THE FOLLOWING IS AN ANGRY RANT. NO OFFENSE IS MEANT TO ANYONE, SO PLEASE, NO FLAMES?
All the pomp and circumstance is making me violently ill! 30 MILLiON dollars for security and God KNOWS how much for the actual wedding! EVERYWHERE I turn, on TV, in the papers, even on the internet, this thing is wherever I go! Maybe there isn't enough "girl" in me to be able to appreciate the supposed romance and all the preparations, etc, that go into an event like this.
In simple point of fact, I don't give a rats a$$ about this wedding at all. No offense to our UK friends is meant, by the way. I feel the same way about the people who put on a great big, EXPENSIVE show when they get married, no matter WHERE they live! When I think about all the GOOD all that money could do for the sick, the poor, the disadvantaged, those out of work, it just makes me fume!
Whew! Okay. Rant over. We now return you to your regularly scheduled hobby/fetish/therapy/whatever.
Pissed off Cathy said that!
Comments
I'm indifferent
about it, although we do have a public holiday for it. I feel quite sorry for William, he's been brought up in a goldfish bowl, so his life is hardly his own. As for Kate, she must be mad marrying into the world's most famous dysfunctional family. From now on her life won't be her own either. When I was a kid I wanted to be a princess, when I grew up, I realised what a nightmare the reality would be. I've had a little experience of being chased by the press - it isn't nice - they have it for the rest of their lives. So maybe we should feel sorry for them.
Angharad
Angharad
Me too.
They seem a nice enough couple and I wish them well but I'm as interested in their wedding as I am in any other couple's I don't know personally. There's another RAF heli pilot getting married this year but he won't attract the same amount of publicity. I'll be much more interested though because he's my nephew :)
I'll no doubt find something to do and take advantage of the quiet roads (I hope). For other royal occasions in the past we've ridden a 30 mile time trial on the tandem, sailed a yacht across the North Sea to Holland or, in the case of Diana's funeral, went for a bike ride in an unusually quiet Peak District (we took a picnic because all the pubs and cafes were shut). The first royal event I remember was the coronation and it bored me stiff so I swore never to have anything to do with any subsequent ones.
One thing that does concern me is the impression it gives of my country is that it's merely a huge theme park off the west coast of the European mainland. As a retired engineer from the aerospace industry I'd much rather we were known for our engineering and manufacturing.
Is it really that big in the USA?
Robi
My congrats to your brave nephew and his intended.
and all the best of everything to them. I wish them both a long, happy life, filled with love and understanding. And yes, it's frikkin' huge here in the colonies. Sigh.
Cathy
As a T-woman, I do have a Y chromosome... it's just in cursive, pink script.
And about half the UK population
I'm indifferent too, but I'm still going to attend our Royal Wedding Street Party; the operative words for me being "Street" ie no distance to travel; and "Party" (which needs no excuse).
I've avoided the brouhaha mostly by:
- only getting my news from the BBC;
- and only from Radio and the BBC News website, both of which allow me to
censorhave some control over my input;- only reading a serious paper;
- only reading the business pages of that paper (which is most of it, fortunately);
- and finally going whole days with no other input other than BC.
In spite of all that I am in favour of a wedding, if not the wedding, since I am marginally a royalist. We came much too close to a presidential system under A Blair and I didn't like it at all; a lot of other presidents around the world also give me pause.
If we have a monarchy it has to breed to continue exist. Ms Middleton will bring a badly need injection of quality into what is a rather degenerate gene pool (too interbred). (And yes, I know the genes are actually injected in the opposite direction...)
Xi
Agreed
With a bit less moral indignation and a lot more massive indifference.
. . . .
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until they speak.
I went outside once. The graphics weren' that great.
30 Million
My country recently hosted the olympics. Security alone was pegged at 1,000,000,000 dollars.
Dayna.
* Yawn *
If you think you have it bad over there, don't even think about watching TV over here. There's something relating to the wedding pretty much every night on TV, and both BBC and ITV1 are having wall-to-wall coverage on the day itself. Just as well then that I don't watch much TV, preferring to spend my evenings reading TG fiction on a little-known website... that happens to be where I'm writing this comment.
I have a nagging suspicion that if they'd been left to their own devices, Wills and Kate would probably have chosen a smaller wedding. But, of course, he's second in line to the throne (behind his dad), and he's the most senior Royal to get wed since his dad remarried, and before that, his dad married for the first time, thirty years ago. And of course, a certain politician is encouraging everyone to get into the mood and throw street parties - presumably to give us something positive to think about when the cuts start arriving.
But given all the commercialisation of the event (flags, bunting, crockery, T-shirts, masks, biscuits, garden gnomes etc. - not to mention the £900 cost of securing a stills photography spot in front of the Abbey), I wonder how much of the estimated £20m security cost will be recouped in taxes on the tat and other associated stuff? Still, I suppose the security will only be a fraction of the cost it'll take to police a certain quadrennial sporting event London's set to host next year...
But personally, why should the wedding have such huge publicity? FFS, the marriage ceremony is supposed to be a major life event, principally between the two people involved. I didn't think marriage was supposed to be a spectator sport... either live (as in this case) or through extensive photojournalism articles (many celebrity weddings where the couple have been vain enough to sign an exclusive with Hello! or OK magazines).
There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
Meh
My personal view on the whole thing as an English woman can be summed up in one word - 'meh'.
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
been managing to avoid all the royal wedding stuff
and I'm basically glad. It would just be anticlimactic after this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs81piYG2G8
What borders on pure insanity?
Canada and Mexico.
.
Pee-wee marries a fruit salad
seeing as he's also one, it's probably a match made in...um... a greengrocer's. Or is he a fruit cake - half baked variety? I don't wish to sound cruel but I'd rather watch Wills and Kate than him.
I don't recall seeing it splashed all over OK or Hello.
Angharad
Angharad
Advice
Kate asked queenie for advice on how to have a long and happy marriage.
"Two things: do not piss one orf, and wear a seat belt"
*sigh*
Another person who isn't aware of economics.
Okay, one, a huge chunk of the money is probably coming out of personal monies, not the treasury. What is coming out of the treasury is probably already budgeted as part of 'doing business'. The British, and to a certain extent, the Canadians, like their Royalty. It's a sense of permanence in a government that can change members sixty times in a person's lifetime.
Two, that money ISN'T BEING WASTED. It doesn't freaking disappear when paid out. I REALLY get peeved at people that think that money disappears when you spend it. Okay, 30 million for security seems high, but that's for a lot of technology, and even more, a lot of people. Those people get paid, then pay taxes, buy groceries, and raise their family. In fact, spending the money means it goes into circulation again! It doesn't do any good to anyone if it's sitting in a box.
That's one of the biggest myths of the pre-income tax period. That rich people were just swimming in cash, and were standing on the backs of the 'poor'. Poor people make lousy customers and employees. Most of the money was tied up in property and businesses, and what they had as 'free' money went to pay servants, and regular expenses. Yes, they could do amazing things, but as a percentage of their 'wealth', their liquid assets were minuscule.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Hurrah A Capitalist
RAMI
Dear Biblophage
Hurrah, a Capitalist.
Without getting into what is being spent for the Royal Wedding, I'm a Yank and do not know the specifics, but if you do not spend money on things, people are not hired, things are not bought and money does not circulate. Last year, a big fuss was made by President Obama and others about conventions in reosrts and in Vegas. Well guess what. If the conventions are cancelled, the folks who work in the hotels will be fired, then they can't buy stuff like food, or pay their mortgages, etc. The guy who sells anything to the hotel, be it food or furnishings, wont buy from someone else and the economy gets worse.
Fantastic commentary.
RAMI
RAMI
x
oops- DELETE my comment
What borders on pure insanity?
Canada and Mexico.
.
Not just a capitalist
but one who can spell minuscule correctly - an edumacated capitalist.
I hope the street parties have umbrellas because the weather forecast is for thundery showers.
As for the circulation of money being good - I suspect there is a flaw in the argument somewhere, like what about investment and savings? It's all a bit short term.
Angharad
Angharad
True..
Investment and savings are not bad, as such. There's actually a percentage that economists have determined is the proper level of savings to income ratio, but one of the things to keep in mind is that it used to be that you 'invested' in businesses and people, not in stocks and bonds. Savings were a tiny percentage of your income, so they didn't impact the flow of goods and services.
Cash flowing out of the market is part of the reason for inflation (probably a small one, but it's there). Consider the drug market. It's purely cash driven, and those US dollars end up leaving the US for years, sometimes permanently. Other countries used the US dollar as their own money, which means it was never reported as destroyed to be replaced. Thus we end up with "X has been printed, but it can't be backed up by Y". X has been _printed_, but that's not how much is in existence.
Also, debt, in the past, was tiny compared to income. If anything they should be pushing for no debt rather than huge savings.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
I agree
Every time I hear someone bitch about someone spending their money I want to scream. First, it's their money and secondly they aren't throwing it down some hole never to be seen again. The money is being spent on jobs, many of them. Sorry to tell you this, but rich people create jobs and poor people benefit from them, Arecee
Promotional products
The Telegraph recently did a photo gallery of some promotional products... strangely enough, booze features quite often...
Doing a 'net search will reveal many other products, and most party suppliers seem to be getting into the act, although there does appear to be one notable exception... then again, Party Pieces is run by the bride's parents...
A marketing site have produced a list of ten
tenuous or dire products. You've probably already seen T-Mobile's spoof wedding, there's already been a TV movie (using American actors and filmed entirely in California...), and YouTube are going to be streaming the entire event - as well as repeating it afterwards in case you missed it or live in a different timezone. Oh dear.
There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
Yes, I was tired of it
Yes, I was tired of it months ago. the wedding and the hype has lived up to my worst fears. And Baba Wahwa is of course covering the wedding. She did a nice job with her TS children things, but this tends to knock her credibility. CaroL
CaroL
Here in Australia,
ALISON
'one could be excused for thinking that it was the second coming of Christ! And there is no truth in the rumour that Prince Harry will not attend the wedding because William would not let him be a bridesmaid!!
ALISON
I think the reason the
I think the reason the 'Wedding' is so big here in the States is because, tho we won't admit it to others or ourselves, we still have a thing about royalty. In our country, the closest to royalty that we have are many of our movie stars and a few, very few, of our politicans, such as the Kennedys when JFK and Jackie were alive. Along with all this, is that this big item drags our and others minds and attention away from the financial mess and political BS that is around us and on the news and talk shows daily. Sadly, the campaigning season or "silly season" as I call it, has started AGAIN, even tho we just went through it not too far back (Nov). So we need to have a 'feel good' something to get involved with for even a short period of time. I do have to say, with their lives being in the public's eye forever, I do wish them both well and a long, happy life together.
Campaign Season
I believe that the existence of a 'Campaign Season' in those countries who have elected heads of state is one of the best reasons for monarchy.
In the US, for example, about one year out of every four is taken up with wasteful posturing and proper government is replaced with the need to 'look good' for the upcoming election - read 'where can I best pay subsidies in order to get re-elected'. There's a similar effect in France.
With a president the person who gets elected has a huge ego and - usually - buckets of cash, with a monarchy the person who ends up at the top has no choice in the matter[1]. This usually means someone who takes his/her responsibilities seriously, and wants to look after the pennies.
Of course, with both systems you always have to elect an Assembly/Parliament/Congress so the electoral process is always there. Why duplicate this for the guy at the top? With both the US Congress and the French Assembly there is the distinct possibility of having an elected Head of State with a legislative body of the opposite persuasion: deadlock. That very rarely happens in a monarchy.
Penny
[1] There are ways round this: (i) suicide, (ii) become an axe murderer, (iii) become a Catholic, (iv) marry a Catholic, etc...
Axe murderer?
Thankfully, I don't think we've had too many of those in the monarchy! Of course, that's not to say homicide and regicide aren't entirely unknown in monarchies of the past - Roman Emperors rarely died of natural causes: a few committed suicide while the majority were murdered or assassinated - often by their own troops or bodyguards(!), and Claudius may have been poisoned... by his wife(!)
Things have changed a bit since a chap called Henry liked chopping and changing his spouses... (got 7 minutes spare? Revise his marital troubles in a song with a strangely familiar tune...)
There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
If you don't like watching
If you don't like watching it on tv, just watch downloaded stuff. If you don't want to read the paper buy a good book.
You can't escape it all, but don't let it bother you.
Am I the only one fed up with The "Royal Wedding?
Well, we had OUR Royal Wedding here between Cathy and Simon. But I think that a wedding with the kijds as flower children and such is in the making.
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
You Do Not Appreciate Beauty
The bride is beautiful and we should be glad for the
opportunity to learn about her. I for one love to
see and read about her.
As for the cost when you look at it at it from the
viewpoint of an economist there is no cost. Only
an exchange of money. You must view it as the
Royal family giving money out to others to participate
in the wedding. Sort of like jump starting the economy
if it needs it. The people that will earn money working
at the wedding will be overjoyed when they get their
paychecks which will allow them to pay bills and put
food on the table. Their wedding is probably doing
wonders for their economy. Helping all those people
you say need help.
I think you should recant your statements and rejoice
at all the good their wedding is doing.
Put the royal wedding on ESPN
I am not a sports junkie, yet when I want to view TV my program it is usually pre-empted by some sport. so I sugggest the Royal wedding be Broadcast on ESPN to interrupt one of our many telivision covered sports.
I am related to the royal family and through a mass murder and a lot of medical problems I may have a chance to be on the throne, but since my status decreases each time a royal baby is born I'm not akin to being bothered with a royal wedding as a US citizen.
Jill Micayla
Be kinder than necessary,Because everyone you meet
Is fighting some kind of battle.
Jill Micayla
Be kinder than necessary,Because everyone you meet
Is fighting some kind of battle.
Royal succession
An interesting programme a few years ago investigated the legitimacy of Richard III, and came to the conclusion that he was indeed the rightful claimant to the throne. So off they went to track down his descendants, and the One and Rightful King turned out to be an Aussie arch-republican.
Now, whether William wants to see his half-brother as a bridesmaid is another argument...
Who is getting married?
Who is getting married?
Just in case you've been living on Mars...
...or in a cave with no media reception (lucky you!) for the past six months, Wikipedia will tell you all you need to know about the forthcoming marriage between Prince William of Wales and Kate Middleton.
There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
Oh well,
I am not particularly bothered by it. Though it's actually quite astonishing to witness the amount of brouhaha the press is making about it the world over. Especially the non-British related press who's falling over themselves to cover as much as possible.
It's understandable the Brits cover it extensively, it's their royalty. But Americans? Or even non-English speaking? Weird.
Otoh, it's really a romantic story: The prince marrying a 'common girl'. Maiden by Decree comes to mind :)
But the excessive media frenzy is actually quite too . . . um . . excessive.
Jo-Anne
I love his band
The Prince William Sound.
What borders on pure insanity?
Canada and Mexico.
.