I remember, over 10 years ago, sitting by he computer listening to the saddest song I could find, trying to cry and wondering what was wrong with me that I was no gripped with the same grief seemingly shared by the rest of the nation. I was a pubescent teenager, and obviously any form or peer pressure tore at me and a need to conform was prevalent.
I look back to this time with pride in myself, and utter embarrassment of the images of Britain in the following days after Princess Diana's death. I cannot help but feel shamed by the flocks of people and sea of flowers in front of Buckingham Palace without feeling sick at the core. Men embracing their weeping partners, old women spending their last bit of pension money on a dead rich corpse, the whole idea seemed utterly surreal and incredibly un-British. The whole hysteria which gripped Britain made it seem that a third of the British population needed to be locked in a mental asylum. A frenzy over the death of someone people had never seen or spoke to or met would probably be seen by most psychologists as a form of madness. I see it as guilt, people who felt a connection with this woman, who read about her every day in the newspapers and was killed when being chased by paparazzi, in a way puts the whole readership of the tabloids to blame for her death.
With Mohammad Al Fayad's decision to go no further with then inquiry into her death is hopefully an end to the endless media attention of this woman, and every element about her final moments of life, the speeding, drunk driver and her no wearing a seat belt would appear to be conclusive evidence that her death was in no way suspicious. The problem with the media coverage of Diana after her death is the way they have created an image of an almost divine saintly figure, although the truth could not be further from the truth. Tony Blair's unashamedly used her death as a political football, and coining her as 'The People's Princess' is an oxymoron to say the least and sounds like some Victorian slogan for an undemocratic monarchy. It's uncannily close to comment in Monty Python about the Monarchy; "well I didn't vote for you".
The woman did highlight some important problems of the world, land mines, and who could no be touched by her stroking the arm of a man with Aids. However, the few hours of media attention she brought to these causes is a complete insult to the care workers and activists who slave endlessly for these causes. A five minute photo shoot at a mine clearing site completely overlooks the fact that most of he charity 'work' the Princess did was to attend functions and schmooze at thousand pound ticket parties with a dress costing well over the price it would cost to set up a school in Africa highlights the smoke and mirrors the monarchy in the UK have used to appear useful.
The people were hoodwinked by politicians and the media to make what the Princess stood for seem like something which was useful, and ironically strengthened the support for the Monarchy. She was born rich and died rich, and none of this was through any intellect or graft on her part. If a man is terminally unemployed in the UK he is forced into work or to do some form of community service, where the Royal Family are principally unemployed dole-scroungers, who or paid for by the people to attend banquets which cost tens of thousands of pounds, in the name of the people.
Stick the Princess in a council estate and she would be the target of the Daily Mail as a lazy adulteress unemployed bum, but money and family obviously still hold power in the UK today. Her obsession with media attention would probably mean she might be an early Jordan or some Pop Idol contestant who briefly makes it into The Sun and is quickly discarded as a useless fixture of our TV screens and be shown as the spoilt media whore she is. Not the demigod she has been made into.
