Prince William has confirmed he will marry Kate Middleton next year

[phipps]

I wonder if we will get a Bank Holiday for it.

[sparkle12mar08]

Beat me to it!

[Pinkjenny]

I got there first, I believe. See other thread.

[caramelwaffle]

[phipps]

Oops, sorry Pinkjenny. I looked as well!!

[Chil1234]

Someone is going to say it's all be orchestrated to take our minds off the cuts and cheer up the nation so I'm going to beat them to it and spoil their fun. Hope they're very happy together

[coolascucumber]

Groan, can't stand the royals, bloody cap doffing and curtseying to a bunch of state parasites.

[Chil1234]

(And the use of the words 'royal' and 'parasites' in the same sentence was also a dead-cert...) You probably won't be invited coolasacucumber so don't buy a hat.

[UnquietDad]

Hope we get a holiday which is in term-time!!

[LadyBlaBlah]

Couldn't care less

Who's paying though ? Now, that is of interest

Presuming it will be a low key affair seeing as we "are all in this together", and neither of them earn very much money. Indeed he works for the public sector and will be worried about losing his job when the cuts bite

[HRHCavey]

I'm sure there will have been a contingency fund set up for this particular purpose. I can't see Kate's parents affording the whole bill .

Good luck to them I say.

[sailorsgal]

How lovely. Congratulations to them both. Hope they will be very happy.

[TheFeministParent]

I think a Royal wedding is a lovely thing.

[smellyfeet]

day off work!

[smellyfeet]

this was probably the most leaked story ever

[phipps]

How so?

[polyhymnia]

Everyone's entitled to their choice of partner, live and let live, etc, etc but must say I'm hardly impressed by the choice of Kate M. in terms of the negative role model she provides for young women - ie no proper job, despite expensive education and degree from a good university. Though I'm not very interested in royals generally, I think most other young European royals seem at least to have chosen partners who, whether male or female, have a career and earn their own living.

[SoupDragon]

Hurrah!

I'm very happy for them.

[smellyfeet]

Its been over the web for ages. Word was it was going to be announced in Summer with a Novemeber wedding. The alst week I read it was going to be announced in Nov for a Summer wedding.

Charles and Diana would have been married 30 yrs nest year. This news would detract from that focus... what I read

[Canella]

hilarious coverage on the bbc news channel - they have nothing more to say than the wedding has been announced but they are managing to drag this out for ages!!

but i feel pleased for Kate and William! but cant imagine how they must cope with all that attention all the time!

[KnittingisbetterthanTherapy]

30 years?? OMG that makes me feel sooo old!

All those thinking we're going to get a holiday are going to be disappointed - if no holiday for funerals anymore I'm guessing none for weddings either?

I must now go and book a holiday for the whole of next Spring/Summer so I can avoid the whole tedious subject .

[HRHCavey]

From what I understood they didn't want the wedding in 2012 as it would clash with the Jubilee celebrations and Olympics.

There will be plenty of American/Japanese tourists booking their flights for next year! Should give the local economy a boost!

[PrincessFiorimonde]

Wish they would get married tomorrow to spare us months of achingly boring coverage of every last aspect of their tedious past and future lives.

[Dolanette]

Did they get engaged??

[coolascucumber]

You're right chil1234 I won't be buying a hat and I won't be going to the wedding but you can bet my family will end up paying in some way for their family wedding. Would you normally contribute to the wedding costs of a couple you don't know?

Estimates put the cost of the royal family to the country at £180m - enough to pay for 10,726 new nurses or 9,241 new police officers; or 9,089 new teachers or 3,660 new GPs or 563 new hospital beds or 18 new schools.

They are thought to be 21 times more expensive than our MPs but at least we can vote for them and scrutinise their expenses.

Happy for them as a couple if they have found their life partner but depressed at the endless hysteria this will cause across the nation bowing and scraping like medieval surfs.

[coolascucumber]

sorry serf