A ghost that will not rest

The venerable old British ex-detective Lord Stevens has finally laid to rest the ghost of Diana, formerly Princess of Wales and mother of the heirs to the British throne.

Famously beloved of the entire world, Princess Diana met her death in a Parisian underpass, her Mercedes Benz losing a battle of wills with a concrete pillar. With her in that fateful last ride and in death were her fiancée Dodi Al-Fayed and her driver.

Among those who benefited the most from her death were undoubtedly members of the royal family, whose spotlight she kept stealing. Also beneficiaries were the thousands of florists, postcard manufacturers, her former butler Paul Burrell and the Daily Express which took up with gusto a campaign to drive conspiracy theories and to make an industry of her.

The theories, like those that pop up whenever a famous person dies in their youth. Tupac, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Jimi Hendrix;the motif is worn and familiar. The wealth of fancies were predicated on the odd, fast life she led, and on the details of her death. An alleged pregnancy, her unpopularity with the Royals and her relationship with Dodi Al-Fayed all of them harbingers of a future in which the Princes Harry and William would suffer an Islamic half-brother.

That her driver Henri Paul was drugged at the time of the accident and that she was not wearing a seat belt, that she had told friends of her fears for her life and that her bodyguard pulled an escapist's trick in surving a 121 mile per hour crash served up more grist for the rumour mills. It was a fairy tale story, the unpopular royals, murdering the people's Princess in cold blood.

Her independence and feminism, the fact that she was often seen to be standing up to the Queen and the Queen Mother and to the stiffness of the nobility, that she was seen as too populist ensured she did not ever fully integrate into the Royal Family.

An angry Mohammed Al-Fayed long at odds with the British establishment and flush with cash did not let it rest, hounding the government for an independent inquiry until they gave in. This was also helped along by the fact that she was one of the most popular people on earth at the time of her death was never in doubt. Photos of her were a staple in every fashion magazine and tabloid, and doubtless many paparazzi became millionaires on her account. Her acumen at playing the crowds and picking causes that would distance her from the aloof Windsors and endear her to the world was the stuff of legend. A miracle or two and a conversion to Catholicism, and she would be a saint already. To her last she gave, bequeathing in her will all she had to the Dr Banardos Home for Retired Guide Dogs.

Today, the Lord Stevens inquiry lays to rest most of the conspiracy theories, and perhaps defrauds the Diana Industry of a cash-cow that was still very much alive. On that fact alone, we will not be laying her ghost to rest anytime soon. As one of the stretchier theories goes, fed up with the constant intrusion, she faked her own death and is living blissfully someplace, away from the madding crowd.