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AIBU?

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Original poster

To still not understand the Diana "thing"?

856 replies

TeaCake5 · 31/08/2017 08:22

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.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
Yujismum · 01/09/2017 20:03

Disagree. The monarchy should go, full stop.

Yes let's have a Trump instead. OMG

derxa · 01/09/2017 20:05

A republic doesn't mean you have to have a Trump. Sorry Seneca I've contradicted one of my earlier posts.

Mittens1969 · 01/09/2017 20:05

The presidential system is equally flawed.

Yujismum · 01/09/2017 20:06

No you don't HAVE to have a Trump but god help us with some folk voting!

Papafran · 01/09/2017 20:07

But there there and they're not Trump or whoever

But Trump's reign will be over pretty soon- there is a guarantee of that. The US has a maximum of 8 years of him in power. Not the case with the royal family. They live pretty amoral lives (adultery etc) in total luxury and we are expected to pay for it all? While we have children whose parents can't afford to feed them. It just seems wrong.

Borodin · 01/09/2017 20:08

TheLuminaries

"When I grieve it is for someone I have at least met FFS, otherwise it isn't my bereavement to publically emote about."

Really? The feelings of those who grieve for people they haven't met are illegitimate, and they must emote privately? For goodness sake, you sound bloody heartless.

MrsMumScotland · 01/09/2017 20:08

I'd be more concerned about Charles' ties to the Saudi Royals. Have you noticed the lack of human rights in Saudi? Charles appears to condone the track record of failures to acknowledge human rights in Saudi. The world is ruled by these elites and I include Trump in that too. We are just the common man in peacetimes, the cannon fodder in wartimes, the number in employment.

SenecaFalls · 01/09/2017 20:09

I'm American and also very interested in British history, so I rather like having them, but that's easy for me to say. For my own government, I prefer a republic, although I would like to see the electoral college abolished.

I would still visit the UK as often as possible, even without a monarchy. Most of my visits are to Scotland, where presence of a monarchy seems much less evident.

Papafran · 01/09/2017 20:10

The monarchy has its flaws but I'd still rather we had them than the likes of President Trump. Be careful what you wish for

I don't understand this. We still CAN have a Trump. We had a Thatcher, a Blair, a Cameron, all of whom did horrific things to the country. When have you EVER seen the queen intervene to tell a politician not to take certain action (e.g. Iraq War)??? So I am sorry, but the royal family does not in any way prevent an inappropriate political leader being elected.

SenecaFalls · 01/09/2017 20:13

So I am sorry, but the royal family does not in any way prevent an inappropriate political leader being elected.

Or Brexit, which rightly or wrongly, has been viewed as very Trumpish in the US.

moreginrequired · 01/09/2017 20:15

I never got this, horrible horrible for her actual family.

Having said that, the woman was a national embarrassment and slated by the same papers that seemingly canonised her after the accident.

As for marrying al fayed?! No way, she would have been a beard and no mistake

Mittens1969 · 01/09/2017 20:15

@MrsMumScotland, that is true, but it's not just our country. The US is also tied to Saudi Arabia, hence why it wasn't on Trump's list of 8 Muslim countries banned from entering the US. Despite its links to terrorist organisations.

All I was meaning was, we get the same shite whether we have a monarchy or a republic. But a referendum would be a good idea to settle the issue once and for all.

Yujismum · 01/09/2017 20:18

'pallisers'

If anyone has tried to teach the princes about 'ordinary' life it was Diana. Her influence has changed the monarchy.

Well I'm not young, just let me escape before we have a corrupt and ridiculous presidential system. You think that will be different........?
No we don't have to have a Trump just another buffoon.

CoolCarrie · 01/09/2017 20:19

Yes, look how the last referendum turned out, mittens!

Borodin · 01/09/2017 20:20

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 01/09/2017 20:22

What on earth did she know about 'ordinary' life? She was an Earl's daughter. She went to boarding schools and then on to a Swiss finishing school. Before the engagement she lived in a flat bought for her in London with family money, doing various jobs to pass the time, not because she needed the money to pay bills.

Yujismum · 01/09/2017 20:23

' While we have children whose parents can't afford to feed them. It just seems wrong.'

It may well be wrong but what makes you think a presidential system would be better. Of course it wouldn't. The US has countless folk who are homeless, hungry and marginalised.

apostropheuse · 01/09/2017 20:23

It was completely ridiculous mass hysteria. Absolute nonsense. I was the same age as her and was a mother, so obviously felt sorry for her sons - as you would be for any child losing his or her parent.

Diana knew exactly what she was doing when she married Charles, she wanted to marry the heir to the throne, even although she must have been fully aware he didn't love her. He as much as said it in an interview. The interviewer asked him straight "Are you in love?" to which he replied "Whatever love means". He couldn't bring himself to say it because he was in love with Camilla. Everyone knew that. Then the press took over and created this image of a perfect beautiful princess - telling people she was beautiful inside and out until people started to believe it.

It's time to let it go and let her sons get on with their lives. Let Charles and Camilla get on with their lives too, including her becoming queen when/if he ever becomes king.

(My preference, however, would be for there to be no monarchy,)

Seeingadistance · 01/09/2017 20:28

I thought all the wailing and ostentatious mourning for a stranger was surreal at the time, and don't understand why people are making such a big deal of now.

Bluntness100 · 01/09/2017 20:31

"It would be different if it was actual real sadness and loss they are experiencing, not just a cheap grief holiday in someone else's tragedy."

I like this, it articulates exactly what was happening, these people took a "cheap grief holiday" before they quickly wiped their eyes, went down the local pub and had a good gossip about it over a few drinks with their mates on the Saturday night after the funeral,

To equate it to real grief and losing someone you love is as abhorrant as was their "grief holiday" .

However as a pp said, these people will always exist. You see their ilk loitering and trying to be part of it when any celebrity dies. The same sort who weeped and wailed when their favourite boy band broke up when they were 12-.

And yes people articulated it at the time, everyone I knew articulated it, and the terrible way people and the press were behaving. If no one articulated it to you, I think you need to ask yourself why.

birdsdestiny · 01/09/2017 20:31

It is possible to like Diana and want the monarchy abolished. I feel this way. I quite like princess Anne as well. Most other countries seen to manage without one. And none of those countries have a trump. The fact that it was in the last couple of years that they 'allowed' a female to succede the throne is enough for me to want them abolished.

Mittens1969 · 01/09/2017 20:34

@CoolCarrie, it wouldn't upset me at all if we did abolish the monarchy, I have no particular liking for Charles. But I think that if the referendum went the other way, especially if it was a narrow victory for the monarchy, they would have to streamline themselves further as a result.

And there might be a referendum if Corbyn becomes PM, as he's a republican.

Where the Brexit result was concerned, I wasn't surprised at all. I voted remain but I knew it was a 50/50 result.

Borodin · 01/09/2017 20:37

Going back to the OP's question and forgetting the irrelevancies about the Royal Family and Trump, isn't this about freedom of expression?

I don't "get" homosexuals, Roman Catholics or capitalists myself, but they're doing nothing illegal or anything that affects my life apart from the bloody capitalists and should be left alone.

I'm sure that every one of us here has something about them that other people can't empathise with, and that's great because I would hate a life of conformity where we all agreed and behaved identically.

Those who grieved Diana clearly felt awful. Her death didn't leave me untouched: I continued my usual routine with some melancholy. But I don't see any reason to degrade people who felt differently from me, and I hope that those who are damning them become able to express their own feelings, no matter how unacceptable they may think they are.

Papafran · 01/09/2017 20:38

If anyone has tried to teach the princes about 'ordinary' life it was Diana. Her influence has changed the monarchy

Hmmm. Well, I do admire the fact that she did actually work briefly, unlike Kate Middleton, who basically did nothing until her wedding and since then has done very little (apart from when it comes to meeting Beyonce and going to Wimbledon). But to say she taught them about ordinary life is probably a little rich. It would have been nice if she had insisted that they go to day school rather than board at age 8. I just cannot see how being sent away so young can be good for a child. I think she tried, but she was hugely privileged herself and to be fair had little control over where her boys were schooled.

Bluesrunthegame · 01/09/2017 20:40

I didn't and don't understand all the grief. Not everyone got carried away, I was involved with different local things at the time and never really talked about it with some people, others were very keen to take flowers to London or sign condolence books.

I was totally fed up when the whole country came to a standstill the day of the funeral. We were going to go swimming that morning and then some local busy body decided that the pool being open showed a lack of respect and kicked up a fuss until it was closed.