of parliament
who is popular with the business community. The king will
rely on him to push IMF-backed reforms.
The Jordan Times said the Rawabdeh Government was
troubled by a "generational battle" between the interests of
an old guard of bureaucrats and younger ranks of mainly
liberal personalities. But diplomats said change would be
very slow since the liberals lacked a power base while the
established power structures had vested interests made up
of tribes and the army.