HIS Royal Highness Prince Charles has a habit of putting his foot in it. He says he is misunderstood. His harshest critics suggest he is so out of touch with the real world that anything he says can safely be ignored on the grounds that it will have little or no relevance.

His latest gaffe, which he now says was totally misconstrued, concerned the irrational aspirations of legions of young people who have ideas above their station.

The thought that someone from the lower strata of society could have ambition and designs on climbing the social, economic and professional ladders is based on unrealistic parameters.

Know your place, a philosophy inbred for countless generations of the Family Windsor, is one which Charles can't discard. How could he? It undermined his marriage as much as the adulterous relationship which ended it.

It's all the fault of the media. Were it not for the jackals of Fleet Street, Charles and the rest of the Royals would be left alone to live in splendid isolation, sealed from the harsh realities of a tabloid-obsessed world where every blemish and slip is mercilessly exposed.

Have they no respect, he may well ask? Well, no, they haven't.

Charles occasionally has a stab at being "normal". Remember the toe-cringing interlude with the Spice Girls? They revealed not one jot of deference to HRH. He did his best to look as if their antics were amusing him when he should have had them marched to the Tower and beheaded. He would have gone up a few notches in my estimation had he done so as he would have been following style instead of kow-towing to the masses. He didn't and slid still further on my assessment chart.

What shall we make of his sons? Well Harry would be a suitable companion for Wayne Rooney as neither seems able to control their temper. I wouldn't want to be the paparazzo who strayed within punching distance.

William, on the other hand, has many traits of the Divine Diana. He is very good-looking, photogenic and knows how to play the media. Around the same time that his dad was targeted by a Government minister for making injudicious comments about education, William revealed he fancied an Army career and would most definitely want to lead his men into battle.

Now I always thought you enlisted as a private, or probably 2nd lieutenant in William's case, and worked your way through the ranks before leading men in combat.

Well you did in my day, back in 1952. And despite the rows of medals on the chests of Charles and Prince Philip in particular, I can't remember any kings past Henry V who led his lads into battle. But history was never my best subject.

Nice thought, William, but a few days' "work experience" in Iraq might give you a different slant on things. People are dying by the truckload there, every hour. There's no glory in a battlefield death.

And next time you go into print, think first. Words have a habit of coming back to haunt those who said them. Ask your dad.