Beef farming, dairy quotas, the power of supermarkets, Lynx helicopters, badger culling, listed buildings, summer schools, old-fashioned teaching methods and herbal medicines – Prince Charles filled ministers’ pigeon-holes with idiosyncratic lobbying letters covering an astonishing array of issues.
Here are five of the most bizarre topics on which the future monarch lobbied ministers, taken from both batches of letters released by the government.
Ragwort
Nicknamed stinking willy, the spread of this wild flower appeared to have troubled Prince Charles. Alan Johnson, the then health secretary, wrote to the prince to put his mind at rest. It’s a registered weed and there are no herbal medicines containing the potentially toxic substance.
Patagonian toothfish
In a letter to the then environment minister Elliot Morley, the future monarch calls for greater priority to be placed on protecting the Patagonian toothfish and in turn the albatross, which feeds on the species.
Scott and Shackleton’s Antarctic huts
The prince asked the then culture secretary Tessa Jowell to bend the rules and supply funding to overseas heritage projects, including the Antarctic huts used by Scott and Shackleton on their great expedition in the early 20th century.
Denbigh hospital and Torr Vale mill in Derbyshire
The prince laments the loss of these two historical sites with a hint of melodrama, as he tells the then housing minister Caroline Flint:
The terrible loss of value represented by decaying buildings such as Denbigh Hospital in Wales and Torr Vale Mill in Derbyshire, for instance, makes me weep!
Irish gaols
The heir to the throne intervened in an attempt to save one of Northern Ireland’s most important historical buildings, Armagh gaol. In a letter to the then Northern Ireland secretary Paul Murphy, he also showed an in-depth knowledge of Irish gaols as he recommended other sites of interest in the field.
