GERRY ADAMS and Martin McGuinness have turned down an invitation to
join the Prince of Wales at a garden party tomorrow in honour of the victims
of violence in Northern Ireland.
The Sinn Fein leaders were invited by Peter Mandelson, the Northern Ireland
Secretary, to attend the event at Hillsborough Castle in Co Down. The Prince
will be the guest of honour. Victims of IRA violence and their relatives will be
among the 2,500 guests, and many would have found the presence of leading
republicans unpalatable.
The Prince himself has suffered through IRA violence. His uncle, Earl
Mountbatten, died with three others when the IRA blew up his boat in 1979.
The decision of Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness has prevented a potentially
embarrassing encounter.
Sinn Fein said that the decision to boycott the event stemmed from the
Prince's involvement with the Parachute Regiment, which was responsible for
the shooting dead of 13 civilians in Londonderry in 1972. A spokesman said:
"Prince Charles is Colonel-in-Chief of the Parachute Regiment responsible for
the Bloody Sunday massacre and other atrocities against the Irish people.
Republicans will not be attending."
Mr Mandelson had invited Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness partly in their
capacity as Westminster MPs, despite the fact that both have refused to take
the oath of allegiance and assume their seats in the Commons. The Prince has
already cancelled a planned visit to a college in Londonderry scheduled for
later today because it was felt the visit would be "insensitive" while the Saville
Inquiry into the shootings is hearing evidence in the city.
The decision has been labelled as "a snub" by Unionist politicians. The
Hillsborough guest list includes those who have suffered as a result of security
forces action, in addition to the victims of loyalist and republican terrorists.
Orange Order leaders vowed yesterday to step-up the pressure over the
annual Drumcree protest due early next month. They are to stage two
marches to the Co Armagh church that has been the scene of violence and
confrontation between loyalists and the security forces for the past five years.
The Portadown Orangemen have applied to the Parades Commission to
return from the church along the nationalist Garvaghy Road on successive
Sundays, July 2 and 9. A spokesman said they would not attempt to prevent
big crowds.
~*~
Man who hunted Diana has found a new
prey(Electronic Telegraph)
By Nicole Martin
IT will have come as no surprise to those in the royal circle that the previously
unseen pictures of Prince William published in a newspaper yesterday were
the work of Mark Saunders.
For five years the freelance paparazzo belonged to a close-knit group of
photographers who regularly pursued Diana, Princess of Wales from the
Harbour Club in Chelsea to Kensington Palace. In his book, Dicing With Di,
which was co-written by his fellow photographer Glenn Harvey and
withdrawn from shops after the Princess's death, Saunders admits that the
pair chased the late Princess "like big game hunters" from morning until night.
He was known to hide in bushes outside her gym, perched on a step-ladder
and equipped with a telephoto lens, in an attempt to capture her as she left the
premises after a morning workout. His efforts were lucrative. It is understood
that he bought a house in Windsor with the money he earned from selling
images of the Princess.
Saunders, who is in his late thirties, is among the first to admit that his life took
a dramatic turn in August 1997 when his source of income was killed in a car
crash in Paris. He said: "I went into a period of soul-searching. It suddenly hit
me that all I was was a Diana photographer, and Diana was dead. I knew I
needed to get away from that."
He briefly returned to newspaper journalism - he joined the Slough Express
as a reporter when he left school - but later moved on to the celebrity beat in
Florida and Los Angeles. No one has emerged yet, in paparazzi terms, to
replace the Princess but Saunders believes that her sons could be likely
contenders.
"The whole circus will start again with William," he once said. "You wait until
he gets his first girlfriend."
~*~
Stamps fit for a future king(Electronic Telegraph)
By Thomas Harding
A SERIES of 35 stamps are to be published to mark Prince William's 18th
birthday.
The seven sets of five stamps portray his first steps
as a baby to his confident poses as a mature royal.
Prints used on the stamps, which will be issued on
the Prince's birthday on June 21, were bought from
a royal photographer, Tim Graham, as part of a
package thought to be the region of £3,000.
All were taken by him at functions and events or photo-calls by arrangement
with the Royal Family. But although one shows Prince William with his father,
poses with Diana, Princess of Wales, have been omitted.
A source at the Crown Agents Stamp Bureau (CASB), which is issuing the
stamps, said: "It was felt inappropriate to put Princess Diana on the stamps
because Prince Charles could have said 'please remove them'. We did not
want to put him in that difficult position."
The collection was approved by St James's Palace and the Queen. They
show the young prince running alongside his first pony and making his way to
school. Some capture the shyness of his early teenage years but later images
show a prince who has come into his own.
The CASB organised production for seven countries: Ascension Island,
British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Fiji, South Georgia
and Tristan da Cunha.
~*~
Palace to protest as newspaper
publishes pictures of William(Electronic Telegraph)
By Peter Foster
THE Prince of Wales is to complain to the Press Complaints Commission
after the News of the World published unauthorised photographs of Prince
William at Eton.
The photos, showing the Prince playing football, rowing and going for a run,
were taken using a telephoto lens by a renowned paparazzi photographer
who was one of Princess Diana's most persistent pursuers. They are to be
published in a forthcoming book on the Prince.
St James's Palace said it was "disappointed" that the newspaper had printed
the pictures in breach of the gentleman's agreement with editors not to harass
or photograph Prince William while he was at school.
The palace said: "We will be taking the matter of media coverage of Prince
William up with the Press Complaints Commission this week and asking it to
give further consideration to the issues involved before it sets out guidelines on
the privacy of Prince William after he leaves school.
"The privacy of Prince William and Prince Harry at school has always been of
paramount importance to us and it is vital to reaffirm the principle that the two
young princes, like all children, should be free to complete their time at school
without interruption."
The decision to publish throws open the question of how Prince William will
be treated by the press after he turns 18 later this month. The Prince is taking
his A-levels but will leave Eton this summer and take a gap year before going
to university, most probably in Edinburgh.
It is accepted by both the PCC and the Palace that Prince William's
relationship to the press will inevitably change, not least because newspapers
will no longer legally require permission from his father to publish pictures and
stories about him.
However, all sides are urging restraint. In the coming weeks, the commission,
chaired by Lord Wakeham, is expected to warn editors in the sternest terms
not to subject the Prince to the suffocating attention that made his mother so
unhappy.
Although the gentleman's agreement will end, it is plain that a revised
understanding needs to be put in place. A senior PCC official said last
weekend: "We have always been clear that things would change when Prince
William reached 18, but we are also clear that it must not turn into a
free-for-all."
Already the Prince of Wales and St James's Palace are expressing unease that
the young Prince will not be given the space he needs to reach manhood free
from intrusion by the press. For the past three years, following the death of
Diana, Princess of Wales, all British newspapers abided by the agreement not
to print paparazzi photographs of William, however tempting they may be.
But with the Prince's boyish good looks so reminiscent of his late mother, his
rapidly growing "pin-up" status and his position as one of world's most eligible
young men, it is not difficult to imagine the potential pitfalls the next four or five
years may hold. The disagreements of last week between newspapers and
broadcasters over Prince William's official 18th birthday pictures gave a clear
indication of the intensity of media interest and competitiveness that now
surrounds him.
The News of the World's decision to break the rules may presage the
difficulties that lie ahead. The newspaper defended itself yesterday by arguing
that the "inoffensive" shots were to be published anyway in a forthcoming
book called William, King for the 21st Century, which the paper is serialising.
However, the photos were not "inoffensive" to the palace, nor, presumably, to
William himself, who is known to have taken great pains over selecting the
appropriate official pictures from those taken by Ian Jones to mark his
birthday. In their haste to steal a lead over their rivals, the News of the World
argued that "absolutely no invasion of privacy nor intrusion was involved".
Mr Saunders is not a News of the World photographer, but he certainly
appeared to have taken pictures of a minor, on school property, without the
consent of parents, all in flagrant breech of the PCC guidelines. To some
observers this appears to be a return to the "bad old days" before the death of
Princess Diana, when editors could wash their hands of the responsibility for
intrusive pictures by claiming that they had not been taken by members of
their own staff.
There was discernible despair at St James's Palace yesterday when a senior
official elaborated on the official "disappointment" at the decision to publish
these photographs, particularly when Prince William is in the middle of his
A-Levels. He said: "This is very unfortunate. The whole point of doing the
official photographs for the Prince's birthday was to say 'thank you' to the
newspapers for the restraint they had shown during his school years, which
had allowed him the freedom of an ordinary pupil.
"That was the fundamental reason why Prince William agreed to take part. It
is very sad things appear to be going this way." Officials at St James's will
meet today to discuss what action they may be able to take against the News
of the World. In practical terms there may be little to be done, but the palace
is determined that the détente of the past few years should not be broken.
The official said: "It would be a tragedy if the understanding developed with
the press was to be lost because of what has happened over the last few
days. Previous agreements with newspaper editors have enabled the Prince to
get through his school life. One hopes that there is still a willingness to treat
him with the same sort of caution in the future. That will be vital if he is to be
able to grow up without unreasonable external pressures."
Cannabis has been found in the Queen's kitchen at Buckingham Palace,
police said yesterday. Officers raided the kitchen early on Saturday after a
tip-off to the Royal Protection Squad. A small quantity of cannabis was taken
away but no arrests were made. A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "It is
uncertain whether there will any further action taken."
~*~
Whitehall adviser attacks Charles(Electronic Telegraph)
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
THE Government's chief scientific adviser has joined attacks on the Prince of
Wales over his views on genetically modified food and the role of science,
describing him as "ill advised".
Sir Robert May said the Prince should occasionally take "a wider spectrum of
advice" on the subject and warned against his apparent refusal to discuss the
issue with GM supporters. He said members of the Royal Society, the world's
oldest scientific academy in continuous existence, would find it "frustrating"
that last summer the Prince chose to meet the scientist whose research ignited
fears over the safety of GM food, yet had not visited them "to hear the other
side of the story".
The latest criticism follows contradiction of the Prince's views from within the
Royal Family. Last week, Prince Philip claimed that grey squirrels had caused
more damage to the environment than scientists. He was responding to a
lecture at Windsor Castle by the Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks, whose
anti-GM views are well known.
The previous week, the Princess Royal came out in favour of GM foods. She
wrote in The Grocer that it was "a bit cheeky" to become nervous when "man
has been tinkering with food production and plant development for such a
long time". She said: "It is a huge over-simplification to say all farming ought to
be organic or there should be no GM foods. I'm sorry, but life isn't that
simple."
The Prince is a well-known champion of organic farming methods and warned
of the "potentially disastrous consequences" of GM food in last month's Reith
Lecture. He said that man should "be careful to use science to understand
how nature works - not to change what nature is". Like the Queen, Prince
Philip and the Princess Royal, along with its founder, Charles II, Prince
Charles is a "royal fellow" of the society.
The scientific community is keen to make its case on GM food but the Prince
of Wales has refused several invitations to the society, which includes top
geneticists, plant scientists and ecologists among its members. He has not
found time to discuss his views with the society owing to a "complicated
mixture of things", said Sir Robert, who will be the organisation's next
president.
Sir Robert reports directly to Tony Blair and is also a distinguished
mathematical biologist who has done influential work on biodiversity, a
subject close to the Prince's heart. His comments were made during an
interview for BBC Radio 4's Leading Edge last week, but were left out of the
broadcast version. He said the Prince had "good intentions" but was "ill
advised" and that "one could occasionally wish that he took a wider spectrum
of advice".
He then referred to the Prince's visit to Dr Arpad Pusztai, whose claims about
the dangers of GM food were dismissed by ministers and many scientists,
including Sir Robert, who accused him of violating "every canon of scientific
rectitude". RS members "would have found it rather frustrating" that the Prince
should choose to visit Dr Pusztai and yet not visit the society "to hear the
other side of the story," said Sir Robert. "What is most exasperating about it is
that, at the core, he is articulating values that I share."
But the Prince drew "false dichotomies", so that a person who cares about the
countryside and its inhabitants had to be against scientific developments which
were made since they were young, when the countryside was supposedly
"natural".
The GM debate is complicated, with "many issues and uncertainties, and
differences of opinion, both about value and scientific things", said Sir Robert.
"Tony Blair and the Government's view have been pro safety, pro
environment, and pro the technology."