11 September 1997 Edition
Editor's desk
Despite all the commemorative editions of British papers and magazines after the death of Diana Spencer, only one is worth adding to your collection. Private Eye kept its nerve and pointed to the hypocrisy of all those who hounded and villified Diana while she was alive and then canonised her as soon as she died. Their spoof editorial was perfect:
``In recent weeks (not to mention the last ten years) we at the Daily Gnome, in common with all other newspapers, may have inadvertently conveyed the impression that the late Princess of Wales was in some way a neurotic, irresponsible and manipulative troublemaker who had repeatedly meddled in political matters that did not concern her and personally embarrassed Her Majesty The Queen by her Mediterranean love-romps with the son of a discredited Egyptian businessman.
``We now realise as of Sunday morning that the Princess of Hearts was in fact the most saintly woman who has ever lived, who, with her charitable activities, brought hope and succour to hundreds and millions of people all over the world.
``We would like to express our sincere and deepest hypocrisy to all our readers on this tragic day and hope and pray that they will carry on buying our paper notwithstanding.''
For their troubles, Private Eye was banned from many newsagents.
Two days before the Paris road crash, this, not untypical, letter appeared in the Daily Telegraph: ``So the Princess thinks that the British press is `ferocious' in the way it reports her antics. May I suggest that all the British press now totally ignore everything she does so that we all can have some peace.
``After all, she cannot behave like the playgirl of the western world one minute and expect to be reported as a saint the next.''
On the following Monday the Daily Telegraph carried a record 31 pages on Diana.
Not everyone stayed at home to watch the funeral last Saturday. In Armagh City the TV detector van took the opportunity to visit houses without TV licences. For at least half a dozen families it was a sad morning.
I note, simply note, that the guy about to take over the British Army in Germany is called Richard Head.
Our old friend Sue Denham of the Sunday Times has, I'm afraid, got it wrong again. She wrote last Sunday about an article by Republican POW Pat Magee in the Guardian on ``Troubles fiction''. Sue quotes ``a highly partisan Magee'' saying that republican prisoners borrow more non-fiction, literature and educational books than loyalists, who read mostly popular fiction. But far from this being the biased opinion of Pat Magee, the information was supplied to the Guardian by the Northern Ireland Office.
``In recent weeks (not to mention the last ten years) we at the Daily Gnome, in common with all other newspapers, may have inadvertently conveyed the impression that the late Princess of Wales was in some way a neurotic, irresponsible and manipulative troublemaker who had repeatedly meddled in political matters that did not concern her and personally embarrassed Her Majesty The Queen by her Mediterranean love-romps with the son of a discredited Egyptian businessman.
``We now realise as of Sunday morning that the Princess of Hearts was in fact the most saintly woman who has ever lived, who, with her charitable activities, brought hope and succour to hundreds and millions of people all over the world.
``We would like to express our sincere and deepest hypocrisy to all our readers on this tragic day and hope and pray that they will carry on buying our paper notwithstanding.''
For their troubles, Private Eye was banned from many newsagents.
Two days before the Paris road crash, this, not untypical, letter appeared in the Daily Telegraph: ``So the Princess thinks that the British press is `ferocious' in the way it reports her antics. May I suggest that all the British press now totally ignore everything she does so that we all can have some peace.
``After all, she cannot behave like the playgirl of the western world one minute and expect to be reported as a saint the next.''
On the following Monday the Daily Telegraph carried a record 31 pages on Diana.
Not everyone stayed at home to watch the funeral last Saturday. In Armagh City the TV detector van took the opportunity to visit houses without TV licences. For at least half a dozen families it was a sad morning.
I note, simply note, that the guy about to take over the British Army in Germany is called Richard Head.
Our old friend Sue Denham of the Sunday Times has, I'm afraid, got it wrong again. She wrote last Sunday about an article by Republican POW Pat Magee in the Guardian on ``Troubles fiction''. Sue quotes ``a highly partisan Magee'' saying that republican prisoners borrow more non-fiction, literature and educational books than loyalists, who read mostly popular fiction. But far from this being the biased opinion of Pat Magee, the information was supplied to the Guardian by the Northern Ireland Office.