It will be 20 years, in August, since the untimely death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and we can expect an avalanche of remembering, and raking over, the event and the circumstances of her short life.
Most people who were around in 1997 can recall exactly how they learned about Diana’s sad death. It was a critical moment in public life and afterwards different people took varying views of the event. Conspiracy theories sprang up about the circumstances of the accident – and questioned whether it really was an accident. People took sides about many aspects of Diana’s life, her divorce from the Prince of Wales and the role played by the “other woman” – Camilla, now Duchess of Cornwall.
Penny Junor’s new book The Duchess: The Untold Story, published this week, puts Camilla’s side of the story. Penny is an experienced royal biographer (and mother of the author and literary editor Sam Leith) who is regarded as a pro-Charles, anti-Diana analyst.
Her new book, serialised in the Daily Mail, claims that Diana’s grandmother, Lady Fermoy, apologised to the Queen and Charles for not warning that Diana was “a dishonest and difficult girl”. Diana was also “badly educated, naïve and … immature”. It’s claimed Diana was so flaky that Prince Charles would have had a nervous breakdown if Camilla hadn’t gone back to him.
The three-in-a-marriage narrative is always, admittedly, fascinating, and even more so when it revolves around a throne and royal celebrities we feel we know.
And yet, isn’t there something uncomfortable about going over and over this narrative, with which we’ve become so familiar? Diana is dead and cannot give her version of events. Doubtless she was young and immature, but she was chosen as a royal bride, and if wiser counsels did not prevail in making that choice, then that can’t have been her fault entirely.
There’s a lot to be said for the 70-year rule of history: personalities and events cannot really be judged in balance and perspective until about 70 years have passed. Yet, prepare for a cascade of judgments after a mere 20.
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It was surely ill-judged of John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, to claim that the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire had been “murdered by political decisions taken over decades”.
Murder is a legal term describing proven deliberate killing, with malice aforethought and evil intention. The tag of “murder” is only applied after conviction in a court of law. It should not be applied lightly.
Killing, manslaughter and homicide are other descriptions of taking human life. Assassination usually refers to killing a political figure. Euphemisms include “involuntary euthanasia”, “neutralising” and “taking out”.
It could be said that neglect and incompetence contributed to the Grenfell Tower deaths. But there is no justification for describing the tragedy as murder.
After leaving school and trying a number of jobs, John McDonnell began training as a Catholic priest. Although he decided that he did not have a priestly vocation, he will surely be aware of the conditions for mortal sin, which must include the deliberate intention of wrongdoing. A similar moral yardstick applies to the category of “murder”: intention, motivation, proof of malice aforethought.
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When being interviewed for an Irish television documentary about my life, I was asked what snappy piece of advice I would pass on to a younger generation, arising from my experience. I replied that one of the lessons I’d learned was “Preparation is everything.” If you prepare for an event, almost nothing can go wrong.
This is particularly applicable to any form of public speaking. Prepare. I now know why clergymen traditionally spent the week “preparing” for their Sunday sermons (at least in fiction!).
Alas, I have not always followed my own advice. I have embarked on projects for which I was ill-prepared. It nearly always shows.
Another piece of advice I’d offer: you should always consult your conscience. Don’t be led into a decision by “people-pleasing” – trying to please others. If you want to be at ease with yourself, heed your conscience.
But do young people ever take the advice of oldsters? Alexander Solzhenitsyn said that everyone has to make the same old mistakes for themselves.
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