Time to get real on national outpouring

AFTER Princess Diana died there was a lot of... well, apart from the heart-stopping grief felt by people who had come no closer to the lady than rubbing the front of a celebrity magazine, there was a lot of... guff spewed by people who should have known better.

Clive James, for whom we on the sportsdesk have a lot of time, was a case in point with a meandering, mawkish mess about the lady in question, the people’s princess.

Clive, usually the sharpest man in the room, was clearly afflicted here by one of the most dangerous conditions in modern life: The Need To Speak.