As a regular reader of The Guardian, for which you may thank Steve Bell, I am often perplexed by British politics. Some things I understand, like parliamentary democracy, which I wish we had here. Other things, like the unwritten constitution, frankly baffle me. And some times, the slow but sure divergence between British English and American English leaves me flummoxed, as when a headline proclaimed, “Tories angered by yobs’ defiance of Asbos,” which required me to corner an English friend to explain what “yobs” and “Asbos” were.
Perhaps our British friends are similarly confused by features of American politics, so I thought I would try starting a weekly transatlantic Q&A session so we can satisfy our curiosity about each other. So let’s begin with the first installment of WTF: US-UK.
To start off with my own question, I have been following the story of Prince Charles and his court battle to keep his journals private. There seems to be a great deal of consternation that the prince expressed political opinions, and in particular, that he expressed political opinions in letters to government ministers.
So WTF? Why does anyone care that Charles writes letters to ministers? Hasn’t the monarchy essentially been reduced to a powerless tourist attraction, albeit one with strong tendencies to embarrassing behavior? From over here, it seems as if Charles writing to one minister or another is about as significant as Richard Gere writing letters to the President on behalf of Tibet. Obviously, it is a bigger deal than that from the British point-of-view, so I was hoping someone could clue me in on this one.
