economy. COVID-19 pandemic Social and cultural forces Diana, Princess of Wales During the summer of 1981, the nation's spirits were raised by the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. The ceremony reached a global TV audience of 750 million people. It restored the royal family to the headlines where they would become a permanent fixture in tabloids and celebrity gossip publications, as well as a major tourist attraction. Diana became what Tony Blair later called the "People's Princess", an iconic national figure, rivalling or surpassing the Queen, until her divorce. Her accidental death brought an unprecedented spasm of grief and mourning. Her brother, the 9th Earl Spencer, captured her role:Diana was the very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty. All over the world she was a symbol of selfless humanity. All over the world, a standard bearer for the rights of the truly downtrodden, a very British girl who transcended nationality. Someone with a natural nobility who was classless and who proved in the last year that she needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic. Religion Secularisation Brian Harrison reports that the forces of secularisation grew rapidly, and by the 1990s Britain was an unusually secular society by the standards of Western Europe. Standing at the lower end of attendance at religious services, and near the top in people claiming "no religion". While 80% of Britons in 1950 said they were Christians, only 64% did so in 2000. Harrison states: Roman Catholicism held up, thanks initially to immigration from Ireland and later from Poland. What had been tiny clusters of Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists grew enormously through immigration. Research conducted by the polling organisation YouGov in 2020 suggested that whilst a majority of Britons described the UK as a Christian country and most celebrated the traditionally Christian festivals of Christmas and Easter, 55% said they did not belong to any religion. However, this poll did not include any residents of Northern Ireland, which is generally considered the most religious part of the UK. Growth trends The Muslim population of England and Wales was over 50 times larger in 2011 compared to 50 years before. Sophie Gilliat-Ray attributes the growth to "recent immigration, the growing birth rate, some conversion to Islam, and perhaps also an increased willingness to self-identify as 'Muslim' on account of the 'war on terror. Football