Someone has to post this...

[Jeneral2885]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/nov/16/prince-william-kate-middleton-engagement

Especially since its the UK section.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Glad to see the comments from Republic:

Graham Smith, spokesman for Republic, a group campaigning for an end to the monarchy, said: "We mustn't see the government wasting limited resources paying for a major set-piece event ... if people are being told to tighten their belts, if the government is making thousands unemployed, if welfare payments are being slashed, it would be sickening for the government to allow a single penny more to be spent on the royals at this time."

Just what I was thinking. The royals could finance it all from an exclusive deal with Hello magazine, and discrete sponsorship by pottery manufacturers etc. :evilgrin:

[oldironside]

2. Exactly.

They've stolen enough over the centuries to put their collective hand in their own collective pocket to pay for their public circle jerk. To paraphrase Steve Bell's patriotic penguins; "Not one penny!"

[Jeneral2885]

4. The discourse of taxes

It's not like suddenly taxes will go up when there's a Royal Wedding every now and then. With or without a wedding, tax spending is planned way in advance and decisions like "this amount of tax could have been spent on something else" never happens that tax amount is already there. So with or without any grand "unecessary" event, tax is tax.

[LeftishBrit]

5. Agreed

Yes, it could be argued that this might boost the tourism industry. But this government is not supporting public spending on much *else* because it might boost industry or otherwise pay off in the long run.(

[non sociopath skin]

3. On a site called "Democratic Underground"? Of course we needed it.

The Skin

[T_i_B]

6. Given the wall to wall media coverage....

...at the very least it's inevitable that it would end up on here.

If it weren't the royal wedding it would be sodding X Factor stories all over the papers. :eyes:

[non sociopath skin]

7. And let Queen Liz and Simon Cowell dictate forum content?

Not I!

The Skin

[T_i_B]

8. They seem to be "dictating" UK media content pretty well at the moment

Judging by my Facebook and Twitter feeds you could also argue that they are "dictating" what's being discussed on social media sites at the moment but that's another matter.

Personally I'm only interested in a royal wedding if we get a national holiday out of it. That may be a bit shallow but I know I'm not the only one thinking along those lines.