Politically neutral

Boris Johnson intends to defend the plan to deport refugees to Rwanda to Prince Charles. Prince Charles is reported to have called the policy "appalling".

And of course the johnsonites are up in arms about this, because members of the royal family are meant to be politically neutral.

Like Putin's Russia, Rwanda is a corrupt dictatorship wearing the clothes of a democracy, except that in Rwanda the process has gone further:

Article 101 of the constitution had previously limited presidents to two terms in office, but this was changed in a 2015 referendum, which had been brought following receipt of a petition signed by 3.8 million Rwandans. Through this change in the constitution, Kagame could stay on as president until 2034. Kagame was elected for a third term in 2017 with 98.79% of the vote. -- Wikipedia

In 2018 Putin got about 77% of the vote in Russia: Putin is still, perhaps, pretending to be democratically elected: Kagame isn't even doing that.

Here is a quote from the US state department's 2021 human rights report:

Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: unlawful or arbitrary killings by the government; forced disappearance by the government; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the government; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary detention; political prisoners or detainees; politically motivated reprisals against individuals located outside the country, including killings, kidnappings, and violence; arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; serious restrictions on free expression and media, including threats of violence against journalists, unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists, and censorship; serious restrictions on internet freedom; substantial interference with the rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of association, including overly restrictive laws on the organization, funding, or operation of nongovernmental and civil society organizations; serious and unreasonable restrictions on political participation; and serious government restrictions on or harassment of domestic and international human rights organizations.

That doesn't look too good, does it? And the johnsonites are deporting refugees to this place: they are deporting refugees, quite likely, to their deaths.

So here's the thing: the royals are meant to be politically neutral, yes. But there's a limit to that: what the johnsonites are doing is sending people to concentration camps where they will probably die. That's what the nazis did. The johnsonites are not nazis – not yet nazis anyway – but they are not even pretending not to be fascists any more. And even the royals should be able to speak out about that.