PRINCE WILLIAM - FORMER PM SLAMS 'GROTESQUE' MIDDLETON HARASSMENT

Former British prime minister SIR JOHN MAJOR has hit out at the "grotesque" press harassment of PRINCE WILLIAM'S girlfriend KATE MIDDLETON, following heavy media presence outside the 25-year-old's London home for her birthday this week (09JAN07). The comments follow calls by the British royal's father, PRINCE CHARLES, on Tuesday to stop chasing his son's girlfriend wherever she goes. Writing in a national newspaper yesterday (11JAN07), Major said the scenes were "eerily reminiscent of those who haunted the life of Diana", warning the paparazzi not to repeat mistakes which contributed to the death of William's mother, DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES, in 1997. The princess was killed in a Paris car crash as she and lover DODI FAYED sped away from persistent photographers. Major, the Conservative leader between 1990 and 1997, says, "Ten years on from the tragic death of the mother of Prince William and PRINCE HARRY - and in the midst of the inquest into the circumstances surrounding it - it seems we have learned nothing."