Thirty years ago high-rise buildings of ghastly box shaped concrete were all the rage (unfortunately they still are at Tigne Point in Malta). It was a good way for the working classes to take up less space by living up in the sky. Thirty years ago the environment was just an issue that concerned a few doped up hippies and idealistic fools. Thirty years ago the ethnic minorities in inner cities were either a bloody nuisance or just hopeless – according to most politicians. Thirty years ago Tibet was a long way away and just China’s problem.

Thirty years ago the future King of England berated architects for socially unacceptable housing, warned about protecting the environment, started to give young blacks self-esteem and self-determination in inner cities and denounced China’s tyranny in Tibet while openly showing his support for the Dalai Lama.

Thirty years ago hardly a politician anywhere in the world agreed with any of this. Thirty years on they queue up to do so. Give me an enlightened prince to an opportunist politician any day – for the politician can never be his own man as he has to listen instead to the latest fad that has entered your mind, mine and people like the professionally insane architects, who arrogantly refuse to understand the consequences of their work as they are not forced to live in their own vile creations.