The tabloid press must bear the lion's share of the responsibility for the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, says North Thanet's MP, Roger Gale (Con.)

Returning to the view that he expressed on the morning of Diana's death the MP, himself a journalist, said this (Monday) evening:

"I believe that the verdict of the coroner's jury, which lays blame on the shoulders of the driver and the paparazzi, justifies the view that I expressed at the time" says Roger Gale. "We all need to remember that it is the press that creates the market for the pictures that the paparazzi supply. Without that market and without the vicious competition to get the dirtiest, nastiest, bloodiest, most intrusive shot the chase, on that night, would not have been on.

I know that the tabloid editors are unlikely to lose sleep over the contempt of one backbench MP and I know that there is little that will intrude upon their obsessive view of the necessity to sell newspapers but it is just possible that after such a gruelling and costly inquest the public might at last sit up and take notice. At the end of the day we are not compelled to buy those newspapers. The ultimate sanction, therefore, lies not in the hands of the jury but with each of us."

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