If anything sums up our fucked up media, it’s today’s blanket coverage of a new book about the late Princess Diana, “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister” written by her brother Charles ‘Earl’ Spencer. It’s not just the obsession with a woman who before her tragic death in 1997 was subject to overwhelming hostility by the same people who seem to worship her today, it’s why people are remotely interested, never mind obsessed, with any aspect of the Royal Family.
The section has got the media going appears to be a supposed comment by Di’s ex husband, the current King Brian, shortly after her death where he said “we’ll forget her soon enough“. Brian’s people have basically called Spencer a liar, announcing: “While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss.” Who knows? Who cares? It’s he said, she said (except that it’s he said, he said) stuff, isn’t it? We’ll probably never know, unless Spencer comes up with a secret recording, but I guess someone must be interested otherwise the Daily Mail, that great purveyor of hatred, would have shelled out a vast wedge to serialise it.
It’s worth going back to the summer of 1997, particularly the weeks and months before Diana was killed in a traffic accident in Paris. We all remember how the nation, or large chunks of it, lost their minds mourning the death of “the People’s Princess“, as then PM Tony Blair called her, lining the streets of London to weep and throw flowers as the hearse carrying her dead body went by. Yet before her death, she was being viciously attacked for spending the summer on holiday – I remember one hack reporting that Di had been on four separate holidays in the summer months (“on holiday from what?” they said), at least one with her boyfriend Dodi Fayed – and was a figure of loathing and ridicule in the papers and probably by their readers, too. Remember, people usually read the newspaper which most reflects their views.
We all know, or think we know, what happened to Brian and Di 30 years ago and counting. It’s been done to death, literally in Di’s case. I can only imagine it’s just older folk who are still happy to rake over the coals of her passing, even if those coals have been cold for nearly 30 years.
Laughably, the media is concerned at the effects it might have on the Royals and their “busy schedules“. Brian is speaking at an AI conference, Prince William and Kate Middleton are shaking hands with and waving at people in the Isle of Bute and Prince Harry, who is a “non-working Royal” (stop sniggering at the back), will be shaking hands with people at the Invictus games. You can’t get busier than that, can you, unless you literally work, you know work, for a living. But this, according to the BBC is “a very crowded day for the royals“. Give me strength.
Let’s be very clear what this is: it’s a soap opera being acted out in real life. Fantastically rich and privileged people who have no real jobs or purpose in life, it’s a million miles away from the lives ordinary folk live, trying to put bread on the table and just trying to get by. Yet here we are in the middle of yet another confected crisis. Nicky Campbell’s increasingly absurd BBC Radio Five Live phone-in is today titled: “Diana: who do you believe?” From a radio station that once proudly boasted of being there for 24 hour news and sport, the best they can come up with is a fucking phone in, in which no one knows the truth. I suppose at least it’s an opportunity for the corporation to do something other than promote Nigel Farage’s far right politics. Maybe we should be thanking Charles Spencer after all? Or maybe not?
I very much doubt I will come across that many people who will be talking about King Brian and his ex wife, who died 29 years ago. It’s very sad for those concerned, including Di’s brother who has written the book, I’m sure out of kindness and not trying to make a few bob for himself. I mean, I doubt whether I shall be seeing him at our food bank this afternoon?
Our weird national obsession with the royals is not, I suspect, as widespread as we are told. Brian’s Christmas message in 2025 attracted seven million viewers across all channels, meaning that around 61 million of us had something better to do. For me, I’d find anything better to do that watch that annual heap of bullshit.
Can’t we allow Princess Di to finally rest in peace? Instead, most of the media still obsesses, probably for the benefit of those who still bow, curtsy and doff caps at the very mention of the royals. I find it all very strange and not a little disturbing. There is so much going on around the world, some good, some bad and some somewhere in the middle of good and bad. And then there’s this royal soap opera, which for some I guess is a distraction from the real world. For me, it’s a case of move along, nothing to see here. For the life of me, I can’t understand why everyone doesn’t feel like that.
