Prince Andrew.......when is he going to walk away?

Prince Andrew - 'Special Representative for International Trade and Investment'. What a long title for a very foolish bombastic man. He insists on travelling with an entourage of 6, insists on travelling with a 6ft long ironing board so that his valet can press his trousers in the precise manner he is accustomed to! He insists on particular foods, and his water must be served at room temperature.
He isn't paid for his role, though worry not, he receives a handsome income from the Queen viz £249.000. He always stays in the best 5 star hotels, and likes to frequently visit Kazakhstan and mingle with the Gulf Royal families. He receives 'gifts' from the super rich and the Royal that no one else has access to. What ever qualified him for this role? Not academically gifted, he joined the Navy, he learned to fly helicopters,became a commander coming under fire in the Falklands war in 1982.
The details surrounding the sale of his house Sunnyhill Park are still clothed in mystery. The house was sold to one of Kazakhstan's most powerful tycoons, and curiously £3 million was paid over the asking price of £15 million. The house is now virtually derelict. Prince Andrew's cost to the tax payer for his trips is c£600.000. His ex wife was caught in a sting when she suggested she could set up a meeting with the Prince for a considerable sum of money, although he denied all knowledge of the incident. Members of the Royal Family should keep their mouths shut, stop gallivanting around the world at our expense, doing deals with corrupt governments on our behalf that we know nothing about.
(Originally posted on December 4th, 2010)

THE wedding gets tiresomer and tiresomer

Not into December yet and we are already being bombarded with inane news about the lovey dovey royals! They are to be married in Westminster Cathedral we hear. Cost will be about £5bn! How can a wedding possibly cost as much as 5bn?! I find this sum an obscene amount to spend on a wedding. AND, because it will take place on April 29th and the nation will be given a bank holiday near Easter (so that we can drink in the pageantry!) businesses will be closed for all but 3 days between April 22nd and May2nd. We must be living in a fool's paradise. The country has hit the buffers, the cupboard is bare, and we will be contributing a massive sum that we can't afford, to a marriage that will probably go the way of most marriages, down the drain. But fear not, Mr.and Mrs. Middleton,- the bride's parents, are going to chip in. I wonder how much of the £5bn they will be coughing up? Perhaps the dress and the cake? Today is the 24th of November, cheer up, only 5 months to go!
This wedding is going to get a whole lot more tiresome before it's over, such a consolation that the Prince and his fiancee are going to take complete control. You bet they are.

That tiresome wedding.

Does anyone really care who marries who, what, where, in the royal family? We all know now that Camilla,- queen in waiting - thinks the proposed marriage between "big willie" and "babykins" is wicked. Personally I agree with her, though I suspect she is using the word in its 'avant garde' sense, whereas I am using the word wicked to mean, well, wicked. What the ill fated Kate wears when she walks up the aisle, who the designer is, what colour the taffeta, and how much she is contributing to the economy by having it made and designed in Britain, matters not a jot. I'm totally sick already with the pages of photographs of every nuance of every glance, and all the insane paraphernalia of stupid newspaper stories. Giving Diana's engagement ring to Kate Middleton was a big mistake,- haven't the royal family had enough bad luck? The two royal sons aren't exactly exemplary examples of decent young manhood. Well, Prince Harry did spend a couple of days in Afghanistan, or was it Iraq? These army visits were sandwiched between visits to clubs followed by drunken taxi rides home, generally with a bottle attached to each hand, his elder brother never far behind. Now from time to time they both appear resplendent in military uniforms, so they must be ok?! Prince Charles has done wonders with his garden, done wonders with his Duchy Originals, I'm sure Camilla will make a wonderful queen. So can we please get on with our financially restricted lives free from the trauma, expense, and hoo-ha of another royal wedding.