So, the butler did do it

WARNING

Some readers may find the following news report offensive.

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The Australian newspaper's breaking news reports that the former royal butler Paul Burrell boasted to relatives about having secret sex trysts with Princess Diana.

In a sensational newspaper interview published in Britain today, Burrell's brother-in-law Ron Cosgrove revealed how the butler told him in 1993 about how he had bedded the princess while he worked for her at Kensington Palace.

Mr Cosgrove also claimed that Mr Burrell had told him he had accidentally seen the Queen naked and that after Diana's death Mr Burrell asked relatives to hide three bin bags filled with clothes, jewellery and mementos belonging to her.

The 61-year-old furniture dealer said Mr Burrell met him at a Cheshire pub in 1993 and told him that he had been having a sexual relationship with Diana.

"He said they did it in the bedroom, the bath, everywhere,'' Cosgrove told The News of the World.

"He claimed Diana liked to be domineering.

"Paul told me that he'd get a call from Diana in the middle of the night specifically to have sex with her. He said she was very sexually demanding - `a bit xxxxing kinky' were his words - and if you worked for the princess you worked for her 24/7.

"I told him if it was true I was disgusted with him because he was married to my sister and cheating on her with another woman.

"But he didn't see that as a problem. He just replied, `Yes, but it IS the princess.' I was dumbfounded. I couldn't believe what he was telling me.''

Mr Cosgrove said Mr Burrell had also claimed to have seen the Queen naked after chasing a royal corgi into her bedroom at Buckingham Palace.

"He barged in to grab the dog and was greeted by the Queen who was standing there with no clothes on,'' Mr Cosgrove said.

"Her only concern was that the dog would not get its muddy paws on her bedsheets.''

Mr Burrell also was accused by Mr Cosgrove of hiding bag loads of Diana's belongings in an attic and garden shed after her death in a Paris car crash in August 1997.

Mr Cosgrove said Mr Burrell ordered a relative to take three sealed bags from Kensington Palace and "keep them safe and out of the way''.

"The relative later told me Mr Burrell had said there was royal memorabilia in them, like dresses and hats,'' he said.

Mr Burrell was charged in 2001 with stealing 342 items belonging to Diana and her sons Prince William and Prince Harry.

But his trial collapsed after the Queen said she recalled Mr Burrell telling her he had kept some of Diana's belongings for safe-keeping.

Unforeseen consequences for indigenous communities from Howard/Rudd NT Intervention?

ABC News reports:
The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) says there has been an increase in racial discrimination in communities since the Commonwealth Intervention was launched last year.
NAAJA and Central Australian legal group CAALAS has handed a submission to a Senate Committee Inquiry into the effectiveness of the Commonwealth intervention.
The submission described the intervention legislation and policies as inherently discriminative and says they have produced "unforseen consequences" on the ground.

Full June 2008 21 page joint submission by the NNAJA and CAALAS here.

Excerpt:
A typical example is the comment by a particular community that the "white cops are going over board" and are treating the community members as though "we’re criminals". The community members stated the problem was with the new recruits, rather than with the older police, and gave the following examples of their concerns:
· As soon as some people are seen drinking, all of the houses in the community are searched.
· Police are searching the houses without even explaining what they’re doing or finding out who owns the house or who lives in the house.
· Police have been conducting searches on houses in the community when they are in the community looking for someone on a warrant or a summons.
· When conducting searches, police have been breaking sacred items that are used for ceremonies because the police view these items only as weapons.
· Female police have been looking at sacred objects that women are not allowed to see. This is being reported back to communities, making problems for the community members in relation to witchcraft.
· Aboriginal women and their bags are being searched by male police officers.
· There have been a lot of instances in which unopened alcohol has been destroyed by the police outside the boundary of the community.
· At the local bus-stop, Aboriginal people’s bags are searched purely because they’re Aboriginal.
· Police know that taxis and mini buses are bringing alcohol into the community but taxi drivers and mini bus drivers are not being caught by the police nor having their vehicles confiscated.
· Intoxicated people are being taken into protective custody while sitting on the verandahs of their house.
· Police are refusing to give their rank number when they’re asked.

Senate Select Committee on Regional and Remote Indigenous Communities
There have been 29 submissions received here. Including submissions from Amnesty International, Rio Tinto and the Minerals Council of Australia.

Last word on Belinda Neal?

THERE should be at least one change for the third State of Origin match - Belinda Neal in the front row.

ANTHONY McMAHON
Chatsworth Island*

*Letter to the Editor in yesterday's The Daily Examiner, Grafton

Grow up Christopher Pyne

Viewers of ABC TV's Lateline on Friday 13 June can be excused if they thought Liberal front bencher Christopher Pyne is related to Alexander Downer or went to the same schools the Member for Mayo attended.

Pyne, described by ABC's Virginia Trioli as "the Opposition's well-mannered Shadow Minister for Justice" debated recent political issues with Craig Emerson, "the ever-polite Minister for Small Business".

Pyne was pompous, arrogant and downright rude.

Among other things Pyne, in classic à la Alexander mode, remarked:
Well, the Troy Buswell story is done and dusted. ... He put his leadership to a vote in the Western Australian Liberal Party and the Liberal Party voted to continue with his leadership.

Enough said!

World prefers Obama

US citizens would do well to read the following article by Anne Davies of London's Telegraph. It appears in The Sydney Morning Herald.

If Barack Obama were running for leader of the world, instead of leader of the US, he would probably romp home.

The annual global survey of attitudes by the independent Pew Research Centre shows that the Democratic nominee for president has won the confidence of people in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia and is strongly preferred as president of the US over his rival, the Republican John McCain.

In Australia, 80 per cent of participants said they had confidence in Senator Obama, against 40 per cent for Senator McCain.

Similar results were reported from Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Japan and Tanzania.

American participants in the survey gave the two senators roughly equal scores.

The poll results came as a presenter on Fox News television was taken off air after she accused Senator Obama and his wife, Michelle, of greeting each other with a "terrorist's fist jab".

E. D. Hill made her comment after the presumptive Democratic nominee and his wife affectionately bumped fists on stage last week as he prepared to make his victory speech.

Read the Pew Research Centre's findings here.