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I do know the Prince and I'm happy to try and defend him a little - he's nothing like the caricature presented of him in the press. You may have noticed that large sections of the media like lampooning and denigrating conservative figures - the biggest target of this in the world today is, of course, President Trump - the media like trying to make such people seem like a joke as a way of trying to neutralise them. Well, the Prince of Wales has been the target of that for at least the last thirty or forty years. And unfortunately it seems to work.

The Prince is a good and decent man - he messed up in some ways when it came to his first marriage - there was fault on both sides there, including his own. But that was decades ago now, and he's not even the same man he was then.

Over all, the Prince is a conservative on most political issues. He would fit it quite well here at Freerepublic. An exception to that is his environmentalism which certainly is real, but he's been an environmentalist since before it was completely captured by the left. I've had a number of arguments with him over this, but honestly, he really is very well informed, and I tend to come away from those discussions having been more turned to his side of the argument than the opposite. But, yes, he's definitely an environmentalist - the one major issue he agrees with the left wing media on which is why they constantly present his advocacy of it. They don't cover anywhere near as much the other things he does, many of which take up much more of his time - he support for the military and veterans for example - or the fact that he's one of the few world leaders who has spoken out publically and clearly about the oppression of Christians in the Middle East - have you heard about his speeches on that? There's a decent chance you haven't because they don't get much publicity.

Would he 'Defend the Faith?' Yes, he would. He already does. And the Prince is a devout Christian - here, I need to be a little careful, because it's very important I don't come across as speaking for him or breaking any confidences, but my feeling is that the Prince is closer to the Greek Orthodox faith of his father's family (Prince Phillip was born a Prince of Greece and Denmark), that he is to the Church of England, of which he is bound to become Supreme Governor when he becomes King - the Prince has Orthodox imagery in his own home, and has visited a Greek Orthodox monastery on a number of occasions - again, this isn't a secret, but it doesn't get a lot of publicity, the media rarely mentions it. The Prince may have to deal with the reality that he has a constitutional role within England to be the Head of the Church of England some day, so he is not really free to convert formally to another Christian denomination as another might, but his faith is very real and devout, Christian at its core. I would add that I'm not sure he's always had this depth of faith - my personal impression is that in his younger days, he was less religious than he is now, although I didn't know him as well back then (technically we both met as schoolboys but I've only come to be somebody I could call a genuine friend over a little more than the last decade) so it's hard for me to judge that for certain.

Despite what some people sometimes try to claim, the Prince has no real connection to Islam in any sense. He treats Islam with respect and some might regard as a mistake, but again, people need to bear in mind, that he will be head of a Commonwealth of Nations that includes tens of millions of Muslims, including the world's second and third most populous Islamic countries. There are also millions of Muslims living in his own country, who he will be King of and for. So he does treat them with respect. He despises terrorism in any form - but it should be remembered, I think, that his closest personal experience of terrorism was the murder of his mentor, Lord Mountbatten, at the hands of people who claimed to be (utterly falsely, but it was their claim) Roman Catholic - he knows the impact of sectarian violence and terrorism intimately in a way that most people don't, and he separates the acts of religious terrorism from the acts of people who simply wish to lead a religious life. He does not adhere to anything Islamic - people like sharing photos of him sometimes in Middle Eastern garb, but what they do not seem to realise is that when he wore that it was as a diplomatic function - for centuries, Princes have worn the uniforms and traditional dress of other nations they are visiting on occasion, as parts of formal exchanges of dignity.

The Prince isn't a perfect man - but he's spent his entire life being raised and trained to do his duty by his country and the Commonwealth. When he becomes King, he will do his best and I think he'll do it well.