Jubilympic Jubilation Jaundice.

The great Jubilee weekend is almost upon us and every High Street in the land looks like nothing so much as a 1970's National Front rally. The talk is all of how hard Her Maj works, what a godsend to the tourist industry the Windsors are and how having this weird, dysfunctional, but incredibly wealthy family at the top of our constitutional hierarchy makes us the envy of the world. The Queen may very well work hard for someone her age, I don't take enough interest in her engagements to have a view about that. Regarding the second point, what tourists love is the trappings of monarchy - the whole pseudo historical pomp and regalia that was dreamt  up by the Victorians as a wonderfully clever marketing exercise to impress the lesser races - and yes, we all love a uniform and a band. As for being the envy of the world, I'm not so sure about that. I can't honestly think of a single occasion when someone from another country has even hinted to me that they really were green with envy regarding the royals. Anyway, have a look at this.