Royal Wedding

[Humph Warden Bennett]

Well somebody had to mention it!

Maybe Eugenie will now be given a job?

[Robbie]

Does she not have one? I don't know, don't follow her. What I do know is that a reasonably well educated and presentable young woman who happens to be the Queen's granddaughter can hardly get an 'ordinary' job in London where colleagues will be only too happy to gossip and take photos of any indiscretion, selling them on to the red tops.  If I got drunk and photocopied my bum at the Christmas party (hasten to say I never have but have seen plenty worse!), nobody is going to be interested but people like Eugenie can't escape publicity, it goes with the territory. So any job they do has to be out of the way.

Privilege she may have but I wouldn't swap my job and comfortable, anonymous life for hers.

Anyway thanks for the reminder, my Friday off, I'll put telly on and be interested to see who is there and what everyone looks like if I don't go back to sleep. It's certainly a nice sunny day, though windy. I'd forgotten all about it, not long up & still feel tired. I'll curl up on sofa and take it gently.

[Rhiannon]

She works for an art dealer.

[ProfessorDavey]

Does she not have one? I don't know, don't follow her. What I do know is that a reasonably well educated and presentable young woman who happens to be the Queen's granddaughter can hardly get an 'ordinary' job in London where colleagues will be only too happy to gossip and take photos of any indiscretion, selling them on to the red tops.  If I got drunk and photocopied my bum at the Christmas party (hasten to say I never have but have seen plenty worse!), nobody is going to be interested but people like Eugenie can't escape publicity, it goes with the territory. So any job they do has to be out of the way.

Privilege she may have but I wouldn't swap my job and comfortable, anonymous life for hers.

Anyway thanks for the reminder, my Friday off, I'll put telly on and be interested to see who is there and what everyone looks like if I don't go back to sleep. It's certainly a nice sunny day, though windy. I'd forgotten all about it, not long up & still feel tired. I'll curl up on sofa and take it gently.

Isn't the issue here a rather toxic viscous spiral of royal expectation of being 'special' (even minor royals) and a media desire to fuel that expectation.

There are plenty of other countries where minor royals (even family major royals) are simply allowed to get on with their lives as any ordinary person would, and that stems from a lack of expectation and entitlement culture.

I think it would be much better if the minor royals were simply expected to go off and get on with life in a much more normal fashion - the trade off being no expectation of involvement in royal engagements (except family ones e.g. a wedding) and no payment from the, effectively, public purse.

We also seem to be blind to the fact that except the the direct line of ascendency, royals only drift further and further down the line to the throne as time goes on - so perhaps we should treat them as such right from the beginning. So for example Eugenie's father in 1980 was second in line to the throne - now he is (I think) 7th?

[Rhiannon]

People seem to like it. Whatever. I'm watching a Victorian gothic bloodbath. Much more me.

[ProfessorDavey]

People seem to like it.

Do they? Is there really a groundswell of interest, or is it generated by the media.

My feeling is that it is largely a media construct - the public interest is entirely driven by the profile these individuals are given within the media. Because, let's face it there is nothing extraordinary about Eugenie in any other context. Were this another royal family in a different european country where someone so far off ever getting near the throne would be completely ignored by the media from childhood and simply be expected to get on with their life, do you think there would be any public interest in them - virtually zero.

Actually I don't think there is actually any significant interest in her or her wedding - from what I've seen most of the media coverage is about which A-list celebs (the ones the public is really interested in) had refused invitations to a clearly D-list celeb wedding.

[Rhiannon]

Do they? Is there really a groundswell of interest, or is it generated by the media.

My feeling is that it is largely a media construct - the public interest is entirely driven by the profile these individuals are given within the media. Because, let's face it there is nothing extraordinary about Eugenie in any other context. Were this another royal family in a different european country where someone so far off ever getting near the throne would be completely ignored by the media from childhood and simply be expected to get on with their life, do you think there would be any public interest in them - virtually zero.

Actually I don't think there is actually any significant interest in her or her wedding - from what I've seen most of the media coverage is about which A-list celebs (the ones the public is really interested in) had refused invitations to a clearly D-list celeb wedding.

Well there are plenty of people there watching. And the younger royals are celebs now. I guess it is really how the court has always been if you think about it.

Weird that Jimmy Carr is there. Wouldn't have thought it his bag at all.

[Rhiannon]

OMG they had a reading from The Great Gatsby.

[Nearly Sane]

OMG they had a reading from The Great Gatsby.

“They conducted themselves according to the rules of behavior associated with an amusement park.” ?

[Humph Warden Bennett]

OMG they had a reading from The Great Gatsby.

In all fairness the late Princess Diana quoted from "The greatest love of all".

[Humph Warden Bennett]

In all fairness the late Princess Diana quoted from "The greatest love of all".

As to whether it was George Benson's version, or Whitney's version, is unknown.

[Rhiannon]

As to whether it was George Benson's version, or Whitney's version, is unknown.

Whitney's was later than the wedding.

[Humph Warden Bennett]

This was not for the wedding, it was after Chuck & Di had separated, and Diana had announced her wish to be "Queen of Hearts". As I remember, Diana's words were "...as a wise songwriter has written, I believe that children are our future".

FTR I preferred George's version, Whitney's version started well, but then went OTT.

[Steve H]

FTR

"Fuck the royals"? I quite agree! 

[jeremyp]

Do they? Is there really a groundswell of interest, or is it generated by the media.

My feeling is that it is largely a media construct - the public interest is entirely driven by the profile these individuals are given within the media. Because, let's face it there is nothing extraordinary about Eugenie in any other context. Were this another royal family in a different european country where someone so far off ever getting near the throne would be completely ignored by the media from childhood and simply be expected to get on with their life, do you think there would be any public interest in them - virtually zero.

Actually I don't think there is actually any significant interest in her or her wedding - from what I've seen most of the media coverage is about which A-list celebs (the ones the public is really interested in) had refused invitations to a clearly D-list celeb wedding.

If people like celebrity watching, let them. As Rhiannon says, there did seem to be a lot of people there. I don’t understand it myself but most of them probably don’t understand my Minecraft addiction.

[Humph Warden Bennett]

If people like celebrity watching, let them. As Rhiannon says, there did seem to be a lot of people there. I don’t understand it myself but most of them probably don’t understand my Minecraft addiction.

Miss Bennett does.

[Robbie]

"Fuck the royals"? I quite agree! 

I hope you ask them first.

[ProfessorDavey]

... there did seem to be a lot of people there ...

Not really, but then I don't anyone was really expecting a big turn-out.

Quite a few of the papers are have Harry/Meghan vs Eugenie photos in the same manner as the Obama vs Trump inauguration photos. Pretty sparse crowds yesterday.

I gather TV viewing figures were about 3 million.

[Humph Warden Bennett]

Not really, but then I don't anyone was really expecting a big turn-out.

Quite a few of the papers are have Harry/Meghan vs Eugenie photos in the same manner as the Obama vs Trump inauguration photos. Pretty sparse crowds yesterday.

I gather TV viewing figures were about 3 million.

OK let us be blunt.

We paid for it, Coff up n smile, corse we aint gort any option.

[ProfessorDavey]

OK let us be blunt.

We paid for it, Coff up n smile, corse we aint gort any option.

The notion that the tax payer should be footing the bill for this event is outrageous. I gather we the public purse is some £2M worse off after yesterday!

[Rhiannon]

The notion that the tax payer should be footing the bill for this event is outrageous. I gather we the public purse is some £2M worse off after yesterday!

Yes, they didn't need the carriage ride through Windsor. I accept that some security is necessary but not to that extent. It seems very self indulgent.

[jeremyp]

The notion that the tax payer should be footing the bill for this event is outrageous. I gather we the public purse is some £2M worse off after yesterday!

And I resent the amount of public money that has to be spent policing football matches...

... oh wait, I don’t. The police are there to provide a service and people that like Royal weddings have as much right to it as Watford supporters - there are probably more of the former too.

[ProfessorDavey]

And I resent the amount of public money that has to be spent policing football matches...

... oh wait, I don’t. The police are there to provide a service and people that like Royal weddings have as much right to it as Watford supporters - there are probably more of the former too.

Actually much of the costs for security at football matches is borne but the clubs themselves. And apparently the whole season cost for all football matches in London (think how many that is and how many people involved, noting that just one match at the Emirates will attract about 60,000 people) is about £6M. This one-off two hour event cost us £2M.

And just a single match at the Emirates is likely to raise about £500,000 for the public purse just in the VAT from ticket sales alone.

And I doubt there were more people watching in Windsor yesterday that typical attendance at Vicarage Road.

[jeremyp]

Actually much of the costs for security at football matches is borne but the clubs themselves.

Nope. That is flatly false.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45837613

[ProfessorDavey]

Nope. That is flatly false.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45837613

Nope - you might want to read what I actually said - I talked about 'security' not 'policing' - while the costs for policing outside the venue are shared, the costs of security within the grounds is borne entirely by the club. Your article is only about the policing not the overall security costs.

The reason why I made that point, noting that we were making comparisons with the wedding, is that the costs for security in the wedding venue will also be borne by the tax payer, along with the costs outside the wedding venue. For football the costs inside the venue are borne entirely by the club, the costs outside are shared.