I've been listening top this crap about the "Royal Wedding" all week, wether it be in school, on TV or in the paper, and I am sick of it! (I don't what it's like in Europe, but here in America, it's ridicolous!) So I decided to make a list of all the reasons the "Royal Wedding" is...what's the right word? Retarded?

1. The Cost
It is costing the British Government several million for the actual wedding, plus an insane amount of money from the royal family itself for this thing to happen, and on top of the the economy of the UK will probably deteriorate at least $50 billion.

2. Power
This isn't the 1700's. The Royal Family has absolutely no political, militaristic or judicial power what so ever. So why does it matter or one of them is getting married?

3. (For my fellow Americans, and non-brits) Not Our Country
We live in America, Spain, Sweeden, Finland, Italy, ect. Whay do we care what's happeneing with some British figure heads?

4. (My personal favorite) They'll be divorced in 5-10 years
Come on, we all no it. He's nasty, she's hot, and he's loaded. Tell me that doesn't have "Divorce" written all over it.

[/rant]

British royalty are more 'Official celebrities of the state.' Although I think the wedding is going to generate more than enough tourism revenue to make back the cost.

I'm not surprised at the American reaction. Considering the way we treat anyone marginally related to the Kennedys as a celebrity. For a country founded on the abolition of royalty, we sure like our royalty. Of course to us, the royal wedding isn't any different than, say, Tom Cruise's wedding.

I'm so sick of having to hear about celebrities' personal lives...

John Oliver. anything plus smells redundant.

I think it's more about the party that accompanies the royal wedding than the wedding itself at least for Brits. I say anything that brings a nation together for a day is ok in my book.

It has generated masssive amounts of tourism revenue, but the economy as a whole has suffer as the entire nation got the day off.

Not sure if its a bank holiday weekend in Britain, but if so, then its a 4 day weekend.

You can say what you like about the relevence of the monarchy, but the feel good effect effect his has for the British public is emmense. I wish the married couple all the best.

I'm British but I'd consider myself among the growing proportion of the population, especially us ungrateful rebellious youths, pretty apathetic towards the monarchy in general.

Yeah, I wish them all the best, as I would any married couple; the fuss is understandable, given the vital symbolic role the Royals still play in our governance; but it doesn't mean I have to care.

Actually, here's an argument for having symbolic royalty that I heard from a British friend of mine:

In countries where the head of government is also the symbol of the state, when the leader makes an unpopular decision, people blame the entire country.

In Britain, the head of state is separated from the head of government, so when the prime minister makes an unpopular decision, they only blame the prime minister and still love the Queen.

Because there is a royal family, the prime minister can serve as an interchangeable scapegoat for everything the country does wrong.

obvious sharp shark did obvious sharp hark... congratz ;)

I just cringed every time they said 2 billion were watching around the world. Well,according to figures there were approximately:
US 22 million
UK 25 million
India 42 million
Canada 6 million
NZ 2 million
Total 97 million. Except for NZ,those are the the countries that would generate the biggest amount of viewers - no other republic will have higher viewers than that of US. Even 500 million is going to be a pretty big stretch...

I'm a londoner, and let me tell you: while in general I'm not at all a fan of the monarchy (the idea that the queen is one of the richest women in Britain merely due to being born is a horrible statement to send out about our liberal democracy), the street parties and the 4 day weekend was worth it

Though I missed the actual ceremony in Westminster Abbey, I did see the kiss, and I thought that it was nice that London's streets weren't being filled with student protests or anti-cuts marches, but of a whole nation just having a good time.

Incidentally let me get my teenager side out and post this: