Wednesday 27 April 2011

Another Royal Wedding


My beloved country has gone mad.

The rest of the world probably regards Britain as a bit of a weird place most of the time but for the past few weeks the eccentricity has reached new heights.

Why? It’s all because a man and a woman are getting married on Friday.

It’s not just ANY man or woman though; the couple in question are Prince William and Kate Middleton. 

They are driving me insane. That’s not quite true – the media are driving me insane.

 Every time I switch on the TV there is a reference to “Will and Kate”. The news is full of it.

“And now the latest on the wedding of the century!”

Allow me to just have a spontaneous micro-rant.

I DON’T BLOODY CARE! I KNOW THEY ARE GETTING MARRIED! LEAVE ME ALONE!

To me, the royal family are just one of many eccentric families in the British Isles. The only difference is that these guys are always on the news. It’s like most people are high on drugs. The entire country has gone bananas.

“What will she wear?”

“Who will be there?”

“Isn’t she beautiful?”


What they SHOULD be asking is:

“Will Prince Harry embarrass himself?”

“How many people will Prince Phillip offend?”

“Does anybody really care?”


I am an old cynic and I’ve seen this all before. Royalists in my country want to spend every second of the day absorbing every single trivial detail about the wedding. Even TV channels that have nothing to do with the news are cashing in on it.

I was flicking channels the other night and at least three music channels had used the wedding as an excuse to play all sorts of romantic drivel. I swear I am not making this up. We had:

“Kate’s Top 50 Hen Night Songs”

“Will and Kate: A Romantic Countdown”


It’s crazy. It’s as if everybody has taken their brains out.

I am totally neutral when it comes to royalty. I don’t love them and I don’t hate them. If the Queen were to come to Manchester I wouldn’t go out of my way to wave to her but I if she was passing I would say "Hello".

The problem is that the wedding coverage in this country is turning me against them. Sure, it is a reason for some to become excessively patriotic and run around the streets waving Union Jacks while wearing Union Jack shorts, Union Jack shirts and Union Jack underpants – and I’m happy for other people to do that.



I just don’t want to do it myself.

Don’t get me wrong – I love my country but, to be honest, I don’t know why so many people are getting worked up and excited. Just because I am not jumping around like a mad fool doesn’t mean that I am not patriotic.

I’ve seen it all before and that’s why I am cynical about it. Let’s face it; most of the last few royal weddings have ended up as total disasters.

Rewind to 1981 when Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer.

It was lovely; it was romantic; it was gorgeous; they kissed; they loved each other more than any other couple had ever loved each other ever.

Look at what happened: bitterness and divorce.

Almost inevitably, this wedding is being compared to Charles and Diana’s wedding and Kate is being hailed as the new People’s Princess.

Poor Kate.

Let’s just hope for both their sakes that it doesn’t end up the same way.

And it’s not just Britain that’s going bonkers. Apparently coverage in America will rival our own. I’ve seen interviews with loads of American tourists (on the news of course) who are wetting themselves about it all.

“We don’t have a princess back home. This is every young girl’s dream.”

Thankfully (hopefully) times have changed in Britain so I won’t be hauled over the coals for daring to be cynical about Prince William and Kate’s big day. In days gone by I might have suffered extreme medieval torture for writing a post about the royal wedding that wasn’t full of sugary syrup and praise for the monarchy.

Can you imagine what Henry VIII might have said if I had posted:

Well the fat old loon is at it again. This time the dirty old goat is marrying a young girl. How many is that, Henry? Five? I’m losing count. I wonder whether she’ll lose her head?

My arse would have been hauled to the Tower of London faster than you could say “anarchist”.

Anyway, that’s enough moaning. I will end on a positive note.

I wish Prince William and Kate Middleton all the very best on their wedding day and I am happy for them both. I think Kate Middleton is a lovely woman and William is a very lucky man.

However, I regret to inform you both that I will not be watching the wedding on TV and I will do my very best to avoid any coverage whatsoever. Having said that I realise that at some point during the day I will almost certainly catch some of the media insanity.

And thanks for the day off. It’s a shame I’m on call and can’t get drunk at a street party.

By the way – what happened to my invitation? I assume it was lost in the post.

16 comments:

Nomad said...

This will be the ONLY news you will ever get if you allow Murdoch to seize control of your media. If you think it is bad now, just wait.
The not-so-secret secret is this is all a distraction to keep people fussing and talking about all the wrong things. You'd be surprised how well it works too.

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi Nomad,

I know, mate. I know.

It is one of many things that infuriate me about the media.

:0)

Cheers

PM

Elephant's Child said...

And the frenzy is on in Oz as well. Aaaaah. Let them get on with their (hopefully happy) lives, but leave me out of it. I will not watch it, and I commented last night to the smaller portion I will be super grateful when it is no longer in my face everywhere. Though I predict when 'THE DRESS' is revealed there will be some sort of naff competition so that another bride to be can win a replica. Sorry, have to go now, making myself unwell.

River said...

Pfft! Just another excuse to dress fancy and get sozzled.

Wiggy said...

I couldn't care less about this wedding now. I could before, but for the past 2 weeks solid it's all I've heard. Why couldn't they have gotten married on a weekend (Bitter I have to come into work I know)

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi EC,

I guessed that it would be similar down in Oz.

I wouldn't mind if I'd met either te bride or groom - I haven't.

Roll on Saturday.

:0)

Cheers

PM

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi River,

Now I don't mind getting sozzled ...

:0)

Cheers

PM

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi Wiggy,

Oh no - poor you! At least I get the day off.

Enjoy your Friday.

:0)

Cheers

PM

Nomad said...

When the whole world was falling apart, a couple of weeks ago, with Japan hit by three disasters one after the other, Egypt and then Libya, then Yemen. What with all those things happening, I turn on CNN and I hear Johnathan Mann (who used to be an ok-journalist) say this line,"If you are like me, all you've been hearing in the media in the past week is Charlie Sheen this and Charlie Sheen that..." I don't know what else he might have said, I flung myself on the remote and throttled it with my thumbs.
My point, it sucks when other people decide what you are supposed to think is important.

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi Nomad,

AAARRRGGGHH!!!

You and I are kindred spirits!

I am infuriated with the pecking order when it comes to news coverage.

This morning, I turned on the TV at 8 o'clock to watch the news and had to endure a full SIX MINUTES of the Royal wedding before anything else.

Suddenly at the moment, all the really newsworthy stuff stuff has been shelved into the section "and in other news...".

RANT ALERT!!!

Message to self - must focus and write a(nother) post about this!

:0)

Cheers

PM

John said...

I'll be avoiding the TV more than usual today! How much coverage of the royal wedding do we need? Great, they're getting married, but I don't need to hear about it for weeks on end :-(

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi John,

Just seen the arrival (cos Mrs PM wanted to watch that bit).

That's me done for the day as far as TV is concerned. Off to Manchester now.

:0)

Cheers

PM

drb said...

Dear Mr PM,
Just to fuel your ranting, I admit I watched the whole 5.5 hours coverage of the wedding! I recorded it and watch it in fast forward the next day. :-)

I watched Charles and Diana's wedding too. There were no escape as at that time, there was only 1 TV at my parents' place. Ok, weak excuse, I wanted to watch it.

What I can't understand is why would any bride want a replica of Kate's dress?

Did Mrs PM watch the wedding?

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi drb,

Yes Mrs PM watched it. I was in the lounge reading so I saw the arrival of the bride. I then disappeared while she watched the rest of the ceremony.

We then went off to Manchester city centre where we had a pint in the sunshine before walking into an impromptu street party in the Northern Quarter - which was fun to be honest.

Thank goodness its over.

:0)

Cheers

PM

Nomad said...

drb has a great idea! Fast forward. Too bad you can't do this to reality. I might have actually watched the wedding if I had had a chance to see them all prance around like pixies at twice the speed.

Plastic Mancunian said...

Hi Nomad,

Indeed - that might have made it more interesting.

:0)

Cheers

PM