Mark Chapman's Weblog

Princess Diana died in a car accident. Despite all attempts to make this into a conspiracy story, particularly by the British newspaper The Daily Express (pictured), which has shown an obsessive, bordering on manic desire to make a scandal out of Diana's death.

The desire shown by the paper and the other tabloids, magazines and websites, who have repeatedly tried to make a story from a woman's death is particularly morbid considering the very same people used to use Diana's life as the main staple for their headlines.

Diana is commonly thought of now as a saint, as someone who was in touch with the average person on the street. There is no doubt in my mind that she has done some good (for example the debate on landmines), but she could also have done a great deal more.

The facts behind her death are that she left a luxury hotel in the company of a rich playboy, in a chauffeured car. Sure, she was not responsible for the disgraceful tactics of the paparazzi, but she did regularly court, and even manipulate, the press.

Princess Diana was not a bad person and did not deserve to die in such a horrible way. Nor did she deserve to be in such an unhappy marriage. However, the collective grief shown in this country after her death was an embarrassment. Mother Theresa died at a similar time but there was no collective grief and barely even an acknowledgement.

I am a Republican, but even I can empathise with the Royal Family, and their incredulity at the level of national grief, and the subsequent vitriol directed at them.

Fundamentally I would like to ask the reader to tell me one thing this woman did to make her a saint. What did she do to deserve the shocking amount of money spent on coroner's inquests, civil court cases and investigations in France?

We are always trying to find something more than our current lives; something better than ourselves. In the majority of countries religion is still prevalent but, even in the USA, the majority of developed countries are still populated with people who either don't believe in a God, or don't know anything about the God they purport to believe in. As such we have embraced celebrities and, as in the case of Diana, have been successful in making them Gods. Perhaps what we really need and, perhaps, Diana would even agree is to let go of our need to cling to kings & queens, gods and dead princesses. If this were to ever happen I would gladly give a 2 minute silence for all the saints we have worshipped in the past and, more importantly, heave learned to let go of.