Prince Harry and Prince Charles, Race and Hate Crimes, what is all this hype about?



Posted: Sunday, February 01, 2009

by Meera Yagnik
Temple Court Chambers

The ITV news reported a story whereby Prince Harry had referred to a fellow soldier who he was working with as his "Paki Friend". Prince Harry had to offer a formal apology after this was condemned by the media and the general public, who argued that the days had long gone whereby this sort of language could be used by a person who is second to the throne to be the future King in England and Wales . To me it does not matter what position you hold in society but out of tolerance and respect for other faiths this sort of language should not be used as it belittles people from other faiths and marginalises people into categories that is not right out of humanity and the tolerant society which we believe Britain is.

However, after the media have uncovered the video that pertained to Prince Harry making this overt comment, his father Prince Charles was also publicised as stating to his fellow polo pal as "sooty". Know what is wrong with this people begged to ask the question? After all, "sooty", was a well known character in the children's show which was hugely popular, I having myself watched this programme after school when I was having my afternoon tea at home. But the innocence that "sooty" portrayed to us when we were kids has now been embroiled into a hate crime controversy all thanks to Prince Charles.

The Home Office definition of a Hate Crime is

"Any incident which is perceived by the victim or any other person as being motivated by prejudice or hate".

What this means in reality is that the fact that Prince Charles friend had no problems with the nickname that had been given to him-"sooty", if any member of the general public raised a complaint, then, he could potentially be arrested by the police for this and if a CPS lawyer having looked at the evidence provided by the investigating officer on the case thought that the elements in the offence could be proved and it was in the "public interest" for a prosecution, Prince Charles could face a criminal charge under this Act  for this comment. It would make no difference that his friend had no problem with this nickname and thought it was a name of endearment towards him. I am only highlighting this, as I wanted to illustrate how careful we have to be not to say the wrong thing in public, and, as my own dear mother keeps telling me , think a million times before you speak, this only adds to the wisdom my mother preaches at me!

I am in no way trying to belittle the law I have referred to but thought I would take the opportunity to illustrate how things could pivot in the wrong direction if it was taken down that route. I can also understand why the law was created, as we in Britain want to be the benchmarks in which we cherish diversity and want to create a free and tolerant society no matter which ethnic group you belong to, and, I guess to distance ourselves from the society that we had in the 60s and 70s whereby some members of society were not allowed into certain restaurants as they were not perceived to be "British". But let us also at the same time not take things too far!

Meera Yagnik

COPYRIGHT

Meera provides advice and representation on all Contractual Disputes, Defamation, Employment Law, Intellectual Property (patents, copyright, trade mark and privacy), and Family law matters and is part of Barrister Web www.barristerweb.com.

Meera Yagnik completed her pupillage at 5 St Andrews Hill Chambers of Simon Draycott QC, London.

Meera is presently a barrister (Door Tenant) at Temple Court Chambers specializing in all commercial and employment law related matters.She has extensive litigation experience before the Commercial Courts,Employment Tribunal and Appeal Tribunal. She also lectures on a part time basis for the ICSA Corporate Secretaryship qualification.She has also provided lectures at solicitors offices on Corporate Governance under the Companies Act 2006 and Employment matters.

Meera has also provided advice and assistance to various insurance, local authorities and solicitors firms on Employment, Human Resources and Commercial matters.

This Article has been viewed 252 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.