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- guardian.co.uk, Friday April 6 2001 07.58 BST
Simon Walker, the public relations supremo seconded from British Airways to Buckingham Palace to devise a modern media strategy for the royal family, reckoned without the fake sheikh fiasco when he fixed his holiday plans. Instead of jetting off to an exotic destination today the prospect of further catastrophic revelations may keep him at his desk for some time yet.
Attempts by the palace to prevent the Sophie and Edward story from spinning out of control have proved more disastrous by the day. And with the Sunday tabloids circling, the royal family may be about enter the most damaging period since Andrew Morton's biography of Princess Diana in 1992 exposed the fiction of a happy and united family devoted to the service of the nation. There may need to be a scapegoat, and the handsomely-paid Mr Walker is first in the firing line.
The Countess of Wessex's remarks to the "middle Eastern businessman" from the News of the World were bad enough, but the strategy of containment has been an unmitigated disaster. The palace's efforts to paint her as a victim of entrapment got nowhere, as did the original strategy of pretending she had not said what she was quoted as saying about senior politicians and fellow members of the royal family.
Her decision to send letters of apology to the figures she insulted was another spectacular error of judgment: it enabled other newspapers to verify the story independently. (It was not as if political sources were reticent - a royal disaster story conveniently took the heat off Tony Blair at the height of the foot and mouth crisis.) That episode led to the News of the World proclaiming: 'Sophie: My Edward is not gay,' and the Mail on Sunday shouting: 'Queen's outrage at Sophie insults.' This was the real story - how Sophie allegedly described Cherie Booth as 'horrid, horrid, horrid', said: 'The public put me on the plinth vacated by Diana,' and called William Hague 'deformed'.
The panic-stricken palace's attempts to shift the blame onto the press complaints commission have only resulted in a damaging rift with the watchdog. The PCC, called in to advise the palace after Sophie realised that she had been set up, enjoys a close relationship with the Prince of Wales's camp at St James's Palace - the prince's deputy private secretary, Mark Bolland, is the partner and flatmate of Guy Black, the PCC director. But now the watchdog has fallen out spectacularly with Simon Walker down the road at the Queen's communications office.
Internal royal communications have been disastrous too: the Prince of Wales knew nothing about the looming disaster until Sophie's letter of apology arrived last Friday afternoon. Since then he has been quietly seething in Balmoral, angry that Sophie had talked presumptuously of Diana and Camilla Parker Bowles, and decidedly unimpressed at Buckingham Palace's ineptitude.
Attention has also again focused on the Earl of Wessex's much criticised television production company Ardent, which has made losses of £1.9m since it was formed in 1993. It was claimed that on a six-day official tour of Malaysia and Brunei Prince Edward planned a programme on royal gardens which would feature the monarchs of both nations.
Even the News of the World is in turmoil: reporters and some executives are furious that material it gathered ended up on the pages of its principal rivals.
As revelations about the interview and hostile stories about Sophie and Edward's business arrangements have multiplied, the palace has grown increasingly defensive, trying to insist it is business as usual and frantic to draw a line under the affair.
While denying that there had been any crisis meetings between the Queen and Sir Robin Janvrin, her private secretary and closest adviser, it was said: "She sees the press cuttings like everyone else here." It is certain that the demolition of the royal family's strategy of transforming itself in the wake of the furore at the time of Diana's death will cause anguished reappraisal. A scheduled meeting between Edward and Sophie and Sir Robin yesterday, ostensibly to discuss security arrangements at Bagshot Park, their enormous mansion in Surrey, will certainly have been fraught.
One Buckingham Palace insider, who said that Sophie had been "at best naive" in her dealings with the tabloid press, mused: "We want her to work and to have a professional career rather than be depicted as a freeloader on the state. But it seems she is damned if she does and damned if she doesn't."
There is little chance that it will get any better sometime soon: the NoW is thought to be ready to publish the full transcript of the meetings with the countess and her business partner Murray Harkin, after being embarrassingly scooped by the Mail on Sunday and the Sunday Mirror. Some royal sources believe that the explosive material contained in the tapes will make the events of this week pale into insignificance.
The seeds of the current crisis were sown when a dissatisfied employee of RJH, Sophie's PR firm, went to the public relations expert Max Clifford on February 12, saying he was unhappy with how the firm was being run. Kishan Athulathmudali had told his bosses of his concerns but wanted to tell his story to a newspaper.
It is understood he was unhappy about how the firm was playing on its royal connections. He claimed clients were told they could get invites for royal events and even engineer photo opportunities with royals. He also claimed that Murray Harkin, Sophie's business partner, believed the company could become so strong it would not have to pitch for business (a boast often made by Mr Clifford).
Mr Clifford says he first spoke to the Mail on Sunday about his client's story, but the paper decided not to buy it. He then offered it to the News of the World, which dreamt up the idea of the sting. But Mr Clifford believes that there was a leak: someone "marked the card" of Sophie and Mr Harkin.
So although Mr Athulathmudali had agreed to go on the record with his allegations, on March 27 RJH won an injunction against him, banning him from speaking about his former bosses.
The second part of the palace containment plan was engaged when the News of the World was offered an exclusive interview in return for the embarrassing tapes. The palace's choice of reporter was dispatched by the newspaper, along with a photographer who was admitted clandestinely by another gate to deflect attention. At the same time the tapes were handed over for the palace's safe-keeping. Mr Walker sat in on the subsequent interview.
The News of the World gave the palace editorial control in vetting the interview in advance of publication - which makes Sophie's assertions about her fertility and her husband's heterosexuality - possibly the most intrusively demeaning comments ever made by a member of the royal family - even more extraordinary. Her claim that her husband was not gay was apparently volunteered and not the result of questioning.
Last Friday Rebekah Wade is understood to have rung Mr Clifford to tell him that she would be carrying an interview with Sophie rather than a story based on the allegations made by Athulathmudali. Clifford has branded the subsequent interview as "nothing more than a PR puff".
Meanwhile, although the Mail on Sunday had not picked up Mr Clifford's story, it had continued to investigate the allegations independently. Clifford may have told the Mail of the News of the World's plans to bury the tale of the countess's indiscretion in favour of the exclusive interview, and - boosted by learning of the material that the NoW had held back - splashed the story.
Since then the Sunday tabloids have been working hard to find former employees of RJH and friends and associates of Harkin.
The News of the World is thought to have three or four hours of tapes still in its possession: it looks as if the palace spin doctors are going to have a busy weekend.
Perhaps the best advice for all involved in the farcical episode came from the trade and industry secretary, Stephen Byers. He told BBC1's Question Time: "If a sheikh came to me with a glass of champagne, I would make my excuses and leave."
