[Glice]

I think the anarchist line of criticism in economic terms is misled. Yes, it's pricey, in terms of outlay. But a cursory awareness of economics would suggest that it's generating a massive income in discrete means. It was syndicated worldwide for TV. That's millions of pounds for the British economy. They say the average London tourist puts £100 into the economy in a day - so several thousand tourists for the wedding alone would account for several million pounds of return. It's a similar thing to the pro-immigrant argument - for every immigrant, there are jobs created (they need clothes, food, shelter and recreation, all monies returned to the state somewhere along the lines).

So my worry is that the left, and the hard-left, are playing into pro-market dialogues, dialogues from which they're classically left out and shouted down. Where's the ideological upset? It's definitely there, but as a subterfuge to the criticism rather than as its central focus. I'm pretty partisan in the whole thing, and like suchfriends I quite enjoy the pageantry in an indistinctly committed way, but it's worrying how the objection has come in liberal economic terms rather than something with more teeth.

Sorry, bit of a serious post there. It's finished now, you can return to whatever you were doing.