candid in the wind

Theodore Dalrymple writing in Our Culture, What's Left Of It, notes that Blair both created and caught the mood of the nation when he called Diana "the people's princess" and that this appellation made it difficult (for the British) to express reservations about the ensuing circus or to cast doubt upon her historical importance. With that branding a doubter was exposed as an anti-democratic elitist.

Despite Dalrymple not always reaching useful conclusions, I do enjoy his writing and get more than the odd chuckle. Take this example:

"That her tastes were, despite her privileged upbringing, utterly banal and plebian appeared very clearly at the funeral, where Elton John sang his bathetic dirge immediately after the prime minister read St. Paul's magnificent words in Corinthians. It was highly appropriate (and symbolic) that this lugubrious booby, with his implanted wig, should sing a recycled version of a song initially dedicated to the memory of Marilyn Monroe - a celebrity who at least had to make her own way in the world, and who also made a few films worthy of commemoration. 'Goodbye, England's rose,' he intoned in a mid - Atlantic accent that spoke volumes for the loss of Britain's cultural confidence, 'from a country lost without your soul'

You can say that again."