NOT everyone is happy with the way the News of the World obtained the unguarded comments of the Countess of Wessex.

But while sending in two reporters dressed as Arab sheikhs might seem underhand to some, the story garnered by these methods was firmly in the public interest.

Publication yesterday of the 'Sophie tapes' saw the royal family facing a dark day, as the wife of Prince Edward was displayed in all her flagrant naivet, speaking with too loose a tongue for a royal.

It is not the business of the royals to pass comment on politicians or to so freely air their own politics. True, Sophie did not know she was speaking publicly, but surely a woman who earns her living in public relations could have shown a little more sense and discretion.

Yesterday, as the countess was forced to resign as chairman of her public relations company, Buckingham Palace issued an unprecedented statement in which the Queen specifically said she deplored the way in which the countess and Prince Edward had been treated by the media.

Yet this story about the conflict between royal duties and commercial activities was very much in the public interest - as too is the accompanying debate about how the modern royal family should operate.

It is certainly true that lower royals such as Edward and Sophie are caught in a difficult position.

If they live off state money, they can be accused of being a drain on the public purse; if they work, they are condemned for trading off their royal connections.

They are damned if they do, damned if they don't. Yet it doesn't have to be this way.

If minor royals received no public money at all, they would be free to earn a living.

So we say, remove all such royals from the Civil List and leave them to get on with their careers.

Updated: 10:35 Monday, April 09, 2001