| Charles Unedited: The Prince of Wales' Hong Kong Journal |
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| Written by Joanne Leyland | |
| Thursday, 23 February 2006 | |
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Page 2 of 4 The PM and Mrs Blair came on board for an hour and seemed suitably impressed after their whistle-stop tour round the ship. If only he could have seen the yacht with the receptions and dinners underway and heard people's reactions...But they are all in such a hurry, so never really learn about everything. In this case he had flown out to Hong Kong for 14 hours, stayed in HK for 14 hours and flown back to the UK for another 14 hours. They then take decisions based on market research or focus groups or the papers produced by political advisers or civil servants, none of whom will ever have experienced what it is they are taking decisions about. On the first evening in Hong Kong I went to a reception in Government House for a lot of the local people. It ended with a rather marvellous beating retreat by the Hong Kong police so there were very few dry eyes in the house. This was followed by a dinner in HMY at which I sat next to CH Tung, the man selected by the Chinese to take over from Chris Patten. A businessman with a background in shipping, I found him thoroughly inscrutable but eminently talkative. He was very soothing about everything staying the same after the handover and assured me that the Chinese Government were intent on showing the Taiwanese that all could be well with Hong Kong as part of "one country with two systems" — the aim being to seduce Taiwan back into the motherland. All the locals were being outwardly, thoroughly optimistic about the immediate future but in the background was the sneaking worry about creeping corruption and the gradual undermining of Hong Kong's greatest strength - the rule of law. The Chinese Army provides another concern owing to the fact that the soldiers are paid so badly that there may be irresistible temptations to intimidate or threaten local people when the soldiers discover that a glass of beer costs about as much as their weekly salary. 
On the third day...Back at Britannia I had another lunch — this time for my Institute of Architecture — and then saw the PM for his short visit to HMY when we had a very good talk about a whole variety of subjects. He is a most enjoyable person to talk to — perhaps partly due to his being younger than me! He also gives the impression of listening to what one says, which I find astounding. He understands only too well the identity problem that Britain has with the loss of an empire and an inability to know what to do next. Introspection, cynicism and criticism seem to have become the order of the day and clearly he recognizes the need to find ways of overcoming apathy and loss of self-belief by finding a fresh national direction. I said I thought the best way was to concentrate on all the things we do best as a nation and try to work out how they can be put to best use in a modern context. |
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