The Late Princess Diana news thread 6: June-September 2007

[selrahc4]

Originally Posted by ysbel

I am reserved and I could always see the emotions in the faces of the Queen and the Royal Family but members of my family could not. It is a pet peeve of mine when people say that Diana brought the human touch to the Royal Family.

Bless you, ysbel, for expressing my very thoughts, including the part abut being reserved and being peeved. You are one hundred percent correct in my book.

[Avalon]

I'm signing after that, wonderful post ysbel!

Originally Posted by ysbel

I am reserved and I could always see the emotions in the faces of the Queen and the Royal Family but members of my family could not. It is a pet peeve of mine when people say that Diana brought the human touch to the Royal Family. The great human emotions all were there before she came and they were visible IMHO if people took time to look. There was Margaret who was seen crying after she was forced to end her relationship with the man she loved, the tragic faces of the three Queens at the funeral of King George: Mary, who had lost a son, Elizabeth, who had lost a husband, and Elizabeth II, who had lost a father. The pain was written on their faces for anyone who cared to look.

That's exactly what I always wanted, and always failed, to express.

[Skydragon]

Originally Posted by ysbel

I am reserved and I could always see the emotions in the faces of the Queen and the Royal Family but members of my family could not. It is a pet peeve of mine when people say that Diana brought the human touch to the Royal Family. The great human emotions all were there before she came and they were visible IMHO if people took time to look.

Brilliant post ysbel.

[Polly]

While not wishing to be too controversial, grief and pain at loss in one's private life is often obvious and understandable.

What I imagine that commentators who compliment Diana's 'human face' of royalty mean is that she was able to show compassion and pain and pleasure towards others, and with such seeming ease.

To my mind, it's churlish to deny that Diana had excellent and quite natural communication skills; it's equally unfair to blame The Queen for her more formal and reserved nature. It's what she was born with and trained to be, after all.

[Skydragon]

According to the Mirror, Alistair Campbell has said in his book that Diana regularly had intimate meetings with Tony Blair before he became PM, but it was Campbell she had a crush on. How could she have been discussing a role as a roving ambassador with a man who was not the PM and had no powers to appoint her as anything? Sounds like another person jumping on the bandwagon!

DI'S SECRET DINNERS WITH BLAIR - Top Stories - News - Mirror.co.uk

[TheTruth]

Originally Posted by Skydragon

it was Campbell she had a crush on.

Oh please, it looks like a Berverly Hills episode, 'High School gossips' sort of thing. Makes me laugh .

[Polly]

An interesting article, Skydragon. It shows, doesn't it, just how powerful Diana's image had become throughout the world that a man who was about to become PM (odd-on favourite, at the time) was interested in using her to promote his/Britain's agenda.

If the newspaper's claims are true, that Campbell's book has been vetted by vested interests, including the Palace, then I'll definitely be interested in reading it. It is not necessary to like or admire someone to believe that they might have something to say which is well worth saying.

[Skydragon]

It's pretty clear they were discussing some kind of new role for her. He thought she could do a brilliant job as a kind of ambassador abroad for his vision of a modernised Britain....... "But the princess seemed to enjoy the intrigue. It was always a cloak-and-dagger arrangement for them to get together. The princess seemed to like that"

Sadly it shows nothing of the sort, if it is true It does show that Diana was willing to use every trick in the book, to keep in the spotlight and try to put a shine on her damaged reputaion, after all, she was being criticised for dropping most of the charities and taking so many holidays.

"It's pretty clear" is not "We knew", which of course they didn't. Someone else, could have read Diana was pestering Blair and he fell for it or she kept meeting Blair trying to persuade him to give her a job.

It also doesn't show her in a very good light, that she was more than happy to deceive people.

[Polly]

I think that you're a little harsh here, Skydragon.

Tony Blair wasn't yet the PM, and equally, he could have been accused of presumption and arrogance had it been known that he was making any such plans for the future and his role as PM.

Until I've read the book it's hard to be certain about any of this. I will only comment that, irrespective of my opinion of Tony and Cherie Blair, they are not unintelligent and apolitical. It's likely, to me at least, that they played her, not t'other way around. Let's wait and see what the claims actually are.

[Skydragon]

Originally Posted by Polly

I think that you're a little harsh here, Skydragon.
Tony Blair wasn't yet the PM, and equally, he could have been accused of presumption and arrogance had it been known that he was making any such plans for the future and his role as PM.

Why is it harsh, I have quoted from the same article you have based your opinion on, Campbells words not mine. I have also said "if it is true". However, much as I dislike Blair and his spin doctor politics, I find it hard to believe that even he, at such an early stage, would chance the negative publicity of a public row with HM.

In very many articles, including one I posted earlier, HM was said to have made clear to the then government, that such a job was not to be offered, therefore both of them were going behind HM's back.

If it happened, then both parties concerned were deceitful and surely even Diana had the sense not to meddle in politics, that's why I doubt Campbells piece in his book.

[gfg02]

“I danced with Princess Diana”

Monitor Online | People & Places | “I danced with Princess Diana”

[ysbel]

Originally Posted by Polly

While not wishing to be too controversial, grief and pain at loss in one's private life is often obvious and understandable.

What I imagine that commentators who compliment Diana's 'human face' of royalty mean is that she was able to show compassion and pain and pleasure towards others, and with such seeming ease.

To my mind, it's churlish to deny that Diana had excellent and quite natural communication skills; it's equally unfair to blame The Queen for her more formal and reserved nature. It's what she was born with and trained to be, after all.

Not really. Diana was born in the very reserved English upper crust that the Queen was very familiar with and Diana definitely didn't fit into the mindset. Her older sisters fit much more into the stiff upper lip mentality that we associate with the upper class Brits and were born into the same family that Diana was. I think it is rather temperament that a person is born with. Diana could never be as reserved as the Queen (if she could have she would have had an easier time in the Royal Family). By the same token, the Queen cannot become as open to someone she doesn't know as Diana was. I believe that Princess Margaret could have been.

Rather than say someone has it and someone doesn't, its perhaps more accurate to say that people's human touch is shown in different ways and in different situations. The Queen's humanity is perhaps best seen when she is around people she knows and trusts. She has the bond with people that is built up over several years and responds naturally and quite warmly to that. For someone like Diana, I think her humanity was best shown when she was with people she didn't know that well and wouldn't be around for too long - like that person with AIDS that Diana hugged. Each of her magic moments with a member of the public existed for a short period of time with someone she would never see again and wouldn't have to worry about. If the Queen is reserved like I am, she would be worrying about that person with AIDS for a long time after she met him and after being in too many situations like that, it would drain on her energy. Diana probably could reach out to the person, make a connection, and then forget about the incident and go to the next person or event.

From what has been written about Diana, I think on the other hand her humanity did not show through in one on one relationships over a long period of time. Her relationships were not long lasting or stable.

Both of these traits of Diana seemed like two sides of the same coin. The same trait that influences her ability to reach out to someone she doesn't know also could have an influence in an inability to evolve a one on one relationship past a certain point. So it may have been easier for her to drop that friendship or relationship and go on to another one.

[TheTruth]

I totally agree with you ysbel. Although I remember reading that Diana stayed in contact with a few of the persons she has met through the years. There's Simon Barnes, a paraplegic that she had met in 1986. They were friends and saw each other until her death. Of course it's maybe a unique situation but I think Diana kept a place in her heart for the ones she could trust and those who had touched her in a special way.

[Skydragon]

Originally Posted by ysbel

Both of these traits of Diana seemed like two sides of the same coin. The same trait that influences her ability to reach out to someone she doesn't know also could have an influence in an inability to evolve a one on one relationship past a certain point. So it may have been easier for her to drop that friendship or relationship and go on to another one.

Very well written ysbel, I had a 'friend' like that. She seemed to find it easier to show 5 minutes affection to strangers in short bursts, than to commit to anyone for any period of time. The sort of 'friend' that pushes you away and within a few days or weeks regrets it and expects you to drop everything to take up where you left off.

Of course this is what is wanted in todays world it would seem, the shallow celebrity type culture, a culture I am glad to say, the older members of the RF want no part.

[iowabelle]

Originally Posted by gfg02

Princess Diana Inspired Angelina Jolie

Princess Diana Inspired Angelina Jolie | Hollyscoop

I don't remember Diana wearing a vial of her husband's/lover's blood around her neck.

[love_cc]

Does anyone think Diana would have visit mainland of China if there were no the car accident? It is said that she would visit Hong Kong because she told Tina Brown on the lunch meeting in NY. Diana said she would visit Hong Kong in September for some charity work to help PM Blair's matters. If she did visit China, which identity do you think she possibly take?

I always have my doubts about the role that Diana would have from Blair's promises or his ideas. I do think PM will find out the real difficulties and conflicts with British royal family he would have if he pushed Diana to act as a major international ambassador for Britain.So I don't think Diana can play a major formal role as a working royal or having another chance to upstage the royal family.