The World as I see it.

Since her tragic death, I have refused to believe that there was any “funny business” involved. Up till now, I have not been able to put together enough evidence to tip the balance. Also, in cases of this magnitude I feel we all need to put suspicion and gut feeling aside and let the evidence do the talking. Many a man has stood accused of high crimes, jailed, sentenced to death – even lynched – just because some story had some sort of credibility. I never felt compelled to doubt the official story so I didn’t. But now I am not so sure and my reasons for being a doubting Thomas – I am sharing with you.

Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss announced on April the 24^th that she is stepping down, come June, as coroner for the inquests into the death of Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed. That struck me as strange especially after finding out her reasons for doing so…

“These inquests now require a jury, and I do not have the degree of experience of jury cases that I feel is necessary and appropriate for presiding over inquests of this level of public interest.”

Words, words and more words. Lawyers and Politicians are known to be very good at using language. This woman has actually used careful language to conceal her real reasons and sold us these lines. Many will fall for it – not me! What on earth does she mean - Degree of experience, Jury Cases, Necessary and Appropriate, Level of Public Interest? What more experience does she need? This is a woman who called was to the Bar from the Inner Temple in 1955, appointed Registrar at the Principal Registry of the family Division in 1970, became the fourth female High Court Judge in 1979, became the first woman appointed as a Justice of the Court of Appeal in 1988, became the first female President of the Family Division of the High Court of Justice in 1999 and the highest ranking female judge in UK until Brenda Hale became the first female Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in January 2004!!

The summarized CV above doesn’t conjure up images of someone lacking “Jury experience” that is “necessary and appropriate” to me. Neither should it do so to anybody else for that matter, even in the slightest – I would have thought. Lack of experience or not, this woman doesn’t strike me as one who will back down from something as minor as jury experience in the line of duty. If that was the case her CV would not be full of all those firsts [1^st woman appointments]. Common sense tells me that this is the type of case one jumps at to makes one’s name. The average ambitious person would jump at this case of a lifetime. I think this case is much bigger [Her vs. The Establishment] than any case she had come across in her entire career. Also we all know that there is only one way this case can go – tragic accident – no matter the evidence presented! That, my friend is what [it seems] she is afraid of and decided to jump ship. Is it not scary to even think of finding the establishment guilty of murder!! The stakes are as high as they get in this case and looking at it properly, if it goes the other way it will shake this nation to its very roots. In fact, if it goes the other way it will be the greatest demonstration of the independence of British Justice in the history of this nation. I will be following every bit of it with baited breath.

Her carefully-chosen words left me agreeing 100% with George Orwell, in his essay – Politics and the English Language – where he quite correctly stated that…

“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind”

I must admit, I had my suspicions from day one. Imagine Diana, a blue-blood Caucasian female, a perfect-fit, a top-breed, a lady hand-picked [by the establishment] to be the queen of England, marrying Mohammed Al Fayed’s son? This is the same al fayed, a non-white, a foreigner, an immigrant made good, a well known enemy of state since the 80’s, a Muslim, an Egyptian, – these facts alone have swayed millions. Yes, like millions of others, I had my suspicions but as a civilized gent, I waited for evidence. In what is turning out to be a long-winded face-saving exercise in damage limitation and spin, by resigning, Lady Butler-Sloss not just tipped the scales, she broke them. I am now convinced there is some funny business involved.

Let’s now take a closer look at the event [the death of Diana] as it has been officially presented to us and the history of the investigation into the event. I am principally looking for things that do not add up so as to assure firstly myself, and subsequently anybody reading this, that all my suspicions are not lifted from thin air.

The Mercedes-Benz S 280 in which Diana, Dodi, their driver – Henri Paul, and body guard – Trevor Rees-Jones were traveling in when they left the Hotel Ritz in Place Vendome- Paris on that faithful day [31^st August 1997], crashed as it entered the underpass below the Place de L’Alma. They were being followed at high speed by 9 French photographers. Their car collided head-on with the 13^th pillar in the tunnel. Immediately after the crash, Diana was reported to have been conscious and was murmuring some words. Dodi and Henri Paul died at the scene. Trevor Rees-Jones was conscious. Diana was trapped in the mangles of the car and would remain there for almost an hour before she was cut free and taken to Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital a little after 02:00 hours. By 04:00 hours she was pronounced dead due to extensive internal injuries.

A few facts that I feel don’t add up.

1. After the event, their was no official inquest into her death till 2004 – seven years after.
2. In 1999, the French investigation concluded that their car had come in contact with another vehicle – a white Fiat Uno. The driver and the vehicle have not been found till this day.
3. In the Sunday times of 29 January 2006, it was claimed – and this was later confirmed – that there were British secret service agents in Paris on the night of her death.
4. Two American eye witnesses of the crash were never interviewed or mentioned in Scotland Yard’s official report.
5. Lady Butler-Sloss is not the first coroner to abandon the inquest into Diana’s death, Michael Burgess before her, did the same claiming the workload being “heavy and constant”.
6. 1^st coroner – workload “heavy and constant”
7. 2^nd coroner – “Lack of Jury experience”
8. 3^rd coroner – Lord Justice Scott Baker - we just have to wait and see.

In conclusion, I used to think an inquest was an investigation in to an event. If this is not some pre-determined inquest, why would two adequately qualified Judges Jump ship? I conclude it speaks volumes as far as this inquest is concerned.

Was she or wasn’t she killed? As I said earlier – I will be watching with baited breath.

I am writing an article about living life to the full and I might as well be writing about this man. I get so jealous watching this man “doing his thing” on telly. All the usual protocol normally adhered to while working with dangerous animals goes down the pan with this man.

I speak of no other but the man himself - Stephen Robert Irwin - the Australian environmentalist and television personality presenter of the world famous “Crocodile Hunter”. For a man famous for his fearless horseplay with deadly animals to die from a Stingray’s barb is most unfortunate.

Some have said he got what he was due following http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3365999.stm his very famous January 2^nd antic with his month old son.

All I can say is that the world has lost a brave man and I will prefer to go like he did any day than to not wake up some morning having lost the will to live!