Was Prince Charles meddling, or simply doing his duty?

The question here: is the Prince of Wales meddling, or simply keeping abreast of affairs of state?

On top of those 36 meetings with Cabinet ministers there's been nearly 20 further meetings with junior ministers, that's a total of 53 meetings in private with people in government in the last three years.

The Prince, we know, is interested in a range of issues; the environment, architecture, alternative medicine. But what his critics say is that this volume of meetings is not just meddling, it is lobbying.

The Palace say simple - he is just doing his job. Part of his job part of his right and duty is to keep himself informed on constitutional issues.

The other point they make is that to call this lobbying is quite disingenuous, because a lot of the meetings are actually held at the request of the ministers. And the reason they ask is to draw on his wealth of experience.