A letter to the Daily Telegraph which was published on 28th November 1995.

One of the most depressing features of the discussion unleashed by the Princess of Wales’s interview is the extraordinary gullibility of a large proportion of the British public as evidenced by the Gallup Poll (report, Nov. 25th).

There was a time not long ago when British people, of all classes, would look askance at someone parading their good works and would look behind a flashing smile and “caring” countenance to see what actually was being achieved.  Still less would the British have been inclined to believe without corroboration allegations against her husband and his family of someone who denied to Sir Robert Fellowes, the Queen’s private secretary and her own brother-in-law, that she had anything to do with the Morton Book.

Following the disclosures in her interview, the Princess is now the subject abroad of coarse jokes and advertisements.  Her undermining of Prince Charles’s position as heir to the Throne is seen by many at home and abroad as a calculated affront to the Queen for whom there is huge respect.

For such senior politicians as Douglas Hurd to support the Princess’s desire to be some sort of roving ambassador for Britain, a kind of alternative monarchy, is the purest folly.  Besides the Crown itself, which represents other countries besides Britain, the best ambassadors for Britain are British goods and British soldiers.  The British people need to put aside the type of self-deluding sentimentality the Princess represents and concentrate, as Prince Charles does, on what will secure our future as a serious nation.