In one smart move, Prince William has shown us who he really is

According to the Court Circular this week, at the very time that King Charles was receiving the President of Ghana at Buckingham Palace, the Prince of Wales was paying a visit to the Prince of Peckham. It turned out he was not meeting a fellow Royal from an obscure south London lineage, but was going to a public house where they sell a cocktail called Randy Bull and offer a Jerk Chicken Bun for £15.95.

It was all in a day’s work for Prince William, who was pictured behind the bar of the award-winning community pub (motto: “White Men Can’t Jerk”) pulling pints of Red Stripe. But this photo opportunity represented much more than a further, carefully crafted burnishing of William’s credentials as an everyday geezer, coming a matter of days after his fist-pumping display of support for Aston Villa. For all his light-hearted presence, it was a significant foray into the politics of Britain, in its widest sense.

When he said “I love pubs”, it was not in itself a controversial statement. The British pub – rather like the Royal Family, in fact – is a cherished and popular part of our culture and heritage, but which is struggling to stay relevant in the modern world. It was his follow-up comment – “I want to do as much as I can to support them… we need to protect our pubs” – that was loaded with meaning, and could be seen as a direct criticism of the policies of the current Labour Government.

It is difficult to ignore completely the Faragist tinge to William’s intervention – the Reform leader has pledged to “Save Our Pubs” – and his remarks may be considered by some as outside the bailiwick of a Royal. Nevertheless, I think he’s well within his rights to point out the cultural significance of the decline of the British pub, just as his father made it his job to talk about aspects of architecture – or the environment – that troubled him.

The fact that William’s comments may be inconvenient to the Government of the day, who have been portrayed by political enemies as villains of the piece for raising National Insurance and increasing tax on alcohol, is neither here nor there. Pubs “are so important” as venues “for the community to come together”, said the Prince, and the stark facts are that, since the beginning of this year, an average of two pubs a day are closing down, according to industry figures. Last year, 336 premises shut down in Britain.

The loss of jobs is one thing, but, whether you are a drinker or not, the public house continues to play an important role in British life as an aggregator of humanity, particularly in the more remote parts of the country. It is one of the few remaining public spaces where people gather without appointment, subscription or algorithm. And in an age when social life is increasingly conducted through smartphones and WhatsApp groups, the pub remains stubbornly analogue. It is where people encounter people they did not intend to meet and hear opinions they did not expect to hear (and sometimes wish they didn’t hear).

This is where William’s opinions become both personal and political. Leaving aside the economic hardship faced by pub landlords, which they share with other parts of the hospitality sector, what the Prince is identifying is a societal shift; a change in the way we interact with each other.

Pubs are suffering because social media has increased the isolation and atomisation of individuals. Shared endeavours – churches, trade unions, working men’s clubs – are all in decline, and direct personal contact is somehow regarded as inconvenient. We work from home, we can order our food without leaving the house, and do our shopping without ever talking to anyone. Through his support of the local pub, William is offering a lament for modern life.

His comments also reveal the monarchy’s evolving role. The modern Royal Family increasingly positions itself as a guardian of civil society, rather than a symbol of imperial grandeur. King Charles has his passions, and William’s concern for our pubs belongs to the same tradition. It is an attempt to identify those threads that still bind the country together.

If the Prince of Wales – not to mention the Prince of Peckham – is to have a future in British life, we should take note.