Sir, - Yesterday my seven-year-old daughter put her head round the door during the TV news and said: "Are they still going on about that princess?" I couldn't have put it better myself. Every death diminishes the rest of us, but to put this woman on a pedestal and to go on about her death as if some great calamity had befallen the world is ridiculous. She wass, of course, more than a nameless, faceless roadcrash statistic, and as such we can feel more sadness at her death. But she was a human being with good and bad points like the rest of us.
She was a beautiful woman who married a rich and famous man, she did a lot of good work, as well as a lot of shopping, and spent a lot of time on the beaches and the ski-slopes. Let's keep some proportion here! What's next: canonisation? - Yours, etc.,
Cherrymount, Waterford.