Is the useless, self-absorbed Prince Charles a reincarnation of the useless, self-absorbed Edward VIII?

The similarities between our useless, whining, self-absorbed, self-serving Prince Charles and his not so great great uncle Edward VIII (Edward the Abdicator) are astonishing.

1. Edward VIII was emotionally-retarded, immature and self-centered. Edward’s private secretary for eight years believed that “for some hereditary or physiological reason his normal mental development stopped dead when he reached adolescence”.

2. Both became Prince of Wales. Edward was officially invested as Prince of Wales in a special ceremony at Caernarvon Castle on 13 July 1911. A rather fanciful ceremony in the style of a Welsh pageant was invented for Edward and he was coached to speak a few words in Welsh. Just like Prince Charles’ overblown and utterly pointless investiture.

3. Edward could have had the pick of any number of young, attractive, eligible girls. Instead he preferred the older, charmless remarried divorcee Wallis Simpson. Useless Charles did, in fact, marry a beautiful, eligible young girl, Princess Diana. But he always preferred the older and (IMHO) charmless Camilla and left Diana for his beloved Camilla.

4. Wallis Simpson was described by someone who knew her as “austere”, “lantern-jawed” and “with a face like an old boot”. By the way, this is Camilla:

5. It was rumoured that Edward was sexually inadequate, felt threatened by younger, beautiful women and the only way he could get sexual satisfaction was because Wallis Simpson had “learnt a few tricks when in China”. For decency’s sake, let us not speculate here on Charles’ sex life with Diana and then Camilla. Though it is significant that after her divorce, Diana preferred the company of rather manly men (one of whom had the nickname “horse” for reasons I hope I don’t have to mention here) – men very unlike whining drip Charles.

6. Edward was described as being “completely obsessed” by Wallis Simpson. Charles became a national laughing stock with his “I want to be your tampon” phone call to Camilla.

7. Wallis Simpson ended up spending the rest of her life “living with a man she privately ridiculed” for being immature, boring, self-absorbed and intellectually her inferior. Camilla and Charles? Maybe. One can imagine Camilla ridiculing the hopeless Charles to her friends. Though it’s said that Camilla is no genius either.

7. Edward caused unease in government circles with actions that were interpreted as interference in political matters. Government ministers were reluctant to send confidential documents and state papers to Edward because there was a lack of confidence in his discretion in constitutional and political matters. A bit like the congenital meddler Charles.

8. Both men were emotionally and intellectually unsuited to become the kind of king anyone could have any respect for. But the main difference between these two men seems to be that Edward didn’t want to become king and probably used his relationship with Wallis Simpson as a way of getting out of any royal commitments, so he could live a life of idle luxury at taxpayers’ expense without actually doing any work. Charles, on the other hand, is desperate to become king even though this would be a disaster for the royal family and would probably lead to Australia and Canada becoming republics.

(Tomorrow, I guess I’ll have to do something on Wee Willie Hague’s upcoming war with Syria)

My regular readers might find this amusing – it’s an article about me in my local newspaper http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/features/10626112.Meet_Bournemouth_s_Mr_Angry__why_I_m_making_an_effort_to_complain/