THE public image of the Royal Family has improved significantly in recent years and much of that progress is down to Prince William and Prince Harry.

The brothers have shown themselves to be engaging, down to earth and popular and we have found numerous reasons to praise them.

However, the controversy which has flared over William taking part in a hunting trip the day before he fronted a campaign to save wild animals is a throw-back to the bad old days of thoughtless, cack-handed public relations.

William joined Prince Charles in broadcasting a video message, calling on the world to save endangered animals such as tigers, elephants and rhinos.

The day before the video was released, William and Harry had spent the day hunting wild boar and stags on a private estate in Spain.

There is, of course, no suggestion that the hunting trip was illegal. The animals in the princes’ sights were not endangered.

But anyone with a semblance of public relations understanding must surely have foreseen the negative headlines that would result from the conflict of interest.

Indeed, the controversy led yesterday to singer and animal rights campaigner Morrisey branding the Duke of Cambridge a “thickwit”, and going on to say that “rationalists” would pray for the princes’ guns to backfire in their faces.

He’s wrong – rationalists will not endorse that extreme view. But many ordinary people will find the princes’ actions upsetting and hypocritical.