News for Thursday: December 28th, 2000

Princess and family set their sights on unity(Electronic Telegraph)
By David Graves

THE Princess Royal and her family gave a show of unity yesterday after her alleged humiliation of a pensioner who tried to hand over a basket of flowers and criticism of the Royal Family's annual Boxing Day shoot.
The Princess, accompanied by her husband, Commodore Tim Laurence, her son Peter Phillips, and daughter Zara, were seen pheasant shooting at Sandringham. Despite complaints from certain animal rights groups, Mr Phillips, 23, was photographed shooting pheasants.
He was evidently unconcerned by the Mirror newspaper's criticism of his cousin, Prince William, for participating in the previous day's shoot. The tabloid claimed that the Prince had spoilt his image as a "sympathetic, thoughtful young man" and urged him to give up the pursuit.
The paper said: "William is old enough to understand how his shooting activities upset people." However, as The Telegraph reported yesterday, the mainstream anti-hunting lobby is not campaigning against shooting and does not plan to do so. David Ward, from the League Against Cruel Sports, said: "You have to draw a line somewhere,"
Miss Phillips, 19, cut a strange figure at yesterday's shoot as she tried to protect her injured face from the biting cold with a scarf that left her all but invisible. She had suffered some minor cuts when her Land Rover clipped a wall and overturned on an unclassified road in Gloucestershire on Friday.
Some commentators have speculated that relations between her and her mother have been strained and the accident added to the tension, prompting the Princess Royal's outburst to a pensioner on Christmas Day.
The Princess was accused of hurting the feelings of Mary Halfpenny, 75, of Glen Parva, near Leicester, who had made a basket of flowers for the Queen Mother. She took the basket from Mrs Halfpenny, who had waited for hours to see the Royal Family outside the Christmas morning service at Sandringham, and remarked: "What a ridiculous thing to do."
Both the Princess and Miss Phillips appeared at ease in each other's company yesterday. As for Mrs Halfpenny, her husband, Don, said she planned to return to Sandringham on Sunday.
She still "very much" admired the Princess and accepted Buckingham Palace's explanation that her remark was due to a misunderstanding. Mr Halfpenny added: "What happened hasn't changed anything."

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