Portrait of the Week – 10 January 2004

Mr Michael Burgess, the Coroner of the Queen’s Household, opened the inquest on Diana, Princess of Wales, the conclusion of which, he said, would not come for more than a year; he had asked Sir John Stevens, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, to investigate her death, which was on 31 August 1997; as Coroner for Surrey, Mr Burgess also opened an inquest on Dodi Fayed. The Daily Mirror published a sentence from a letter written by Diana in October 1996 saying, ‘My husband is planning “an accident’’ in my car, brake failure and serious head injury, in order to make the path clear for him to marry.’ Mr Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London, was readmitted to the Labour party, from which he was suspended in 2000 after standing against the Labour candidate for mayor. Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, visited British soldiers at Basra, in southern Iraq, after his family holiday at Sharm el-Sheik.