A decade ago, a woman was killed in a car crash in Paris. This caused extreme outpourings of "grief" from people who had never even met the woman, let alone actually had any sort of relationship with her. And this has led to what Cranmer has referred to as to the "Dianaification" of society:

I don't like the absurd lengths to which it seems necessary to go with the demonstration of grief at any public - or just publicised - death. They are just people, and people die every day in every way. Unless you actually knew the individual, there is really no excuse for such overt demonstrations. It's fine to feel sorrow at the loss of a life - we all do - but there is a line, which has been passed at seemingly every single opportunity since that event a decade ago today.

When she died in that car crash, I was 12. I remember mainly being annoyed at the way that the death of just one woman had completely taken over the airwaves, obliterating everything else than had been planned to be shown. And neither was it just for one day. I remember it went on for the best part of a week!

Diana the woman was not as saintly as he has been made out to be in the decade since her death. I know that it is the natural response - to erase the natural faults of a person in order to idolise them better, "never speak ill of the dead" as the saying goes. But the sanctification of Diana has come with the demonisation of Charles and Camilla, primarily along the whole "they committed adultery" line. But Diana did too. Maybe not until after Charles had, but she still did it. She is by no means a completely innocent partner in their break-up.

I hope that after the memorial service today that the ghost of Diana will finally be put to rest. Let it be over, for everyone's sake, not least that of her sons. She is dead, and has been dead for an entire decade.

Camilla shouldn't have been pretty much forced not to go to the memorial service for Diana.

Camilla was invited by Princes William and Harry. They asked her to go to the memorial service. What possible business is it of one of Diana's friends if her sons want their father's wife to go? Since they don't blame her the break-up of their parent's marriage, on what grounds does anyone else have the right to? They are the ones it affected more than anyone else.

Since Camilla was invited and asked to go by William, Harry and Charles, she should go. Ignore those "friends of Diana", who basically claim that Camilla is evil incarnate, and do it. It wouldn't "overshadow" the memorial service in reality - unless certain people came out to condemn for doing what her stepsons want her to.

Source: The Telegraph - article 1, article 2

This is try the sort of thing which annoys me. Why, just why?

"From today, anyone with £1,000 to hand and a serious enthusiasm for Diana memorabilia can purchase a contemporary relic: a fragment of the silk used for the princess’s wedding dress... The fabric has been cut into 1,000 swatches of roughly four square inches, to go with every copy of A Dress for Diana, a lavish coffee-table account of the Emanuels’ best-known assignment. If all 1,000 sell, the venture could realise £1 million." (The Times)

Diana has been dead for nearly a decade. Let it go, for fuck's sake! Really, who cares any more, and why do they care? Yes, she did some good and charitable things whilst she was alive, but both the outpouring of grief at her death and since has been absolutely ridiculous in the extreme.

She wasn't anything all that special in herself during life. She was another human being who did some good stuff, and tragically died in an accident. Her life was not inherently any more special or important than anyone else's. Like every other human being she had faults and great strengths. Lots of people have done greater amounts of 'good' in their life and not been mourned so at their death. What makes Diana any more special than them?

Nothing does. She was a pretty face in the media who came to be seen as the victim in her marriage break-up and did lots of charity work whilst also gaining a sympathy vote.

She has been dead for nearly a decade. Let the cult die down and away, and let her rest in peace. And don't spent lots of money on small pieces of material that was a part of her wedding dress and very long time ago. I mean, £1,000 for four square inches?! Ridiculous.

End the obsession.

Source: The Times