Glastonbury 2010: Prince Charles headlines

There's some stuff in the papers today about Prince Charles causing some embarrassment at Glastonbury.

The idea of Charles tramping round Glastonbury, surely, is embarrassing enough - although now he's amazingly discovered that he's amazingly related to Robert Patinson off The Cosby Vampires, maybe he's trying to dig deeper into pop culture.

Still, this is supposedly the big gaffe:

Prince Charles put his foot in it at the Glastonbury Festival yesterday when he asked an Australian if he was an illegal immigrant.

The prince made the remark to Nick Wardle, 22, during a visit to the site of this weekend's music extravaganza in Somerset.

Cheeky Nick approached the prince and said: "Hello mate, I'm Nick from Australia. I'm working at the festival."

Prince Charles replied: "I would never have guessed. I hope you have a permit to work over here."

In other words, he didn't accuse anyone of being an illegal immigrant. He didn't even accuse anyone of being an undocumented worker. What this appears to be, instead, is Charles having a crack at topical humour. Clunking, mildly offensive topical humour, perhaps, but if ITV was still doing NewsKnight, the Prince would certainly have been booked.

Nick Wardle, sharp as a knife, shot back "I know, it's terrible when someone comes from overseas and steals the top jobs. Like, our Head Of State doesn't even live in the bloody country."

Actually, he didn't:

Nick replied: "Yes I do, mate."

Nick told the Mirror he thought it was funny, but that doesn't seem to have stopped the paper going on about it being a gaffe.

Mind you, there could be some mileage in this idea - George Osborne's looking for ways to fund the corporation tax cuts he's got planned; royals meet lots of people. Getting them to check people's papers as they go around could save a fortune. I look forward to the Queen going along the line at the Royal Variety: "Hello - you're not claiming benefits too, are you? Hello, can I check your tax return..."