Respect for Royal Family at new low since Diana's death

LONDON: Princess Diana's death has damaged the reputation of the Royal Family in Britain, with "respect" falling sharply below 50 per cent for the first time in ten years, according to a new poll.

The 'YouGov' poll has revealed the sharp decline -- from 64 per cent to 49 per cent -- among Britons on the tenth death anniversary of the Princess of Wales today, 'The Daily Telegraph', which commissioned the survey, reported here.

According to the poll, 48 per cent of people in Britain do not believe the Royal Family has changed for the better as a result of the way Princess Diana had lived and died in a car crash in Paris ten years back.

While only six per cent Britons said their opinion of the Royal Family had changed for the better, a clear 25 per cent of those questioned during the poll said it had declined over the past decade.

But it is the headline figure about respect falling below 50 per cent for the first time in an opinion poll "which will dominate the debate about the impact of the Princess of Wales on the Royal Family", according to the British daily.

The poll also shows that 82 per cent of people in the country believed that Princess Diana had a "remarkable ability" to connect. A further 80 per cent said that "she genuinely cared about people who were ill, disabled or disadvantaged in some way".

The opinion poll has revealed that an extraordinary 89 per cent of people knew exactly where the members of the Royal Family were when they heard that the Princess had died in the car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997.

Despite a British government report concluding that the accident was caused by the Princess's chauffeur, Henri Paul, 43 per cent people still thinks Diana's death was 'suspicious'.

Even a decade on from her death, the cause of the crash continues to provoke controversy, the poll shows.

"The monarchy will look carefully at these figures because, as an institution, it cannot afford to be complacent. It has adapted in the past, it will continue to adapt, but it cannot move ahead of public opinion...," the daily quoted Vernon Bogdanor, a Professor at Oxford University, as saying.