Buried truths

Dickie Arbiter, the Queen’s former press spokesman (your report, 19 August) bases his dismissal of the latest allegations surrounding the death of the Princess of Wales on the grounds that “if there was something there, why has it taken 16 years to come out?” – precisely what the defenders of the police were saying, of course, about Hillsborough… and look where that has taken us.

Not all truths, unfortunately, are self evident. What is self evident is that the House of Windsor is pretty good at burying truths about itself if they are deemed to be inconvenient.

From King George V, rather than his prime minister, picking his own Cabinet through to the curious and eclectic sex lives of the Mountbattens – and their impact on international relations – to recent revelations that the Prince of Wales is busily salting government ministries with his own employees – none of these facts was made public at the time, and some not until decades after the events.

No, Mr Arbiter, time is no bar to the surfacing of stories the Windsors would rather remain buried.

The fact that we still have some newspapers bold enough to publish them will ensure that a generation not too far in the future will step from the shadow of the House of Windsor… although the first person to tell them to push off back to the countries they came from will probably be arrested and charged with a race hate crime. Are they coming to take me away?

David Fiddimore

Calton Road

Edinburgh