Given the absurd levels of hysterical grief in the aftermath of Princess Diana's death almost five years ago, why the public indifference about a memorial to her?

There is nothing more fickle in Britain than an outpouring of public love, nothing more guaranteed to eventually fade away or turn sour.

Ask David Beckham. It took him less than a second to be transformed from the most loved to the most hated man in the country in that previous world cup competition.

Remember the millions who turned out for Princess Diana's funeral, her brother's brave speech at Westminster Abbey, Elton John's Candle in the Wind - and the national outrage when the Queen refused to lower the flag to half mast at Buckingham Palace?

Well, where is the display of public outrage today?

The committee charged with the apparently straightforward task of commissioning a memorial fountain for Princess Diana by the Serpentine in Hyde Park cannot even agree on who should design it. I do not see any banner-carrying protesters. I do not see any marches on Downing Street demanding answers from Tony Blair who spoke so eloquently about her on his first photo opportunity after the tragedy. MPs are not being harassed. Buckingham Palace and St James' Palace are not being inundated with demands for action.

Basically, no one really gives a damn.

What has happened is nonsense. After months of argument, a committee of eight, chaired by one of Princess Diana's closest friends, Rosa Monckton, has failed to agree on a designer.

Some want a stylish, elegant creation from Kathryn Gustafson, an American based in London. Others would prefer an avant garde creation by the Turner Prize winner Anish Kapoor who has designed a 60-feet long, 30-feet high stainless steel work, already nicknamed the Giant Jelly Bean, for Chicago's New Millennium Park.

Because of the bitter infighting in the committee, Tony Blair has smelled the potential for serious embarrassment and sent in a minister to 'bang heads together'. Unfortunately he has chosen culture secretary Tessa Jowell, a real political pussy cat, when he should have sent in a bruiser such as John Prescott to do the job properly. The Prime Minister is now saying it will be built by next summer - but don't hold your breath.

Given the intensifying of the campaign to make Camilla Parker Bowles the publicly acceptable partner of the Prince of Wales, the belief in many well-informed quarters that the Queen has already privately agreed to their marriage and the Machiavellian tactics at Buckingham Palace to simply air-brush Princess Diana away, a commemorative fountain for her hardly seems to fit the picture.

Indeed, if Prince Charles and Mrs Parker Bowles were to marry, or at least announce their engagement next year, the likelihood of a national event to unveil such a monument, overshadowing their betrothal, recedes even further.

Princess who?