To still not understand the Diana "thing"?

[TeaCake5]

As William and harry said they were bewildered by people who didn't even know her acting in the way they did. Yes it was sad that she was killed but to hand around kensington palace for days crying? Ridiculous.

It was the injustice of it, never fully explained, and those two lovely little boys left without their mum.

I am a republican and socialist but the grief was visceral and crossed all sorts of social and even cultural divides. I liked her. She was a genuinely loved person, treated pretty shabbily by Prince Charles, Camilla and the royals, who left her with paltry security and limited access to her beloved boys. The 'official' royal family were unhappy and concerned by her popularity.

I have heard stories about her helping in a very low key way with the homeless charity Centrepoint and impressing homeless youngsters with her down to earth charm.

It happened soon after the election of a labour government after many awful years under the tories, especially Thatcher. It may have been part of the explosion of relief to have got rid of such awful governments too.

Interesting to see how history is being re written on this too.

It was the injustice of it, never fully explained, and those two lovely little boys left without their mum.

What injustice? What wasn't fully explained? The driver had been drinking and was also on prescription drugs that shouldn't have been mixed with alcohol. He was driving too fast, to try to get away from the papparazzi. They bear a share of the blame but the lion's share is borne by the driver, who should never have been behind the wheel. Having said that, the front seat passenger survived the crash because he was the only one using his seatbelt.

The boys were 12 and 15 at the time, by the way, so teenagers, not that little. Not that it is easy for a child to lose a parent at any age.

A friend of a friend of a friend (who'se name I can't remember now) was a 'fill-in' DJ on a radio station at the time. He played a couple of nights before the funeral - and got a written warning, which a lot of us thought was fucking outrageous. There were easily as many people irritated with all the fuss as there were idiots bawling in the street.

It's a shame that people feel the need to be unkind about someone who died 20 years ago. Let it go fgs. You can be hypercritical of the public, the Blair government and the media but let the dead rest in peace.

Woman12345 agree with it is interesting how history is being rewritten on this too. Primarily by people who were to young to remember the circumstances surrounding Princess Diana's death. I remember Diana being removed from prayers and thought how Christian that was at the time! I was in Paris at the time and can remember seeing on French TV the slow ambulance journey and the stops and thinking why didn't they just blue light her to hospital. Tragic.

They didn't blue light her to hospital??

Chestervase1.why didn't they just blue light her to hospital A two hour journey, I read, which seems odd.

Another interesting thing about her death, was that on the morning of it, newspapers had already gone to press, so hadn't been changed by the sad news. I remember a nasty article criticising her appearance, and it was bitterly ironic when one considers who was pursuing her and who caused the accident.

The British press at the time was in general pretty horrible to and about her. But despite that, she had touched the humanity of a lot of people.

Her courage in speaking out personally, about eating disorders was radical at the time as was her work with people living with AIDs. She seemed just a nice person, and I think a lot of people registered that.

She was an unusual royal and a brave woman. She'd have been proud of those two lovely boys.

They didn't blue light her to hospital?? No they didn't. The whole thing is a mystery.

The paramedics didn't race her to hospital because apparently the road was rough and they feared they would provoke another cardiac arrest. She had already suffered two by the time she reached the hospital, which wasn't the nearest, but was the one with better facilities. I think the journey took about an hour.

Similarly, that is the reason given for spending almost an hour trying to stabilise her at the scene of the accident before setting off.

Not being a doctor, I can't say whether that was the right decision or not. But I don't think the French medical team were deliberately dragging their feet.

I still feel sad about the whole thing. It doesn't matter how many right on posters come on here.

I feel sad about it too. It was a waste of a life, a completely preventable accident and a tragedy for her family. However, people of all ages die all over the world every day and it doesn't provoke the reaction her death did. I am still bemused by the scale of the reaction. It did feel at the time that those of us who weren't hysterical with grief would be asking for trouble if we said that out loud. I was 36 then and it was the first time in my adult life I'd ever felt such strong social pressure to fall in with a national mood. I found it extremely disturbing, actually. It gave me a glimpse of what it must have been like to live in a totalitarian state.

As for making the decision to marry at 19, as I said above, she and I were almost exactly the same age (a few days apart). As it happens, we became engaged in the same month, but things turned out a lot better for me, as luck would have it (still married to the same man - but we got married the following year). I remember thinking they were rushing things when it was announced that the wedding would take place in July, which was about five months after the engagement. She may not have had enough common sense to see the risk she was taking, but I do feel her family should have thought things through a bit better. Maybe they were so keen to get that alliance with the Royal Family that they didn't think or care, but in any other circumstances surely parents would advise their 19yo daughter to get to know her 31yo boyfriend a bit better before making an engagement public (and they'd probably be hoping that she would think better of it before too long).

Your explanation makes sense Limited but why would they wait at red lights? I'm not suggesting any conspiracy, it's just shit that it took so long to get to hospital and if it were my relative, I'd definitely be thinking 'what if...,'

The whole thing is a mystery

derxa www.express.co.uk/news/uk/427512/The-key-questions-about-Diana-and-Dodi-s-death-that-still-remain

In the Independent today, the fireman Mr Gourmelon said:

Mr Gourmelon said he was sure Diana would survive.

“I could see she had a slight injury to her right shoulder but, other than that, there was nothing significant. There was no blood on her at all,” he told The Sun

To be honest, I thought she would live. As far as I knew when she was in the ambulance she was alive and I expected her to live

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/princess-diana-wales-20th-death-anniversary-fireman-last-words-paris-crash-a7921306.html

www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/nov/14/monarchy.davidbatty

All a bit mysterious, especially at the time, which may have added to the outpouring of grief.

Oh FFS, the Express has been peddling tinfoil-hat conspiracy shit about this for years. Along with the stories about giant Muslim spiders bringing in the worst winter for two centuries.
Gaspode, you are absolutely right about how it felt like a totalitarian state was imminent.

It was indeed sad Derxa and I say that as someone who wasn't that much of a fan.

That summer she was undoubtedly behaving ludicrously and I also didn't like the way she'd behaved in many situations - having affairs with married men, harassing their wives, barging in on open heart surgery.

However, she was very badly treated by the Royal Family and her own family and could not let her desire for revenge go. That might have been foolish of her, but I can't say that I would not have felt the same in her shoes. She had been divorced a year or slightly less, had conceded the loss of her HRH title and was always going to be tied to her ex and MIL because they are the Royal Family, not an ordinary family.

It's irrelevant to say she had not seen her sons for a month. Does anyone really think she was neglecting them? I think they'd give short shrift to anyone who said that to their faces. They were on their traditional holiday with their father and grandmother. How could she object and more to the point, why should she? By their accounts she was looking forward to seeing them the day after she ended up dying.

This is yet another backpatting MN thread sneering about dreadful plebs.

And I'm still laughing at the person who pinpointed Diana's most egregious moment of disobedience as being the time she took her curlers out too early on her wedding day

Well it was odd, that is true. But no one was forced to mourn at all. Which totalitarian state was it like and how?

I could be wrong but don't think they did wait at red lights MissEliza, I guess they drove slowly as a clinical decision. I remember once passing an ambulance on a motorway in the UK that had a police escort that was slowing the rest of us down. They were travelling at about 40mph. They all had their blue lights on but they weren't going like the clappers or sounding any sirens. I guess it was a clinical decision made for the good of the patient and we had to wait.

I've been avoiding the media, especially the BBC recently. It seems to be Diana hysteria all over again. Nothing against the woman but she's just a famous wealthy woman i didn't know and I have no more emotions for her death than i would if Prince William died tomorrow. I'd feel "it's a shame he died so young and a tragedy for his friends and family" but that's it.
I hate the mass littering that has to be cleared up at the tax payers expense as well. If people want to light a candle and think of her why not do it at home or in church? Who are the cards etc actually for?

My wedding hairdresser wanted me to get the rollers in the night before. I was horrified because I was having a party in the house. I didn't follow the experts advice. Hair was fine but it's my character I am now concerned about given the serious flaw.

I'll say it again. She was a superstar! And some of you lot are mean.

I have a Diana coffee table book that I'm too embarrassed to put on the coffee table so it's hidden in my wardrobe. It's enormous! Must dig it out.

Just found this thread but agree with many earlier posters. I can't understand the mass hysteria weeping and wailing and carpet of flowers for someone they didn't know.

Just like I don't get the way people nowadays go to sites of tragedies to "pay their respects". I might do this if I had actually known the person.

Each to their own I suppose.

I never really liked her image,and although it was a pity she died so young I definitely didn't get swept up in the media driven national mourning. In fact I offered to work on the day of the funeral so others could stay home an watch it, I did a lot of reading that day

Did the security guard that survived ever make a statement?

I think he did at the inquest. I read in the paper last weekend that he's apparently made a packet doing security for Halliburton in Iraq and that he resigned from Mohamed Al Fayed's service because Al Fayed put him under intense pressure to sign from the same hymn book as him about conspiracy etc.

Two wee boys lost their mum,it's tragic.

It was tragic when my three young boys lost their dad to cancer and watched him die for four years. It's tragic when anyone loses a parent at a very young age. I don't get why it seems to be viewed as so much more tragic because they are famous. Children all over lose their parents but you don't see anyone all these years later go on about how tragic it is.

It certainly was and still is mass hysteria.

Andrew Parker Bowles was Princess Anne's lover, before he married Camilla, so they all knew each other very well, and Sarah,Diana's sister dodged Charles offer, and should have helped Diana more.