Diana Express Hits The Buffers

In August, the Daily Express, reverting to its default behaviour as the Daily Diana, told readers “SAS Link To Diana’s Death”. This was followed the next day by “Diana Death: Demand For New Inquiry”, with relatives of Henri Paul, the driver with a drink problem who was way over the drink-drive limit, and “sources” close to Mohamed “you can call me Al” Fayed agreeing wholeheartedly.

It was crap then, and now it's officially crap

And the Express kept up the pretence, returning the following week with “Diana Death: The Two Mystery Cars”, by which time desperation was setting in, as readers were told that someone heard the two impacts from the fatal crash, went back to bed, and then later got up and saw two other cars driving in close formation down a street not far away from the scene of the accident.

All of this had been prompted by a letter sent by “Soldier N”, former housemate of Danny Nightingale, who was court martialled after a gun was found in his possession following a tour of duty. Soldier N’s behaviour was “allegedly erratic and threatening” towards his then wife, the daughter of the couple who wrote the letter to the Commanding Officer of the SAS. And his was the sole testimony.

Now, call me cynical, but I am cynical. It was so obviously unreliable as to put off most of the rest of the press pack, which means it had to be very shaky indeed. Fortunately, the deeply subversive Guardian is on the case today: “New Police inquiries have rejected suggestions that the SAS was involved in the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed, according to reports”.

And Sky News (“first for breaking wind”) has the Met telling “Whilst there is a possibility that the alleged comments in relation to the SAS's involvement in the death may have been made, there is no credible or relevant evidence to support a theory that such claims had any basis in fact”. This is a polite way of concluding that Soldier N was bragging. So their conclusion?

“Having reviewed the exercise and its findings, I am satisfied there is no evidential basis upon which therefore to reopen any criminal homicide investigation or refer the matter back to the coroner. In light of this information, I have today also written to the Royal House and Lord Justice Baker informing them of the above and providing a copy of the concluding summary”.

That means this is another overblown shock horror story that was not worth all the newsprint dedicated to it – on top of all the other wastes of space that the Express has perpetrated in the past 16 years. After all the wacko conspiracy theories, the fact remains that Diana, Princess of Wales died because her driver was half cut, he was going way too fast, and she wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.

Still, scares move papers, and that makes them another Benchmark Of Excellence!