Al Fayed has to call it a day

Phew! Thank goodness the Diana inquest is over. At long last Mohamed Al Fayed has decided to abandon his long running campaign to prove Diana and Dodi were murdered, all part of a conspiracy headed by the Duke of Edinburgh so he said. The 11 person jury by a 9 - 2 majority quite clearly laid the blame for the accident at the door of Al Fayed's driver Henri Paul and the chasing paparazzi. This was a bold but absolutely correct verdict in my opinion. Al-Fayed had said under oath that he would accept the jury's decision; however he stated that it was for the sake of Princes William and Harry that he wasn't pursuing matters. That of course is a load of tosh, he just wasn't in a position to do anything else.

So why did the Harrods boss chase these totally wild and nonsensical conspiracy theories? Only he would know I suppose. There are though a couple of points I would venture to make. Firstly it might be that he just cannot accept that one of his own trusted employees was partly responsible for the death of both Diana and his son. And of course as Henri Paul's employer some of that blame would have to attach to him. Secondly and not much talked about is the fact, at least I think it's a fact, that Al Fayed wasn't ever granted British citizenship. I believe that is a subject that has become an obsession with him and that he feels it is the Establishment in this country that has stopped this ambition. If Dodi and Diana had married, and I personally don't think this was ever on the cards, then Al Fayed might have felt this was his route into British society.

These are just gut feelings on my part but now deserted by his defence team and vilified by the media this bitter man must feel very lonely today.

Princess Diana, Dr Kelly, and their inquests

I am writing this piece to compare two very different inquests, the first spread over many months and costing many millions of pounds whilst the other was completed very quickly and was totally unsatisfactory.

So, the Diana inquest first of all. This is about half way through at the moment. Although the inquest is I think specifically in relation to the late Princess its conclusions would presumably apply to Dodi Fayed as well. There was some talk about the process costing about £10 million, even if that figure is incorrect it will doubtless be a heck of a lot of money. Although it is early days to make a prophecy as to what reason the jury will give as to her death I would be incredibly surprised if it is anything other than the most obvious one. The main thing here is that whatever the expense the due process is being followed.

Now let us compare and contrast her inquest with one completed some little time ago: I talk of that of weapons inspector Dr David Kelly. Just to remind ourselves of some of the known facts - Dr Kelly set off for a walk from his home in Southmoor in Oxfordshire at about 3 pm on Thursday 17 June 2003. He failed to come home. He was found dead in a wood at Harrowdown Hill, which lies to the north of the village, at about 8.30 the following morning by volunteer searcher Louise Holmes. Of course the police were quickly appraised of the discovery and the coroner, Nicholas Gardiner, informed. Pathologist Dr Nicholas Hunt subsequently arrived to make a detailed examination of the body but we are led to believe didn't take Dr Kelly's rectal temperature until four minutes before he left the scene! Taking this temperature can be a very good indicator as to when death took place, information that the police would want to know as soon as possible. If he hadn't checked this temperature at an earlier opportunity then it would constitute in my opinion a 'schoolboy' error and betray a lack of competence. I have to say here that I'm taking this information from 'The Strange Death of David Kelly' by Norman Baker.

An inquest was opened and adjourned. The British government were very fast off the mark and appointed Lord Hutton to conduct a public enquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr Kelly. Amazingly the option was taken of making this enquiry one of an informal nature so that witnesses didn't have to attend if they didn't want to and even if they did appear they didn't have to say anything under oath! Lord Hutton decided that Dr Kelly had committed suicide without seemingly tested the evidence. If that wasn't enough the proper inquest was reconvened at very short notice whilst the Hutton enquiry was proceeding, took evidence from just two witnesses, pathologist Dr Hunt and toxicologist Alex Allan and issued a full death certificate, the cause of death 'Suicide'. This mockery of an inquest was completed without the knowledge of Hutton.

Space doesn't permit me to go into all the conflicts of evidence surrounding Dr Kelly's death, you need to read Norman Baker's 399 page book for that. Suffice to say that even if Baker was wrong in some of his conjectures there is more than enough evidence that Dr Kelly did not kill himself. Apart from the book mentioned it is worth reading Rowena Thursby's blog here.

At the start of the third paragraph above I said "compare and contrast" when considering both inquests. I shall say no more now other than Dr Kelly's death and its aftermath is a real stain on the reputation of this country.

They're still obsessed with Diana

I find it very interesting when watching the news on TV to see just how the different stories are prioritised. To what extent are the compilers just following their own agenda is a question I ask myself sometimes. Or perhaps they really think that the order of news items reflects the view of Mr and Mrs Average as to the importance of the stories to them.

The reason for raising this subject now is because of, in my opinion, the unnecessary prominence given to the inquest of Diana. In a piece I wrote on the first of September headed 'More thoughts on the Diana Memorial Service' I concluded with the sentence "My hope now is that we can move on and cease to be absorbed with Diana, but that might be wishful thinking on my part". Wishful thinking is right!

Take tonight's 6 o'clock news on BBC1. First item was as expected David Cameron's speech to the Tory faithful in Blackpool. Correct I would say. But then they moved on to the inquest of Diana. This on a day when a young Polish woman carer got killed in the crossfire between two gunmen in London. This was further down the list and seemed to get less coverage than the Diana story. Now I know that Diana was the mother of a future king of this country and accept that the inquest proceedings should be reported but couldn't they be moved down the order. I saw some of Channel 4's 7 o'clock news and they were just as bad. The inquest is set to go on for many months and it will be fascinating to see whether media interest in the subject shows any sign of abating.

Incidentally the Beeb had a story about North Korea agreeing to disable its main nuclear facility by the end of the year - to me more important than the Diana business. On C4 there was some in depth footage of the continuing atrocities in Burma, again more important.

At the end of the inquest will Mohamed Al Fayed be able to accept that the death of his son and that of Diana was caused by the reckless driving of his drunk employee Henri Paul? I rather doubt it.