My memories of Princess Diana

I saw Princess Diana three times, each time it was just a brief glimpse of a young woman who was to become an extraordinary icon for this country and around the world both in her life and in her tragic death 20 years ago today. The first time was her wedding day. I was working for the Daily Express as a reporter. The huge black-glass-fronted building was at the bottom end of Fleet Street, and leaning out of one of the front windows provided a wonderful view of the steps of St Paul's Cathedral. And there she was, walking gingerly up the steps in her magificent billowing meringue wedding dress with its long long long train falling back down the steps. She didn't glance back but that view had a lasting affect on me. It was truly a princess moment, totally romantic and emotional. Much later that day, I left the Daily Express and caught my train home from Waterloo. As my train began to quicken after leaving the station, another train drew up and went past. And there she was again!! She was standing with her husband, the Prince of Wales, at the back of the special royal train which had a little viewing gallery. Dressed now in her going-away outfit, she looked blissfully happy and a little overwhelmed. That was my second brief glimpse. The third occasion I cannot put into any sort of chronological order. I'm not sure when it was. But I was driving around Buckingham Palace and preparing to head off down Constitution Hill towards Hyde Park Corner when a limousine came out of a side gate at the Palace. Princess Diana was sitting in the back on her own and she turned and waved at the top windows of the Palace. No one seemed to be waving back. But it was one of those moments which summed up the youth and vitality of Diana. None of these experiences makes me an expert on Diana. There are so many of those around, some of them making pots of money thanks to their various relationships with her. But, like everyone else in the country not living in Buckingham Palace, my briefest of views of the princess uplifted me and placed me firmly on her side, whatever happened later in her short life. She was beautiful, wonderfully coy, and a genuinely caring human being who deserved total happiness but spent much of her life in personal anguish. As Tony Blair famously said (scripted by Alastair Campbell, his press secretary), Diana was the people's princess and she will always remain so. Certainly in my eyes.

Isis bus tour

It was a difficult dilemma. Under a bizarre negotiated arrangement, the Lebanese government with Hezbollah and the Syrian army agreed to allow hundreds of Isis fighters and their families to leave a town on the Lebanese/Syrian border by a convoy of buses and travel across eastern Syria towards Iraq, about six kilometres away. There was no secret about it, so the US-led coalition, always on the look-out for Isis wherever they are, waited for their moment. Do they devastate the convoy of buses and kill everyone, do they try and distinguish which buses have family and which have fighters to try and avoid "innocents" from being killed, or do they just bomb the road the buses are travelling down to prevent them from going any further? Well, we know the answer. they bombed the road and made large craters to stop the buses. This is possibly one of the most extraordinary "humanitarian" decisions by the all-powerful US coalition. They could easily have destroyed the convoy, killing nearly 700 Isis fighters, all of them clearly intent on going to Iraq to support their comrades-in-Islamic-arms to try and kill Iraqis and Americans. Now I can understand the reluctance to destroy the whole convoy which would have been easy, because of the presence of women and children. But it does seem strangely weird that these Isis militants have been allowed to live to fight another day. OK, their bus journey was halted but I assume they will find alternative arrangements to get themselves back with their fellow militants. The deal with Lebanon was done for the sole purpose of getting back the bodies of nine missing Lebanese soldiers who were kidnapped by Isis in 2014 during border fighting between Isis and the Lebanese army. Sometimes you have to make deals with the enemy. But it presented the US coalition in Syria with an unexpected opportunity to go turkey-shooting and kill the 700 militants. I bet there were some in the US military who thought, "to hell with this negotiated agreement, it didn't involve us, let's go kill the lot". But even in war there are codes and rules. It would have looked pretty shocking for the world to watch as the bus-loads of Isis fighters and their families were slaughtered from the skies. So the Isis militants whose faces were covered with scarves should be grateful not just to the Lebanese, Hezbollah and the Syrian army but also to the Americans for the fact that they are still alive. Will they be grateful? I doubt it. But their wives and children might just offer up a prayer of thanks to their God, and might even possibly quietly thank their hated enemy for allowing them to live. War doesn't always have to be about killing.

Kim Jong boo

A long long time ago, a foreign correspondent for the Daily Telegraph was still in Vietnam after the war was over and all of his fellow correspondents had gone back home. There was nothing doing, nothing of any importance to file back to London, but his foreign desk asked him to stay on just in case. Several days went by without anything to file and no word from his London desk. One morning, he was sitting in his hotel with pen poised, wondering what he could telegram back to his desk to remind them that he was still there. Finally, after several moments of thought, he wrote: "Boo!". Now, the circumstances are totally different but I reckon Kim Jong-un has the "boo" complex. He doesn't want World War Three to descend on him but he does want Trump and co to remember he is still there. He was probably highly irritated that western newspapers interpreted his decision to put off firing ballistic missiles towards Guam as a case of him backing down after the US president's warlike threats. So, after a bit of a breather, he must have summoned his generals and told them to prepare a launch of his favourite intermediate-range missile, the Hwasong-12, and to give Japan, and the US, a scare. It was to be his "boo" moment. Make Trump and the rest of the world sit up and take notice. Boo, of course, with a ballistic missile with potential for carrying a nuclear warhead is a helluva bigger boo than the Daily Telegraph correspondent's cabled boo. But the thought struck me as I read about Kim Jong-un's latest scare tactic. Is there any other country in the world that could get away with firing a ballistic missile over the territory of another nation on its doorstep? Kim Jong-un seems confident that whatever he does, provided he doesn't actually hit anything, apart from the deep ocean, he will anger everyone but that's about it. Trump might be thinking to himself that it might be time for him to give the North Korean leader a bit of a boo moment too.

Despite the world's chaos there's always cricket

Apparently not everyone in the world likes or knows about or plays cricket. It's a joyful sport and I am sorry for those who have not enjoyed the pleasures of a sunny afternoon watching batsmen hitting or trying to hit a cricket ball out of the ground. OK, it's not a fast-moving game, it's not like the frantic pace of UK Premiership football, but its measured skills and often slow accumulation of runs is a perfect way to while away some hours when the sun is shining and there's nothing else to really do or worry about. Watching England battle with West Indies in the second Test Match on television this week has been fun and relaxing and sometimes exciting. What more do you want on a Sunday? But as enjoyable is to visit a local ground to watch two local sides play in a day-long match. Sometimes the quality of the cricket can be astoundingly good. Buy a sandwich and a beer and sit near the boundary, forgetting about all those nagging worries that tend to envelope you during the week, it's bliss. I have played cricket since I was a young lad, often playing with my father for a Sussex team called The Seagulls. He bowled slow, cunning spinning balls and I tried to be fast and furious. When I went in to bat my aim was always to hit a six over the pavilion roof. There is nothing more satisfying. One of my great moments when I was in my late thirties was to play against a House of Commons side and during a bief batting innings hit a monstrous six over the boundary straight ahead of me. The ball soared into the heavens. The bowler had the same name as me, Michael Evans. The only other time I met someone with the same name as me was in the Seychelles. I was wandering along the beach when I bumped into a local, younger than me, who was setting up a parachute glide across the sea. We got chatting and I inroduced myself. "My name is Michael Evans," I said. He gave me an astonished grin and replied. "And my name is Evans Michael." In the Seychelles they generally put the names the other way around. We both laughed.

The General Kelly show

Who would have thought not that long ago when General John Kelly was commander of US Southern Command and headng for retirement and an easy life that he was going to become one of the most powerful people in Washington? I don't suppose he ever had any thoughts of going into the political arena. Of course it doesn't happen in the UK. Four star generals don't become Home Secretary or Chancellor of the Exchequer or chief of staff in Number 10 Downing Street. When they retire they pick up lucrative directorships, become fellows at various think-tanks, write the odd memoir and those that get to be life peers join the throng of ermine-shouldered ladies and gentlemen who sit in the House of Lords and occasionally make worthy speeches. In America, a four star general can become president! So John Kelly's rise up the ladder is not by any means unusual. It's just that he has been propelled into the political frontline because of Trump's disastrous first six months. He was called to duty first, of course, as Secretary of Homeland Security, and by all accounts did a pretty good job. As a general he knew how to get his team together to try and implement Trump's bizarre immigration policies. Trump must have been impressed. Suddenly Kelly was his chosen one, the man selected to take over running the White House. He has achieved in a few weeks as chief of staff a remarkable change in atmosphere at the White House. Everyone runs to his orders, reads his regular memos about how they should serve the president and continues to work brutal hours but at least with a better purpose and a well defined framework. I know it's never going to happen in the UK but I can think of a few generals or admirals who would have made excellent ministers or Downing Street chiefs of staff. A career in the military does prepare you for an ordered life, and politics which is normally about chaotic thinking and hopeless governance could do with a bit of straightjacket administration. Obviously there are some good civil servants in the UK who know what they'e doing, but a four-star military man at the helm might just get things done quicker and more effectively. So carry on the good work, General Kelly. I know you're retired and therefore not a general any more. But I bet everyone in the White House thinks of him every day as The General.

Maduro and his riches

The full extent of President Maduro's raiding of Venezuela's riches for his own benefit should be exposed. The ex-chief prosecutor who is now in fear of her life and is currently in Brazil, says she has the evidence to prove Maduro's corruption. But will it bring down his ghastly regime and give the Venezuelan people a chance to live in a proper democracy? Like all dictators, Maduro will no doubt fight his corner and blame the United States for everything. But the prosecutor lady has it in her hands to damage his reputation even more than it is already. Why doesn't the US Treasury which has a brilliant section dealing with illicit financial goings-on around the world start poking into Maduro's activities. Where is his money kept, what properties has he bought with the country's cash, what members of his family are also filtering away Venezuela's riches? This Treasury department has a fantastic reputation for tracing terrorists' finances and pinpointing international sanction-busting companies. If they spent a bit of time hunting down Maduro's clandestine financial dealings and revealing all to the world, the former bus driver's presidential days might be numbered. Then he really would have good reason to blame the US for his downfall!

Trump has made some friends

There you go, Mr President, say the right thing and you make friends. It won't make any difference to the outcome of the war in Afghanistan by sending 3,900 more US troops to aid and assist the Afghan seurity forces but it was still the right moral thing to do. It shows you don't want Afghanistan to go down the tubes, you care for the Afghans' future, I think, and you don't want the humiliation of a total withdrawal, leaving Afghanistan to its fate. The speech was full of grand words, as expected, and there will be no more nation-building, but Trump has made it clear he's going to go after al-Qaeda and Isis in Afghanistan and give more help to the Afghan troops without any sort of deadline or timetable. Everyone, except for the Taliban and Steve Bannon, the ousted chief strategist, have welcomed the Trump speech. Nato is delighted even though most of its members will do zilch to back Trump with more of their own troops, the Kabul government is hugely relieved, having believed what they read in the US newspapers that Trump was considering total withdrawal, and most analysts are saying, well done Trump...for once. This doesn't mean that Trump will now sing and dance through the rest of his presidency, with everyone waving flags, but it's a positive step which won't do him any harm and might keep the angry antis quiet for a bit. But not Bannon, I suspect. He hated the idea of sending more troops to Afghanistan, and told Trump to stick by his promise in the election campaign to get the hell out of Afghanistan. But that was when he was in the White Huse - just a few days ago. Now he's on the outside he can vent his wrath but it won't have the same impact. How he must hate General John Kelly, the chief of staff who got rid of him and helped persuade the president to stick with Afghanistan. It's a real coup by the generals in and out of the White House. They will all be on his side now and will do their best to make the new strategy work. I thought the remark by Trump when he said being in the Oval Office was very different from standing on a soap box pontificating about what he was going to do when he became president. Yessir, the awesoness of the Oval Office does tend to make you think before you speak, although not always in Trump's case.