Doggy Paddle

‘IF James Hewitt does go, it’s unlikely many people will notice, let alone mark his passing with a memorial of the type bestowed upon his lover, Princess Diana.

Show some respect, girls!

Not that everyone would like be remembered in the form of a strip of granite guttering that transports children straight from Hyde Park to the nearest hospital.

But don’t blame Diana, Hewitt or the designer for the debacle that is the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, the so-called Circle Of Tears.

Better to blame yourselves – it’s you the people who are at fault when it comes to the fountain’s inability to run properly.

Not all of you – the Express says Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell is only blaming a rogue minority, a ‘small number’, for ‘behaving irresponsibly’ and spoiling everyone else’s fun.

‘The critical issue,’ says Jowell, ‘is that this is a memorial. It is not a strip of guttering [we stand corrected]. It is not a waste of money. It is not a toy.

‘It requires both a management regime by the royal parks and good sense by the public. I don’t think any responsible member of the public would want to see people allowing their dogs in it.’

Jowell then asks: ‘How can we maintain the purity of the water if some people allow their dogs to paddle in it?’

This is not a dog bath. It is a memorial, and, as such, we should – as Rosa Monkton, the chair of the committee that picked the memorial’s design, says – show ‘a little bit more respect’.

So, can we stop letting our dogs use it too cool down in, please? Can we stop paddling our feet in it? Can we stop walking in it, falling over in it, laughing at it?

Indeed, can we just do nothing at all until the entire drain is buried beneath a mountain of leaves around October time and then can we forget about it entirely?’

Posted: 2nd, August 2004 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink