UK: A British government minister took the unusual step yesterday of criticising the Prince of Wales, heir to the throne.
Education Secretary Charles Clarke attacked Prince Charles for his view, revealed at an employment appeals tribunal, that the English schools system offered pupils too much aspiration and refused to admit failures.
The minister rounded on Prince Charles over a memo he had written complaining about a learning culture based on a "child-centred system which admits no failure".
"To be quite frank, I think he is very old-fashioned and out of time and he doesn't understand what is going on in the British education system at the moment," Mr Clarke told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"I think that he should think carefully before intervening in that debate."
But last night the Prince's communication secretary, Mr Paddy Harverson, offered a robust defence of Prince Charles' views, saying they had been "misrepresented" and the adverse public reaction was to that misrepresentation.
"The Prince of Wales has spoken about education many times in the past and has been passionate about it for a long time. Not least because he's had the Prince's Trust for 30 years, helping young people get an opportunity in life," Mr Harverson also told the BBC.
"I think where the misrepresentation was, was about people suggesting he was talking about sociology and social opportunity - he was talking specifically about education. And what he thinks is that not everyone is the same, not everyone has the same talent.
"People have different talents and what education should be geared towards is giving everyone the chance to make the best of those talents in their own way. Rather than having a 'one size fits all' response, everything should be geared to the individual talent and their own ability and the hard work they put into it."
Prince Charles's note was read on Wednesday at a tribunal hearing into former Clarence House personal assistant Ms Elaine Day's complaint of sexual harassment against a senior member of staff.
In the letter, the Prince complained: "What is wrong with people now? Why do they all seem to think they are qualified to do things far beyond their technical capabilities? This is to do with the learning culture in schools as a consequence of a child-centred system which admits no failure.
"People seem to think they can all be pop stars, high court judges, brilliant TV personalities or infinitely more competent heads of state without ever putting in the necessary work or having natural ability."
At the hearing yesterday, Ms Day was cross-examined but repeated her assertion that following complaints she made about unwanted attention from the Prince's assistant private secretary Paul Kefford, her life as an employee of the prince's staff was made impossible.