Prince William's foray into political matters may end up backfiring

In an interview published to co-incide with Father’s Day, the Prince of Wales spoke of his plans to take his young children to visit homelessness charities, just as his mother did when he and his brother were young.

It goes without saying that the royal youngsters – George, Charlotte and Louis – will not be “exposed to homelessness” in the way that many UK families are currently fearing their children may be, amid soaring rents and mortgage rates.

But even their basic awareness of major social problems will be limited by the protective bubble in which they live, hence their father’s insistence that he will make sure they are informed.

William described talking to the children about the people they saw sitting outside supermarkets in London – not when they were popping in for the messages, of course, but when they were being driven past. The exchanges he describes are the opposite of what you might expect: “I’d say to the children, ‘Why are they there? What’s going on?’”

In an ordinary family, the children would be the ones asking the questions, while the parents tried to hush and hurry them along until they were out of sight and earshot of the person whose appearance or request has prompted an inquiry about why that man is sitting on the dirty pavement or what that lady means by “spare change”.

I’m not suggesting William’s heart is not in the right place or that he won’t be raising his children to understand that, as he puts it, “some of us are very fortunate, some of us need a little bit of a helping hand” – but oh, to be a fly on the wall when it comes to him explaining the status quo in relation to his own family’s extreme privilege.

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Where is the line between teaching about fairness and kindness and accidentally raising a trio of little republicans? “Why are they there? What’s going on?” are difficult enough questions for adults to answer, so I can’t imagine the under-10s were able to articulate any of the complex circumstances that might lead to people in the UK begging or even living on the streets.

Homelessness is a good example of what policy-makers term a “wicked problem” – one that is difficult enough to define, let alone to solve, and often a symptom of multiple problems. Undeterred by this complexity, William has declared his intention to end it within five years, or at least ensure that it becomes a “rare, brief and unrepeated” experience.

Naturally, the national homelessness charities that have been brought on board as partners are full of public praise for the “Homewards” initiative, with Crisis chief executive Matt Downie saying that “for too long it has been assumed that this problem is just too difficult or that it’s something we should simply accept as a society.”

Fair enough, but why on earth would it follow that Prince William is uniquely positioned to succeed where others have failed?

Sure, his Royal Foundation is chipping in £3 million in start-up funding, but a Kensington Palace spokesman claims: “This is about trying to change the way that we as a society think about homelessness.”

I wonder what exactly that means, and whether someone who lives in a palace with round-the-clock bodyguards actually has any business trying to lecture the rest of us about an issue to which we are all much more closely connected.

Most of us already understand that there are many types of homelessness (ranging from sofa-surfing to rough sleeping) and many reasons why it occurs.

Recent research for the Centre for Homelessness Impact found that half of people in the UK believe those affected by homelessness are in that situation due to circumstances beyond their control, while only 20% believe it to be the result of bad choices made by the individual.

Some of those “bad choices” justifiably provoke anxiety, with homelessness disproportionately affecting those with drug addictions and experience of imprisonment.

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Let’s hope there are to be no lectures on nimbysim or intolerance from the prince as he tries to change the way the little people think.

Downie is keen to stress his belief that the Prince of Wales is committed to the cause, rather than getting involved for “PR purposes”, but is it really possible to make this distinction where an heir to the throne is concerned? The same sentiment is echoed by Kensington Palace with its rather defensive insistence this isn’t a “PR stunt” (did anyone say it was?).

I don’t doubt that William does genuinely want to end homelessness – who wouldn’t? – but it’s impossible to differentiate between his desire to do good for the sake of doing good and the desire to do good in order to improve public opinion of himself and of the monarchy more broadly.

Some might say the distinction doesn’t matter, but his efforts could backfire if his drive to achieve his goals lead him to follow his father’s example of overt meddling in politics. Grapple with a thorny problem and there’s a good chance you’ll end up getting pricked.