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It ain’t easy being King (Charles III)

Jim Tucker – Jim Tucker is a journalist, writer and regular columnist based in New Plymouth.

Was there anything actually significant about the incident involving our new king and his dodgy pen?

Or was it just a tabloid/TV beatup of the kind King Charles III has grown wearily familiar with?

Those aged 70-plus will be feeling sympathetic. You want to see some of the tantrums I throw in my little writing den when I’m trying to cope with digital technology, and pens that last all of a day if you forget to retract them.

But I’m the only one who sees those displays. Charles’ exhibition went to every corner of the earth, eagerly seized on by media commentators watching to see what he’s going to be like as a new monarch.

Another to slip their attention was possibly just as (in)significant. It happened as Charles and Camilla emerged from the legal sign-on ceremony and paused on the steps for a photo op.

Cam spotted someone she wanted to talk to and went to head away. Chas grabbed her hand to restrain her, but she batted it aside and went.

Was that a sign of who’s really going to be in charge? Lin reckons so. She was the one in our household who spotted it. Women see such things, while we men charge merrily on, thinking it’s us who rule. Not a chance.

I’m feeling for the king. I’m the same age, and realising now I can’t get on the roof to paint it any more. Worse, I can’t remember anyone’s name, and my shoulders are shot from arthritis.

Charles sometimes looks unhealthy, his face too red and his hands swollen. His tantrum was an unfortunate sign of eroded patience, understandable for people like me but unacceptable to a public looking for signs of royal renewal.

His handling of staff at Clarence House didn’t help. More than 100 summarily made redundant. Did that include the person reputedly charged with putting the toothpaste on his brush at bedtime?

Yes, an abstemious approach to management is needed if his era is to survive, but surely there was a more subtle way of getting rid of servants. Watch for what the tabloid vultures gain from that.

These early signs of pressure are unfortunate, given there is another side to the royal couple revealed during their last visit to New Zealand in 2015.

When he and Camilla called in to Taranaki, they went to separate functions, Charles to have a look at one of our leading dairy farms, Gavin Faull’s 1200-cow operation at Tikorangi, while his wife visited Pukekura Park.

Lin was at the corner of Liardet and Pendarves streets in New Plymouth as Camilla’s car passed and she saw something compelling.

A bunch of young women were standing at the sloped entrance to the old education board buildings, waving enthusiastically. Camilla was sitting on the opposite side of the car but slid across the back seat with equal enthusiasm to wavesmile back.

It was an action of genuine commitment, says Lin, who’s not easily fooled by the blandishments of public figures.

Out at the farm, Charles was making a similar impression on Gavin Faull, who asked him to plant a kauri tree with the assistance of young locals. My brother Rob got an arresting photo of the future king with a delighted smile and a spade.

Looking back now, Faull says the then-Prince of Wales demonstrated astute understanding of environmental issues, and appreciated the importance of the riparian planting and waterway preservation they were following on the farm.

He was keen to promote responsible farming of the kind he has been doing for many years at the Duchy of Cornwall.

‘‘He has great admiration for the New Zealand dairy industry, but also his interest in meeting our farm workers and the school children who came to see him was amazing.’’

Doesn’t sound much like the harassed man struggling to show firm command of his new job back in Britain, does it.

But we’ve always known he’s more relaxed out here in the former colony, the one with a reputation for giving people a fair go.

Our political leaders sense half the nation isn’t ready yet to experiment with the uncertainties of becoming a republic. I’m with them.

Let’s at least wait a while to see how the Americans go with sorting out theirs ... and Charles his monarchy.

‘‘. . . he’s more relaxed out here in the former colony, the one with a reputation for giving people a fair go.’’

Opinion

en-nz

2022-10-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-10-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281651078987546

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