Royal Wedding: Mixed Feelings. The Good, the Bad (and I'm the Ugly)

The British Royal Arms

Yes I have succumbed.

I am not a monarchist by nature, but being married means give and take and so the bunting has gone up and I'm even watching the celebs going into Edward the Confessor's Abbey (yes, it was Catholic - and will be again! Hurrah!).

I have mixed emotions about today. Of course I wish the couple well (I am nothing if not a great believer in the sanctity of the Sacrament of marriage), and hope their marriage does better than some of the other ones in recent years (Anne, Andrew and Charles spring to mind).

I think if there were a Welsh royal family (last Prince of Wales, Llywellyn the Last, was murdered in 1282) I probably would be a monarchist. But as the Royals aren't Welsh in any way, and are seated on the throne via jumping through hoops so that legitimate Catholic heirs could be frozen out, I tend to be ambivalent at best...

Still, there is a sense of occasion, and if I were English, I probably would enter into the occasion a bit more.

There is something "nice" that an institution is hereditary, so that the politicians and media don't get their sticky hands on it, put their "place men" in it,  and twist it to their own ends (though perhaps I'm being simplistic and they already do!). Yet watching the people walking into the Abbey you get the feeling that this is the old 'school tie' brigade and so we have "celebs" there because they went to the same posh schools, or are married to minor royalty etc.

As the ceremony is taking place in the Abbey known to King St Edward the Confessor (and containing the shrine to the great English Royal Saint) I suppose part of me wishes that the royalty were more like him, devout, helping the poor (in a direct and anonymous way), striving for peace.

I do get a little annoyed when royalty surround themselves with rich chums, homosexual activists etc. As I was reading yesterday on the blogosphere, the royals have signed through laws promoting abortion and homosexuality, and these are the people who head the Church of England (no wonder its in a mess).

So, I don't know how best to feel about today. I'm not a Socialist and when the usual suspects moan and groan it smacks of whinging, jealousy and envy -- and I don't want to be like that; but I think if Prince William froze out a few of the politicians, jet set and homo-celebs and put a few of the homeless of London, polished and spruced up for the day, in their place, I might hold the royalty in higher repute.

As a commoner with no power, influence (or money!) I have about as much chance of sitting amidst the high and mighty as a ham sandwich getting into a bar mitzvah, so I'm sure my cogitations and deliberations count for nought in the grand scheme of things.

The Happy Couple?

Which would be the better: people born into obscene wealth and privilege, or place-men like Tony Blair living in Presidential opulence? I kind of get the feeling that we'd have more chance of one day getting a good, Christian leader who might make a stand for decency and traditional values through the former system than the latter. America has the Presidential system and look who they had in the hot seat: Bill Clinton! But then I guess they could at least impeach him...

So, I wish the happy couple well, with caveats.

As an afterthought, one of the little monkeys just walked in the room to see David and Samantha Cameron walking into the Abbey and said "that's just gay" - in that teenage put-down way. A moment later the camera homed in on Elton John and his wife David Furnish. You couldn't make that up!