We’re only at the end of May but it might be a good time to remember that on 31st August it will be 10 years since Diana’s untimely death. She’d have been 46 this year.
I’ve said before that I’m no royalist and have, in jest, oft repeated the mantra “They’ll be first against the wall come the revolution”… however Lady Di was something special. Privileged background and pampered life not withstanding she came to represent something intangible in the eyes of a huge chunk of the world. In many ways she seemed to represent the acceptable face of “the powers that be” giving them a human face.
The underlying hostility many felt towards the royal family in the UK bubbled to the surface when her problems with Charles became open knowledge and there was much public resentment over the way the ‘peoples princess’ was being treated. The affection the general public felt for her was utterly underestimated. This lack of understanding resulted in the mother of the future king being stripped of her title as ‘Her Royal Highness’ which by its nature both at the time and in light of subsequent events seems a petty and extremely childish decision.
Since the night she was killed, so called ‘conspiracy theorists’ have mooted the possibility she was murdered by UK secret service agents. Even so, if there is any truth in that, the facts have been well hidden and I doubt anyone will ever know the full story. All we know is that a driver affected by alcohol and/or drugs slammed into a column in a tunnel killing himself and two of the car’s occupants, Lady Diana being one of them.
UK law stipulates that any body brought into the UK must be the subject of an inquest within a year. It’s been 10 years since she was returned to the UK and yet the inquest is only now starting its work. Not that it makes a lot of difference. Her children are grown, and her ex-husband Charles has married his much despised mistress, who’s existence was one of the causes of her death.
In the end, despite the coronial inquiry continuing to plod sonorously through the legal system, she and the manner of her death have been been pretty much relegated to history.
History it might be but there’s another mantra that keeps popping into my head “Never to forgive… never to forget.”.
The Eclectic Interweb 