Mohamed Al Fayed at the Diana inquest

Unbelieveable claims in court from a man who in my view is so blinded by grief and a probable feeling of culpability in the death of his son and his son's girlfriend, that he is lashing out at those who he chooses to blame instead of himself.

I have never met Mohamed Al Fayed but from what I have heard from people who have worked for him, I do not think I would like him. I have not shopped in Harrods since he took over the store, I found Private Eye's coverage of his financial affairs at the time quite disconcerting.

If you want to see his take on the news then he has his own blog or you can of course read the Daily Express.

The Diana inquest

I will not comment, why bother BUT I do like this excerpt from The Daily Mash's coverage.

"Burrell also revealed that Diana was reluctant to have sex with anyone who was not a surgeon or at least had some form of advanced medical training.

"Oh, she loved the surgeons," he said. "Whenever she saw a good looking man on television I'd immediately have to find out if they had any surgical experience.

"If not she usually would make do, as long as they had seen a recent episode of ER."

Burrell said he was the 'hub at the centre of Diana's spokes', while her brother, Earl Spencer, was the water bottle and Elton John was a set of Shimano cantilever brakes, priced at £8.99 from Halfords."

The Daily Mash right on the money there...

Channel 4 hyperbole over Diana death programme

A trailer last night for Wednesday night's Channel 4 programme on Diana's death. Apparently her death was "one of the most terrible and iconic moments of the 20th century".

Let's have a think shall we. Diana's death was terrible for her family and friends and seemed to have an inexplicably major impact on much of the British population at the time but was it really one of the most terrible moments of the 20th century?

Here is a list of the human created disasters of the 20th century that resulted in more than a million deaths:

55,000,000___ Second World War period
40,000,000___China: Mao Zedong's regime. (incl. famine)
20,000,000___ USSR: Stalin's regime (incl. WW2-era atrocities)
15,000,000___ First World War (incl. Armenian massacres)
8,800,000 ____Russian Civil War
4,000,000 ____ China: Warlord & Nationalist Era
3,000,000 ____ Congo Free State
2,800,000 ____ Korean War
2,800,000 ____ 2nd Indochina War (incl. Laos & Cambodia)
2,500,000 ____ Chinese Civil War
2,100,000 ____ German Expulsions after WW2
1,900,000 ____ Second Sudanese Civil War
1,700,000 ____ Congolese Civil War
1,650,000 ____ Cambodia: Khmer Rouge Regime
1,500,000 ____ Afghanistan: Soviet War
1,400,000 ____ Ethiopian Civil Wars
1,250,000 ____ East Pakistan: Massacres
1,000,000 ____ Mexican Revolution
1,000,000 ____ Iran-Iraq War
1,000,000 ____ Nigeria: Biafran revolt
source


Maybe Diana's death was "one of the most terrible... moments of the 20th century" when compared with natural disasters.

Here is a list of the natural disasters of the 20th century that resulted in more than a million deaths:
World_______1917__Flu Epidemic_____20,000,000
Soviet Union__1932__ Famine Russia.Fed_5,000,000
China, P Rep__1931__July Flood E.Asia__ 3,700,000
China, P Rep__1928__Drought E.Asia____3,000,000
NA_________1914__July Epidemic Eur__3,000,000
Soviet Union__1917__Epidemic Russia____2,500,000
China, P Rep__1959__July Flood E.Asia ___2,000,000
India_______1920__Epidemic S.Asia____2,000,000
Bangladesh___1943__Famine S.Asia_____1,900,000
China, P Rep__1909__Epidemic E.Asia___1,500,000
India_______1942__Drought S.Asia____1,500,000
India_______1907__Epidemic S.Asia___1,300,000
India_______1900__Drought S.Asia____1,250,000
World______ 1957__May Epidemic_____1,250,000
Soviet Union__1921__Drought Russia____1,200,000
source

So are Channel 4 really saying that the death of Diana, Princess of Wales more than terrible than any of the above events? If they are, then they are mistaken and guilty of hyperbole.