So, ten years since the death of Diana.
Time seems to have flown.
Blair had only been Prime Minister for 2 months and there was still that glow of newness around the New Labour Government. In many respects there is a glow of newness around the ‘new’ New Labour Government – although this will fade over the coming months.
The parallels between this Government and the fortunes of the memorial of Diana are worthy of comment.
- Both could/can manipulate the media
- Both could have PR disasters – the Diana Fountain (of which Brown was a chief member of the Memorial Fund) and the Dome
- The white wash of the Hutton report and the pointlessness of the Stevens inquiry into the crash
- The gushing and revelatory tones of TV presentations – “There were two us ……”"I’m a pretty straight sort of guy….yer know!”
But has anything very much changed in that ten years?
Our local hospitals are under threat, there are fears about crime, the terrorism has moved on from Ireland to a more Middle Eastern based terrorism. Personally I am earning a great deal more money than I was ten years ago but I feel financially poorer in many ways.
I remember, way back in 1990, John Major becoming Prime Minister and announcing on the steps of Number 10 that he wanted to see a “country that was at ease with itself”
I have to say I feel this country is less at ease now than it has been for a long time. With all the talks of strikes and arguments over public sector pay I get the feeling we are moving back to the period I remember as a child in the late 70’s when politicians became the problem and not the answer to some of the issues that make us all feel less ‘at ease with ourselves’.
In the same way, ten years ago you had a sense that whatever else happened to the Princess of Wales her life was always going to be difficult it was never going to end well. It is an old metaphor but perhaps her life had really become a “car crash waiting to happen”. I get the same sense about this Government and Gordon Brown. He may well want to wait before calling an election, but can he afford to?
