Prince’s thoughts fuel debate in Parliament

Press, 25 October 1985, Page 6

Prince’s thoughts fuel debate in Parliament

NZPA-Reuter London Prince Charles found himself embroiled in a political row yesterday over the Government’s handling of inner-city violence. An adviser to the heir to the Throne said on television yesterday that Prince Charles had told him he felt the rioting had been a “cry from the heart” of impoverished city areas, and that more money should be made available to help the residents. A report in the “Manchester Evening News” went even further. It quoted Rod Hackney, an architect who advises Prince Charles on community building design, as saying, “The Prince does not want to succeed to a Throne of a divided Britain.” “He is very worried that when he becomes King there will be ‘no-go areas’ in the inner cities and that the minorities will be alienated from the rest of the coun-

try.” Mr Hackney’s revelations caused a furor in the House of Commons, where the Opposition Labour Party was pressing the Government for an independent judicial inquiry into vicious rioting in largely black areas of British cities. Four people have died in the disturbances.

A Labour member of Parliament, Gerald Kaufman, challenged the Government to answer the Prince’s concern, adding, “Is this Government determined to preside over the deterioration of the Queen’s realm?”

The Prime Minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher, has refused to set up an inquiry into the riots in London, Birmingham, and Liverpool in September and early this month, saying that they had been caused by criminality rather than deprivation. In a heated debate the chamber rejected Labour’s

renewed call for an inquiry by 292 votes to 191.

“To explain all things in terms of deprivation and suffering is to ignore some basic ugly facts about human nature,” the Home Secretary, Mr Douglas Hurd, said.

Mr Hackney, while denying some remarks attributed to him in the . “Manchester Evening News,” said that the Prince had commissioned reports on Britain’s inner cities from several experts and wanted to cut bureaucratic red tape in dealing with the problems.

Buckingham Palace confirmed that Mr Hackney had dined with the Prince on Monday and that they had spoken about inner cities.

But it also issued a statement assuring Mrs Thatcher that there was no question of the Prince’s criticising Government policy.