Prince Charles says, “I am Not That Stupid”

Britain’s Prince Charles has said that he will stop speaking on the issues he feels strongly, after he becomes the king of Britain, as he is “not that stupid”. Speaking on the occasion of his 70th birthday this week, the son of 92 year-old Queen Elizabeth said that the role of monarch is totally different from his current position as the Prince of Wales.

Prince Charles said, “The idea, somehow, that I'm going to go on in exactly the same way, if I have to succeed, is complete nonsense because the two - the two situations - are completely different”. When he was asked, whether his public and social campaign will continue after he become the King, he replied, “No, it won't. I'm not that stupid”.

Declaring the role of a sovereign and heir to be different, Prince Charles maintains he is aware of the constraints he will encounter as king and says his behavior will change accordingly.

He also says in the documentary by BBC, entitled Prince, Son and Heir, Charles at 70, “You can’t be the same as the sovereign if you’re the Prince of Wales or the heir because if you become the sovereign then you play the role in the way that it is expected”.

Britain as a country currently follows constitutional monarchy, where the monarch has a formal role in the formation of governments but he or she has an obligation to remain neutral and practically speaking the monarch doesn’t have any real political power.

Charles has been vocal on topics like environment and social issues. In September this year Charles said in an interview that, “My problem is I find there are too many things that need doing or battling on behalf of”. But now he told the BBC that he would operate within constitutional parameters as the king. He said, “I do realise that it is a separate exercise being sovereign. So of course I understand entirely how that should operate”.

But Prince defended his activities as the heir to the throne, which also includes founding the Prince’s Trust charity in the year 1976 to support vulnerable young people. He said, “If it’s meddling to worry about the inner cities as I did 40 years ago, then if that’s meddling I'm proud of it”.

Prince Charles’ words, which are regarded as the strongest on the subject of his kinghood, are to be broadcast in a documentary on BBC One today to mark his 70th birthday.