Do we think this was blatant pr?

Why can't I picture Princess Anne lugging sacks of coal around?!

Had this been a PR exercise for the media I think there would have been total coverage of them shifting sandbags.Wasn't the video shown taken on a mobile phone?. Stands to reason doesn't it, unless you are hell bent on showing your credentials of being a Republican and feel the need to criticise their every move.

I think it's a pity that the same old, same old comments sometimes overshadow the bleeding obvious. They were just there with others giving up a little time, what was wrong with that???

They did not sound exactly thrilled to be getting the media coverage, so I don't believe that they tipped off the press. Whether the palace media machine did without telling them is another question, but the first photographs were taken on a mobile. After that there seems to have been an influx of pushy reporters. There are no photos of them arriving, which you would expect if the media had been forewarned.

I can picture Princess Anne lugging sacks around. She controls big lively horses, and she is very down-to-earth and practical. You don't get to be part of an Olympic team if you can't muck in.

JessM, I don't see them as far removed from previous generations , yes they are allowed to get out and about , something they grandmother could not do, but I really don't see any great change . They are doing the very same as their father did and does. I am not a republican , the windsors fill a need and I accept this. They accept they have to make an effort to be less remote but their life style is no different to all who went before. I cannot be moved to say 'awwww' because they carry a few sand bags. I think I have only felt any sort of emotion for the royals on two occasions, when the queen was so fiercely attacked by her adoring subjects when Diana died and when Charles had to face the country directly after the Camillagate tape was released.

As for charm and attractive ones, happens with every generation, just life.

Yes give back that title

Jingle, Anne really did deliver coal to the locals, the lady who told me of the visit also said the shock of Anne at her front door with a bag of coal could have killed her - she wasn't being unkind , just remarking how she felt when she opened her door

Did the queen really work as a driver in the war, or did she just look incredibly cute in the photos? Discuss.

Yes, she did.

She not only worked as a driver she can strip an engine. I wonder what career she would have chosen had her life not been pre destined?

good point margaretm74. I'm not a republican, I've mellowed with age, and experience. I used to argue with my parents that the monarchy should go. He'd patiently ask me who'd I tip to replace the monarchy as figure heads, with no political power. I have gradually reached the conclusion that the alternatives to a monarchy are less attractive than what we have. They are modernising slowly, and as the previous poster had said, they're born into it, and have very little choice about their destiny. Before anyone shoots me for not acknowledging the privileges they are also born in to, I do acknowledge that. I don't think it can be easy to grow up in the public eye. Don't know about anyone else, but I wouldn't swop places for a gold clock. Give me my freedom to express myself, and live a fairly private life, any time.

Me too, iam64. I think she has an extraordinary sense of duty, partly because she is very conscious of her uncle's abdication and the effect that had on her own parents as well as the country.

And, because she is wealthy in her own right, she is not out for 'what she can make out of the taxpayer' unlike many of our MPs. She should not be expected to pay to maintain 'the office' or her staff out of her own money.

At the risk of repeating myself (cardinal sin), she is good value for money.

Princess Anne was only 12 in the winter of 1962/3 A bit young to be lugging coal about?

I think when Diana Princess of Wales went off in full rig to witness the operation, her interest was in the surgeon not the surgery. She, of course, was well versed in the art of "secret" visits to hospitals, often in the middle of the night, and greatly "surprised" by the press waiting for her to exit by the back door.

She was a Girl Guide, merlot. They probably weren't full-sized sacks!

Agree, absent.

My daughter tells me that when the students at her university heard about William and Harry humping sandbags they all rushed off to join in so it seems to have had some useful effects.

Ooops, I had the wrong decade, so sorry.not too young to lump coal , girls did that at one time at a much younger age , but far too young to drive the land rover .

As the lifting of sand bags stirred the students into doing the same I wonder if we can expect students to join local hunts and go hunting wild boar

I agree the queen should not be expected to pay for her staff out of her own piggy bank, but I don't think the tax payers should pay for the security for her extended family and all their homes

I think the Queen would have been a racehorse breeder.

I'm sure HRH will not to be too pleased that you have aged her by 10 years Anniebach.

Off to the Tower!

I think you're right, jings.

Or a jockey? Or show jumper like Anne?

The queen is a race horse breeder, she has several stud farms

Well they say there's no such thing as bad publicity.

I'm not sure whether Harry would agree with this. Hypocrites or what?

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2560871/Crackshot-Harry-buffalo-killer-Picture-emerges-princes-call-protect-wildlife.html