Hold the front page!

[AleisterCrowley]

I can hardly wait - I've ordered my Union Jack top hat and waistcoat

[redsturgeon]

Panem et circenses...

[bungeejumper]

I can hardly wait - I've ordered my Union Jack top hat and waistcoat

Damn, I was too late, they'd run out of those at the hire shop. They did have an old SS uniform lying in a drawer somewhere, though.

BJ

[Watis]

I can hardly wait - I've ordered my Union Jack top hat and waistcoat

Damn, I was too late, they'd run out of those at the hire shop. They did have an old SS uniform lying in a drawer somewhere, though.

BJ

Any clue as to who last hired it out?

Watis

[JMN2]

Prince William is in Finland today. I wonder if they are taking him to a sauna ... take your kit off, in Finland we all go naked into the sauna, here's your dedicated back-washer, miss Olga, she will do the blood-letting cupping for you...should your royal highness feel a bit weak here's some vodka and rye bread with herring. Afterwards we will hear a lecture on Sibelius and Winter War, after which we'll streak through the streets admiring Alvar Aalto architecture.

[Slarti]

Ex soldier to marry minor American actress. What's the big deal here?

Unemployed ex soldier, if you don't mind


Slarti

[JMN2]

The lovely Meghan and Harry were in Nottingham today. She looked so comfortable and the crowd really loved her. It's going to be cushty.

[roger4]

It has even invaded the local rags on this island in the Indian Ocean, and the local hoi polloi have been upstaged (for which I am grateful). However, it is their business and the meeja are the problem. As some have said, they may be "wonderful people" but of what possible interest is it to the denizens of this board?
Scrooge had it right: Bah Humbug!

[bungeejumper]

As a lifelong republican (that's a small r ), I still don't wish them anything but lifelong happiness together. I just wish the meeja weren't so keen on giving us every breathless update.

Harry's come a long way in the last ten years or so, and yes, he did take a long time to get past his yobby teenage years, which seemed to last about ten years longer than they ought to have; but then again, he had the mother of all mother traumas to cope with, so fair dos, let's cut him some slack. It'll be nice to think of him finding a bit of inner peace and stability with what seems, on the scant evidence so far, to be an amazingly pleasant and capable person. And yes, if she's been round the block a bit (divorced and all that), that's probably all to the good. Divorce knocks the corners off you and makes you value truth and honesty in a relationship all the more. (My memoirs are being published next month. Hurry while stocks last.)

So good on them both. Somehow I don't think this pair are going to be like Andy and Fergie (who also knew how to wow the crowds in her day, remember?) But it'll become what it becomes. Vive l'amour.

BJ

[Rhyd6]

I must admit I sometimes long for the days when there was a certain mystique that surrounded royalty, nowadays there seems to be a concerted effort to make them appear as everyday country folk so to speak. Doesn't stop all and sundry fawning over them though.

R6

[scotia]

So good on them both.

With sentiments like these, I'm afraid its time your medal ribbons were stripped off and you were removed from the honourable company of Bitter Lemons!

[JMN2]

I must admit I sometimes long for the days when there was a certain mystique that surrounded royalty, nowadays there seems to be a concerted effort to make them appear as everyday country folk so to speak. ...
R6

The Queen's accent has changed over the years, should she stay alive another 20 years she would be speaking Estuary English.

[didds]

If the sycophantic proles didn't lap up the news, the sycophantic meejah wouldn't bombard us with this drivel.

Its all part of this celebrity culture our nation/the world seems obsessed with.

A few weeks I saw an excellent production of "Patience" - the G&S operetta that opened in 1881, based around the fickle adherence and attraction to the latest "in poet". Some things haven't changed in 136 years

didds

[UncleEbenezer]

If the sycophantic proles didn't lap up the news, the sycophantic meejah wouldn't bombard us with this drivel.

Its all part of this celebrity culture our nation/the world seems obsessed with.

A few weeks I saw an excellent production of "Patience" - the G&S operetta that opened in 1881, based around the fickle adherence and attraction to the latest "in poet". Some things haven't changed in 136 years

didds

Well, Patience was kind-of poking fun at Oscar Wilde, but more at the movement than at the individual (this was before any of the works for which Wilde is known today). Poking fun at what was itself a counter-culture movement.

I think what we see here more clearly than ever is that there's no longer any meaningful distinction between Celebrity and (British) Royalty.

[didds]

Well, Patience was kind-of poking fun at Oscar Wilde, but more at the movement than at the individual (this was before any of the works for which Wilde is known today). Poking fun at what was itself a counter-culture movement.

I think what we see here more clearly than ever is that there's no longer any meaningful distinction between Celebrity and (British) Royalty.

Totally agree with the last sentence, and yes the overall points above... but... given the ladies all ditched the Dragoons for Bunthorne, and then ditch Bunthorne for Grosvenor, that indicates to me the fickleness of "the latest thing" in society. Then Grosvenor discards the pretences and the ladies all drop him immediately and resturn to the Dragoons... more cult of celebrity and andy Warhol's "15 minutes of fame". So I think there are clear parallels with the cult of celebrity . As to whether/when the royal family enetered this celebrity bubble, I think ista lways been there in one way shape of form, though Diana and Fergie expanded on this to some degree. Look at the redtops' glee at the rubbish with Andrew and Koo Stark, and Vicki Hodge et al. Its "always" been there - from Di's candid Gym shots, to bare breasted on the beach shots of various royal wives and girlfriends. some sad types clearly want to to see this ttrite drivel, so there is a market for it presented by a certain demographic of media etc. And its older than those - Princess maregaret's life, Charles in the surf at Sydney, Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson...

didds

[UncleEbenezer]

And its older than those
didds

Much older. Look at the Prince Regent George IV - a proper celebrity and a valid target for satire in his own time - in many ways more freely than today's treading-on-eggshells. And though you can't really compare to modern celebrity in the absence of mass media, you can arguably go back to Shakespeare and look at his Prince Hal cavorting with Falstaff, and no doubt other examples.

[UncleEbenezer]

What a splendid royal couple.

They've timed the wedding to clash with another major media event. So the net effect should be one fewer day so heavily blighted by humbuggery pervading everything.

If anything could light a spark of royalism in me, it would be such considerate behaviour.