You
may have noticed from my last post (An
Indescribable Folly) that I was really rather incensed to learn of the
recommencement of building work for the B50 Neu road which will cut a swathe
through a large tract of the world’s finest Riesling terroir.
Because
my anger, and my feeling of utter impotence, would not subside, I racked my
brain to see what, if anything, I could do to help. Politicians weren’t going
to be interested in any argument I could make, especially given that the Green
party had already endorsed the construction project, and I couldn’t think of
any A-list celebrities who would either accept my letter or who would wish to
become involved in the campaign. Who else could I ask to lend their support to
the Pro-Mosel group with a sufficiently high profile to effect a change of
policy at a regional government level?
This
question sent my mind racing off in several tangential directions. To try to
explain my thought process, the person I was looking for needed to be a
passionate environmentalist, a keen defender of traditional forms of
agriculture and be held in high enough regard that the local policy makers
could not help but sit up and take note at what he or she had to say. Oh, and a
connection to Germany wouldn’t hurt their credibility either.
Suddenly,
I had a something of a brainwave. There was one person that I was sure would be
keen to pick up the baton and run with it in some way, shape or form. His name
ticked all of the relevant boxes but I could see no mention of him in any of
the earlier articles I had read. The only major stumbling block I could see was
the location of the cause in question on foreign soil. Who is this potential
saviour, you ask? Well, my bright idea (my only idea) was to write to HRH
Prince Charles. There was certainly nothing lose, I just needed some help with
the practicalities and the protocols of writing to the heir to throne.
Fortunately, the prince’s own website supplied contact details;
Debrett’s Online provided all of the necessary advice on the associated
etiquette.
I
then spent the weekend composing a letter, printing a hard copy of my blog post
and printing copies of the articles quoted therein to send to the Prince of Wales for
his consideration. I certainly make no claims of brilliance or efficacy, but
here is the letter I sent to Clarence House with my hopes attached:
“Your
Royal Highness
Please
forgive my impertinence in writing to you; I do so with the best of intentions
and I wonder if I might beg your indulgence and ask if you might read the
proceeding pages? With your passion for defending the environment and your
championing of traditional forms of agriculture, I write to ask if there is any
way you could consider lending your support to a campaign to save some of the
most important vineyards in the world. I must point out that I write to you
entirely of my own accord, I have no affiliation with any of the individuals,
publications or groups mentioned henceforward.
I
do not know how familiar you are with the wines of Germany’s Mosel river
valley, but I cannot overemphasise the unique nature and incredible quality of
the Rieslings produced there. Sir, if you have ever been fortunate enough to
enjoy wines from vineyards such as Wehlener Sonnenuhr or Ürziger Wurzgarten, I
hope that you will not need any further persuasion to read on because these and
many other of the region’s finest and most distinctive vineyards are in
immediate danger of having their hydrology and geology irreversibly damaged by
a long disputed and easily relocated civil engineering project.
Whilst
I fully appreciate that this is not a British issue specifically, I sincerely
hope this will not dissuade you from reading on. Protecting against cultural
and ecological barbarism on a scale such as this is the responsibility of
everyone, but unfortunately matters have reached a point where I believe that
only someone of your importance and prominence might now be able to exert sufficient
influence over the relevant policy makers to encourage them to re-examine the
impact of this particularly ill-conceived project.
As
several more prestigious and better-qualified writers have done, I have
outlined the situation in my recent blog post, a copy of which is printed
overleaf (http://harryjmorris.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/an-indescribable-folly.html).
I have also included printed copies of the articles linked to in my blog post,
arranged chronologically.
I
thank you very much for taking the time to read this correspondence and I can
only hope that I have managed to interest you in this campaign and in offering
your support to the small band of people trying their hardest to preserve such
precious natural resources.”
Approximately five weeks after I sent this, a letter arrived at my house with a Buckingham Palace postmark on the front and the Prince of Wales’s heraldic feathers on the back. Rather than retype its contents, I’ve scanned the reply I received to post it online (please click on the image to enlarge it):
Approximately five weeks after I sent this, a letter arrived at my house with a Buckingham Palace postmark on the front and the Prince of Wales’s heraldic feathers on the back. Rather than retype its contents, I’ve scanned the reply I received to post it online (please click on the image to enlarge it):
 |
| A royal response |
Once
again I find myself bitterly disappointed in the short sightedness of modern
politics and incredibly frustrated by the inability of a highly intelligent
and rational group of people to persuade policy makers to re-examine their
decisions in the face of inarguably damning evidence. I can only apologise for
this being the sole new course of action I could think of, but all of the more
direct approaches to solving this problem appear to have been attempted.
