[The last thing that a bankrupt city like…]
Socialist Press1981 1981-06-25Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 5 →
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The last thing that a bankrupt city like New York needs is a visit from the heir to the throne of what is still laughingly referred to as the United Kingdom.
That lesson was underlined last week as the visit of the Prince of Wales became a hugely successful circus for supporters of the Irish hunger strikers.
New York meanwhile was left staggering at the £150,000 bill for providing wall-to-wall policing protect the Prince.
Charles, ironically, had gone to New York, not to bankrupt the city, nor to publicise the struggle of Irish Republicans, but to raise money for the Royal Ballet.
Rich New Yorkers forked out between $600 and $800 each to sit in the same theatre as the Prince and maybe even to brush against him in the corridor.
But the visit was a total disaster for British imperialism.
Prince Charles spent the whole of his visit scanning the horizon for some point on which he could focus without staring straight at an anti-imperialist slogan.
On land, in the water, in the air, even at the ballet, he was hounded by demonstrators supporting the hunger strikers.
Pictures that lashed across the world were not of our gracious future King being greeted by cheering masses-but of cop chiefs nervously playing with their revolvers and peering around looking for assassins.
The British press could hardly ignore the visit (how else could they explain why Lady Diana was not accompanied as she paraded her fashions at Ascot?).
Moreover Edward Koch: the Mayor of New Yorkwho needs Irish votes to win his next election-was already haranguing against Britain's role in Ireland before Prince Charles arrived. (Although he absolved the Royal Family from all blame for the murderous policy carried out in their name).
Koch also revealed that Charles had mumbled some sentiments about hoping everything in Ireland would turn out all right.
So what was the press to make of this embarrassing debacle?
Low key The papers reported the demonstrations in a low key and demoralised way.
The Daily Express did its best to counter-attack with a story headlined 'Royal escort scandal'.
But this story was so hilarious that it probablv held the British Royal Family up to more ridicule.
A policeman detailed to