The 74-year-old monarch jokes about his frustration over a leaky fountain pen when reminding Brits to resist the temptation to engage in heated online arguments amid 'international turmoil.'
- Oct 20, 2023
AceShowbiz - King Charles called for "understanding" as he issued a warning about heated online arguments. The 74-year-old monarch delivered a speech to the lord mayor of London and the City of London Corporation at Mansion House on Wednesday, October 18 and urged the British public to resist the "temptation" to become a "shouting society."
He said, "The instinct to cooperate wherever and whenever possible is deep within us. Even in the most fractious times - when disagreements are polished, paraded and asserted - there is in our land a kind of muscle memory that it does not have to be like this; that the temptation to turn ourselves into a shouting or recriminatory society must be resisted, or at least heavily mitigated whenever possible, especially in the digital sphere where civilised debate too often gives way to rancour and acrimony."
Charles told people to draw from their "deep wells" of shared values and to have "understanding both at home and overseas" as he stressed it has "never [been] more vital than at times of international turmoil and heartbreaking loss of life."
He added, "Our willingness to put others first and treat them as we would wish them to treat us. To listen to their views and, if we do not agree, to remind ourselves to engage in a way which is passionate, but not pugnacious. This includes the practice of our religious faiths, in freedom and mutual understanding."
The king noted that it is "genuine togetherness that will see us through good times and bad." Charles also poked fun at himself over footage of him growing visibly frustrated with a leaky fountain pen when he had to sign documents shortly after he took the throne last year.
He said, "Our ability to laugh at ourselves is one of our great national characteristics. Just as well, you may say, given some of the vicissitudes I have faced with frustratingly failing fountain pens this past year!"
The monarch, who was accompanied to the event by his wife, Queen Camilla, has long spoken out about climate change and he raised the subject again in his speech. He said, "After decades of debate, our television screens - or, increasingly, mobile phone screens - confront us each day with the stark realities of climate change."
He continued, "But are devastating scenes of communities scarred by fire and flood - not to mention the migration of people fleeing those terrifying phenomena - enough to persuade us to take the action that is needed - to make the sacrifices needed to secure our planet for generations yet unborn? I believe so."
