Sheikh Roll On the face of it, 36-year-old Sophie Rhys Jones - better known as the Countess of Wessex - who until very recently ran a PR company called R-JH with a business partner, Murray Harkin, fell victim to a sort of Tehelka.com entrapment. A News of the World reporter, a Pakistani by the name of Mazher Mahmood, who likes dressing up as a sheikh, offered her PR firm a lot of money to represent a group of investors in Dubai. Not surprisingly she agreed. The British upper classes have always been willing to accept large amounts of cash from rich Arabs whom they privately despise. The relationship has flourished because the Arabs, especially the undemocratic ruling families in the Gulf, have convinced themselves that the British are their friends. Sophie told the fake sheikh, 'In your own country when people find we're working for you, the chances are you'll get people interested: 'Oh gosh, they've employed the Countess of Wessex's PR company.'' The title of Countess had come her way when Prince Edward, the Queen's youngest son, and Sophie Rhys-Jones, a public relations girl, were married two years ago. The Queen, of course, made a serious error of judgment by bestowing a silly title on the couple: the Count and Countess of Wessex. There is no such place in Britain. This is the same woman who vengefully stripped Diana of her HRH title when she and Charles were divorced. Just as Mrs Gandhi once spoilt Sanjay, so also the Queen has been excessively indulgent with her youngest son. This might be the mother in her trying to compensate for the failings of the Duke of Edinburgh, who has apparently been an unsympathetic father to all his three boys. No wonder poor Edward, who could not tough it out like Prince Philip in the Royal Marines, has had to shake off the reputation of being gay. Today, in the wake of what are being called 'the Sophiegate Tapes' - indiscretions by Sophie in the secretly recorded interview - more and more people are wondering whether there is room in modern Britain for royalty. As for Sophie, she is a nice enough girl, quite pretty with the attractive complexion with which English blondes are blessed. Her father had worked for a tyre company as a director; her mother was a secretary. Sophie grew up in 'Homestead Farmhouse', a four-bedroom 17th century thatched farmhouse, which is still her parents' home. She was educated at the Kent College for Girls in Pembury and left with six GCSEs and two A levels. Sophie left school at age 16 and enrolled in a 2-year secretarial course at the West Kent College of Further Education in Tornbridge. She did not go to university. It is to her credit that she set up her own PR company, and it was while she was doing some fundraising on behalf of a charity that she met Prince Edward. And when she married Edward, the girl whose first job was as a waitress at a pub called The Halfway House, had come a long way. It could be argued that in taking him on as her husband, she married beneath herself. He sneaked into Cambridge with poor A levels but had shown enough courage to quit the Royal Marines because he did not want a brainless life in the military. Having decided he had a flair for the arts, he managed to get a job with composer Andrew Lloyd-Webber's Really Useful Company. But Edward was not really very useful to Andrew. Seven years ago, Edward, who styled himself 'Edward Windsor' on his business card, set up an independent television company called Ardent. He takes a hefty salary from the company but Ardent itself has accumulated a sizable deficit. Although Edward, now 37, initially vowed he would not exploit his position as the Queen's son, he has fallen back on making mediocre TV documentaries on various royal subjects. One project, for example, is on royal gardens, including those of the Sultan of Brunei, whom Edward met while undertaking an official visit to Brunei on behalf of the British government funded by the taxpayer. The Sultan, who likes paying tips to his chamchas, 'invested' £250,000 in Ardent. This is the kind of deal which has given rise to criticism that Edward has been abusing his position to drum up business for his failing TV company. Sophie's PR outfit, of which she has been chairman, has been more of a success. But she, too, has used her 'royal hat' to give at least the impression to potential clients that the Countess of Wessex could open doors for them. Frankly, if she could not, there was no reason why clients, such as the mythical group of Dubai investors conjured up by the News of the World, should come to her company. The Queen is of the opinion that the minor royals should work for their living. The conflict, exemplified by Edward and Sophie, is that the minor royals are often extremely greedy and ruthlessly exploit their position to make money. In the case of Edward and Sophie, they suffer delusions of grandeur and run a massive mansion in the countryside. In order to pay their bills, they will have to continue to work. But should the British government fund their overseas trips? The public mood is hostile. No one has so far said Sophie is not good at her work. She is probably a lot more gifted than her husband. Her opinions are not that outrageous either. But she and the royal family have been embarrassed by the publication of the transcript of what she thought was a private chat with an Arab client. Some of the wilder speculations - like whether she had called Cherie Blair 'horrid, horrid, horrid' or not - have been laid to rest after the publication of the full transcript. Nevertheless, there has been damaging stuff in Sophie's chitchat. For example, she refers to the Queen as 'an old dear', a euphemism for a frumpy old lady. Disparaging remarks about Prime Minister Tony Blair, Chancellor Gordon Brown and Camilla Parker-Bowles and Prince Charles will be difficult to brush aside. Sophie also displays strong Tory sympathies, when it is the convention for royals to refrain from commenting on politics. When Harkin, her business partner, was alone with the News of the World team, he admitted there had been rumours about Edward being gay for 'years and years'. 'There's no smoke without fire,' he added. Harkin, himself a homosexual, offered tips on where to pick up rent boys and disclosed: 'In India, I gave somebody like two weeks' pay.' Sophie, who had been on that trip, has a list of dos and don'ts. But, according to Harkin, on the India trip undertaken for an IT company, 'she ended up doing all of them'. Harkin has now resigned from his PR firm while Sophie has been forced to step down as its chairman. But Sophie will have to make a choice about her own future - and indirectly that of the monarchy. In the long run, though, its days seem numbered.