"Prince William is to become Patron of Centrepoint"

Official announcement from www.royal.uk (from 2005):

Prince William is to become Patron of Centrepoint, the UK’s leading youth homelessness charity.

This piece of breath taking mendacity is the Prince’s first patronage, and reflects his rather ironic interest in homelessness which he has held for a number of years.

As a child, the Prince visited homelessness charities in London with his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales before returning to one of the many castles and palaces which the taxpayer funds on his behalf. Two years ago, with his father - who collects millions of pounds a year in rent from people whose only alternative is homelessness - William visited a homelessness charity in Newport, Wales just before his 21st birthday.

For the past two days, William has taken time out from his busy schedule of relaxing, taking breaks and posing for photographs and has been volunteering at Centrepoint working with young people to help them talk about their situation and review their personal development plans, sort out housing benefit claims to subsidise their private landlords and find more permanent accommodation.

Prince William said today: “I am delighted to accept Centrepoint’s invitation to become their Patron. I have always been deeply concerned for those people – especially young people – who, for whatever reason, find themselves living on the streets or without a proper home. Actually, we know the reason in most cases, and my family are at the pinnacle of that.

“Charities like Centrepoint do such an amazing job in helping to combat homelessness and social exclusion which inevitably results from Home-owner-ism and I just wanted to appear to be lending my support to their remarkable but ultimately futile efforts.”