Dear ALTRAV,

Princess Diana undertook all of her duties on
behalf of the Queen and represented Her Majesty at
functions overseas. She not only did what was expected
of her but the activities that I mentioned earlier
she
did as "extras" and gave of her time freely to them.
Hence the reason why there were so many people from her
charities at her funeral. She firmly believed that
marriage was for life and family was everything to her.
But of course this changed when she realised that there
were three people in her marriage right from the start.
Prince Charles was not about to give up the love of his
life - Camilla. It is he who must bear the brunt for
the failure of his marriage - after all if you regard
the Princess as a "child" then Prince Charles being
13 years older should have behaved as an adult - and a
future king. "Noblesse Oblige."

Foxy

If you must have your heroes, then fine. But why not also look at the socio-political issues surrounding her ignominious fame?

She was a child of a thousand-year-old aristocratic class whose fortunes were made on the spoils of war and the horrendous torture and persecution of more peasant revolts than I've had hot dinners. This got their bloodlines a sacred mention in a big fat book.

What's more, she was a blonde, sad-eyed archetype of a thousand fairytale princess stereotypes that indoctrinate young girls into believing that one day their prince will come and make them whole, socially accepted human beings instead of obscure damsels in waiting.

Yeah, she did nice stuff like campaigning against the landmines that her class inflicted on brown peasant people, that blew of their limbs off. But she also spent hundreds of thousands of pounds per year of taxpayer money on her clothes and grooming. She was very good at posing for photo shoots with an AIDS baby on her lap, with studied sympathy, but then retreated to her five-star hotel and happily went of to functions wearing multi-thousand pound dresses.

Her public aura was mostly media-driven. The main role of the media is to keep the peasants in awe of the rich and powerful in the guise of celebrity worship. More importantly, they play on our sympathies with endless tales of woe about celebrities' vulnerabilities and addictions.

Yes, of course, let's never forget that the classes that oppress us are people too.

Killarney, I am glad to see another who see's through the BS. You have articulated the situation much better and in more depth than I did. Good for you!