……”Diana's beautiful, motherless, sons, who have upheld the last vestiges of dignity”…
We really admired this letter in The Sydney Morning Herald on 10 April 2008 relating to the inquest[i] into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. The letter was from Robyn Dalziell of Castle Hill, NSW.
“The only murder conspiracy behind the deaths of Diana and Dodi is the perpetuation of an upbringing that nurtures the delusion that privilege renders one less mortal than others when travelling at high speed, with an intoxicated chauffeur and without a seatbelt ("Fayed still says it was murder", April 9).
“The harshest reality of all this has been borne by Diana's beautiful, motherless, sons, who have upheld the last vestiges of dignity, while Mohamed Fayed has indulged his personal and paranoid conspiracy theories at taxpayers' expense.”
…republican royal watcher caught out….
And Bruce Knox made a telling point against a Melbourne republican royal watcher:
“Since Barry Everingham is pleased to quote Sir William [sic: his name was in fact Charles] Dilke on monarchy, he might consider following his example: for Dilke, a theoretical republican, found his brief efforts to put republicanism into practice were so unpopular that he abandoned the issue "with relief".
“Mr Everingham ought also perhaps to choose his epigrammatists more carefully, considering that Dilke was a keen advocate of empire (which presumably Mr. E is not), of Anglo-Saxon dominance in the world (which we are all bound to despise), and a serious racialist in general (which is of course anathema).”
…spot the sensible letters…
While we are on the subject of letters, these appeared in the press on Wednesday 9 April, 2008. The first two in the Daily Telegraph are presumable from republicans; the other two in The Australian seem to prefer our hundred year old constitution.
We ask our readers to consider which are the more sensible and down to earth? And which letter displays a very big chip on the shoulder?
“The pope should perform a miracle on World youth day and change Australia into the Republic of Australia,” writes Jane Wallace of Sydney.
“Bring on the republic debate, Kevin Rudd, “ writes Bruce Terpie of Tempe, NSW. “ It’s time to tell mother England that we have grown up, and as all children do, are leaving home. Maybe the “convicts” and “colonial” digs will stop and they will offer us the same respect they give that other former colony, America. “
Under the headline “Oh no, not the republic” Craig Turner who is living in London, writes:
“The republic is back on the agenda ("Rudd to push debate on republic’’, 8/4).[ii] A hoard of lightweight politicians and activists will now line up to beat their chests on both sides of the fence. It’s a great issue for them – no meaningful arguments, outcomes or mechanisms to hold anyone to account. All the politicians will have an opportunity to show their supporters that they stand for something. In the meantime, significant areas of public policy will be neglected. “
“Instead of gratuitously worrying about the republic,” writes John Cameron-Stewart of Athelstone, in South Australia, “perhaps the Prime Minister should ask why we haven’t got a Constitution that facilitates raising the GST to tackle demand at its source. This would obviate the need for these ineffective and inequitable interest rate rises and remind the Reserve Bank of some elementary economic principles.”
What do you think?