When Tony Blair's 'New
Labour' government first disclosed ultimately successful plans to ban fox hunting, it
provoked a threat from an exasperated Prince Charles who is said to have privately declared: "If Labour ever bans hunting
I might as well leave the country and spend my life skiing."
Whilst the future king invariably chose not to turn his back on his
duty and head to the mountains, another equally outspoken royal may
feel tempted to make a diplomatic retreat after becoming embroiled in a
fresh political controversy.
Just months after he won new fans across the globe after he told Fidel Castro’s
friend and ally Hugo Chavez to "shut up", King Juan Carlos of Spain appears to
have felt emboldened enough to tackle politicians who voice their opinions much closer to home.
The 70-year-old monarch is said to have voiced his disapproval at the
Spanish government’s ban on the use of lead ammunition by those who hunt birds in the wetlands.
The king who, at the age of just 18, accidentally shot and killed his own brother is a keen hunter.
However, his choice of past-time is not without controversy, as seen in 2006 when he was cleared of having killed a drunken bear during a private holiday in Russia.
Now Juan Carlos's passion for hunting has provoked a very public
debate about the role of the Spanish monarchy after the King questioned the
left-wing government's new hunting policy during a December 2007 meeting with the nation’s environment
minister, Cristina Narbona.
Crucially, this conversation took place ahead of the decision by Parliament to approve the
new law, prompting fears that the King was interfering in, and possibly even attempting
to change, planned government policy.
