[West Ender]

There was a 5 page spread about Jade Goody in today's Express. It seems that she will have 21 funeral cars in procession behind the hearse and tv screens outside the church relaying the service.
There are banks of flowers laid on the ground outside her house.

Now, I've already said I felt compassion for her when she was dying and I don't retract from that. I feel compassion for anyone who is dying, especially so young and with small children. That doesn't mean I thought she had become a different person, she was still common, foul-mouthed and obnoxious, just in a pitiable position.

The present situation, however, bothers me. Even the most, ostensibly, sensible public figures are treating this unfortunate girl like a martyr. The public are fast heading down the Diana route and I forsee weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth at the funeral; outpourings of ludicrous faux grief and screams of "Jade" as the cortege passes.

I was a bit disturbed to hear that Stephen Fry, the self-appointed Wise Man of QI, had called her "Princess Diana from the wrong side of the tracks". That was until I realised that Fry had hit the nail on the head. He was describing a woman, who was famous for being famous, who had the ability (and the publicity machinery) to get Joe Public onside no matter what were her faults and the incredible timing of Nature to pop her clogs at just the opportune moment. Fry's gift for irony is not to be underestimated.