Purple Ink, Blue Pencil

The attorney general has blocked publication of some correspondence by a relative of the Prime Minister, on the grounds that the letters are "particularly frank" and contain the "most deeply held personal views and beliefs" of the heir to the throne. Dominic Grieve is a Conservative apparatchik and a lawyer to boot, so it is perhaps understandable that he should be concerned at a frank display of personal views. His pretext for suppressing the letters is that disclosure "could damage the Prince of Wales's ability to perform his duties when he becomes king", presumably because the embarrassment would cause his hands to tremble when he cuts a ribbon, or interfere with the monotone when he reads out the Government's corporate brochure at the opening of Parliament. Grieve also proclaimed that "it is a matter of the highest importance within our constitutional framework that the monarch is a politically neutral figure able to engage in confidence with the government of the day" or, in Standard English, that there is no higher priority in our Mother of Parliaments than the secret and unfettered lobbying of ministers by rich people.

Me at Poetry-24
The Cleansing of the Temple