Princess Diana undoubtedly did a fair bit for any number of charities and I’m quite willing to believe that her celebrity was a shot in the arm to many of them. What I find absolutely confounding, though, is the level of sheer veneration that attaches to the woman for her charitable works. Quite simply, what else was she meant to do?
Diana Windsor -and this holds for the whole wretched grasp(1) of royals- had enormous material wealth, privilege and leisure thrust upon her. Or rather, she married into it, while others were born to it. From her marriage onwards (and from much earlier frankly, since the Spencers hardly lived on that kind of estate), Diana never had to worry about money, food or shelter for herself or any of her loved ones. It is not merely that all her material needs were met – a prize enough in itself. Virtually all her conceivable material wants were also catered for. Short of having lake Windermere filled with Dream Topping or a bed manufactured entirely from the dreams of small children, she was minted.
So with all of that daily drudgery taken care of, the trivia that occupies 70% of most people’s waking hours, what did she have left to do? Work anyway? Possibly, but if you’re working at a job you enjoy for no reason than because you enjoy it then it’s pretty much a hobby. That leaves recreation of one sort or another: hobbies, sports, travel and so on. Even so called 'royal duties' involves little more than being ferried from factory to function, eating meals, reading speeches you didn’t write and being fawned over by the little people. Prince Edward wasted his time with a toy television company making programmes no one watched and, while Prince Harry is allowed to be a soldier, this is on the express condition that he never go anywhere he might get shot. Prince Charles produces biscuits so expensive that he's one of the few people who can afford them but I doubt he does much baking.
So with all that free time, money, profile and, let’s be honest, power, should we expect anything less than that they use their clout for humanitarian ends? Should it not be the least we expect for that enormous privilege? Why on earth should we think they deserve praise for doing what, in any reasonable analysis, is the absolute bare minimum? Devoting a solid portion of every day to charity should be the default for a member of the royal family in return for the obscene wealth that fate and the absence of a decent revolution has dropped in their lap.
