Flogging a dead princess

I’ll always remember where I was when I heard the news about the Diana inquest. I was on the sofa, watching the news.

I’ve mentioned before that, weird and unpleasant though he is, I feel sorry for Mohamed Al Fayed.

A little sympathy is also perhaps in order for the Daily Express, whose raison d’être for the last decade has been to feed a Diana death cult. The revelation yesterday that what we all knew all along is in fact true might have taken some of the wind out of its sails (and its sales). But it’s having none of that:

In a sensational inquest verdict yesterday, the jury found that both drunken Mr Paul and the photographers drove so fast and dangerously that the couple’s deaths were the equivalent of manslaughter.
The unexpected 9-2 majority verdict…

And, like the doomsday cults that emerge from their caves after their chosen date, blinking in the daylight of an utterly unended world yet utterly unembarrassed, the Express has found a way to carry on:

While Henri Paul is dead, the drivers of several other vehicles on the streets of Paris that night should clearly now face manslaughter charges.
If the wheels of French justice move as slowly as the wheels of its British equivalent such an outcome may still be years away.

You can hear the licking of editorial lips…