This is about Emmeline (Emily) Pankhurst, one of the founders of the suffragette movement in England, apparently.
Nicky Wire said that the song is about "the idea that an icon of Pankhurst's standing, who really tried to do something good, who got women's sufferage and got women the vote, can be replaced by someone as obviously empty as Princess Diana as a feminist icon" (info courtesy of www.manics.nl).
This is about Emmeline (Emily) Pankhurst, one of the founders of the suffragette movement in England, apparently. Nicky Wire said that the song is about "the idea that an icon of Pankhurst's standing, who really tried to do something good, who got women's sufferage and got women the vote, can be replaced by someone as obviously empty as Princess Diana as a feminist icon" (info courtesy of www.manics.nl).