Tuesday, February 19, 2008

The princess, the Nazi and the butler

Al Fayed said the French intelligence service, police and medical service had "helped the British intelligence (service) to execute the murder" and later cover up the evidence at the request of Prince Philip. (Harrods tycoon has his day in court)

The belated inquest into Princess Di’s death is a circus worthy only of European royalty. With one or two notable exceptions the institution is well past its use by date and the British royals little more than a tourist attraction and popular media fodder.

The inquest itself should be conducted under the stringent guidelines of a court, with rules of evidence overriding speculation and intrigue. Instead the inquest is smothering in speculation, in supposition and conspiracy theory.

Royal cover up

Al fayed has made numerous unsupported claims while in the stand. Okay, history tells us of the Teutonic background of the British royal family. We know the young Greek prince Phillip was nurtured in a nest of fascist sympathizers. We know he is not a sympathetic character. What does that have to do with the death?

"She is also I am certain part of the cover-up," al Fayed said of accuse Diana's sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale. No evidence, but as he says, how can you collect evidence in a conspiracy of silence. He might be right, but he didn’t become a wealthy retailer by relying on conjecture.

The butler Paul Burrell

The butler Paul Burrell admitted to lying to the ongoing inquest, in a recently recorded interview. "I was very naughty and I made a couple of red herrings, and I couldn't help doing it ... I know you shouldn't play with justice and I know it's illegal and I realise how serious it is."

He was speaking to a friend in a New York hotel room: "Do you honestly think I've told everything I know? Of course I haven't ... I didn't tell the whole truth." And why would he, Americans are lapping up his gossipy books.

Therein lays the problem with this ongoing media circus. The inquest was a grudging, even token, gesture by an establishment that wants to let the whole thing go. But it is driven by cheap, sensational media interest and a wealthy dad of the co-deceased. Never mind rules of evidence when the story is so juicy.

Some links:

5 comments:

TomCat said...

Modern media, sadly, is a cross between infotainment and infoganda.

lindsaylobe said...

It’s certainly a circus and I think it is remarkable the actual enquiry is proceeding in Court.

What is the evidence?

As far as I can gather the entire conspiracy theory is reliant upon one last minute telephone conversation confirming Dianna was pregnant and had agreed to become engaged to his son. Forensic expert’s previously dismissed the pregnancy theory and the engagement idea can only be confirmed (just prior to the crash) by Mohammed al-fayed.
The feeding frenzy is bound to continue.

Best wishes

Cartledge said...

Tom, I ended up at one stage doing advertorial because I refused to do the infotainment. The elephant used to say 'It's a living', but there are limits.

lindsay what a waste of legal resources. Maybe they should have taken a leaf from Judge Judy and just ran a TV sideshow.
On the other hand, my only interest is to see the royals discredit themselves enough for us to become a republic (with a president chosen by a joint sitting of parliament and state appointed delegates.)

TomCat said...

It must be quite strange for you to owe allegiance to an unelected person half a world away.

Cartledge said...

Tom, I can't remember a time in my life when this situation did not seem irrelevant and anachronistic.
At least not since my first awareness of the institution in 1954. HM was touring the country in that year, we little kids were bundled out by the highway to see her passing by. Apparently she was running late and passed by at full speed.
Sadly royal influence in this country hasn't passed as quickly.