Kate's clothes bill

Nonu Nah! Anger saps me of energy that I can put to better use.

anagram I think this year particularly the focus on the 'wonderfulness' of the royals has been strongly promoted in press & media so reiterating an opposite view is just redressing the balance!!

No soop are you?

Well, I think we all realise that what you say is true, vampirequeen. I don't see why it has to be reiterated so often, though.

Does it matter? Whatever it is, and no matter how many others they have, it will live an incredibly pampered and privileged life being deferred to and kowtowed to by people who work a damn site harder than they ever will.

And before you ask....no I'm not angry just realistic.

I read somewhere that it is actually going to be put in place soon, and in any case would be retrospective if Kate had a child before it happened.

Annobel I don't think they have done away with precedence for male succession yet. It has to be agreed by all the Commonwealth countries of which the Queen is the head of state as well as by the British Parliament. They've just talked about it. I suppose it's not desperately urgent as there's the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge before the question arises and, if the Cambridge's first chid is a boy anyway, that's another generation taken care of.

Nonu Are you as angry as you appear to be?

your are so observant , would I could be the same . xxx

You're repeating yourself, Nonu.

Queeny wouldn"t want any one to rain on her parade now would she , and that would if william and kate announced a pregnacy , but we will see !

Even if it's a girl, now that all that nonsense about male succession has been done away with. Not that I'm in favour of any succession.

That's a bit unfair, Nonu. The Queen already has two GGC so why would she not be delighted with another, especially as the baby will be next in the line of succession after William?

I would think the Queen would be more than happy to have another great grandchild. Why the hell wouldn't she?

Another GGC would be a joy for any family, they are human too not some alien species.

Yes.

I think the Queen would be delighted to be presented with a future heir to the throne to top off her jubilee celebrations.

well of course William and Kate can"t produce an heir too soon as it would deflect from Queeny jubillee year and we can"t have that can we ? she has to be top dog however modest she likes to present herself

It's a vicious circle though, isn't it? Imagine the controversy - 'we can't send them economy, what about security? If they got hijacked or kidnapped, the public (not to mention the rest of the world) would have a field-day!'
So First Class it is, then, no matter how many teeth have to be gritted...

Send them in Economy. That would soon curb their enthusiasm.

Quite. It's those 'hidden' expenses which really rile me - I have no problem with the royals being paid out of public money, but it's the never-ending add-ons such as travel, staff and accommodation which make me cross!

I suppose the only way to save money on Royal travel costs is to cut down on their engagements but then people would complain they're not doing enough. The Duke of Gloucester apparently took a scheduled flight to Tonga to pay condolences following the death of the King of Tonga. How come the trip cost over £90,000 when nobody knows him from a bar of soap?

Oh I'm sure they don't find it very difficult to spend £38K on a train. I can't see them being on the 8.45am from Kings Cross can you...not even in First Class.

Greatnan That's a bit having it both ways, isn't it? You seem to have a certain respect for the Princess Royal and her 500 or more engagements a year, but suggest that only those in direct line to the throne should receive financial support. So who should pay for her travel (sometimes abroad), etc. to these 500 or more engagements?

Can someone enlighted me as to how one can manage to pay out more than £38K for a train ride in the UK?

Apparently Queen Mary wanted to update her wardrobe as fashions changed but her husband was very set in his ways and didn't like the new fads so he insisted she continued to dress in long skirts.