Experts predict that that £78000 dress will rocket in value once Kate becomes queen. This becomes more and more ridiculous. The whole royal marriage thing creating, as it seems to do, worldwide hysteria if not fever and lots of lovely lolly for some, evidently including Kate’s mother, becomes more and more bizarre with each passing day. Gosh, look! Buckingham Palace has released pictures of the coach the happy couple will be travelling in. Isn’t that just too too exciting? I hate to poop on the party but I seem to recall two previous royal weddings not all that long ago that were hailed the same way and ended in disaster. Andrew married Fergie – disaster. William’s father married Williams’s mother – disaster. Let’s hope it’s third time lucky, especially as it seems that no longer need a wife be of royal blood. In fact no one could be more of a commoner than our Kate and the bride’s mother sounds a right case. What does her maj make of the hoi polloi marrying into the Windsor family? Oh where is the blood of the Guelphin? Mind you, good old Henry VIII cast his net pretty wide when it came to marriage though were none of them quite as common as Kate? I’m not being disparaging here, just stating a fact. Debrett’s will never be the same again. What kind of a coat of arms will the College of Heralds dream up for our Kate? Oh why can they not be like Tone and Cherie who informs us (as though we needed to know) that her Tone still excites her in all ways! The mind simply boggles. Boggle boggle boggle it goes. The queen had to entertain and hobnob with these commoners as well when Tony was prime minister. Another who has proved that in this world dishonesty pays big dividends.
Continuing with the world’s madness, a little bit of sense has crept in with government abolishing some Quangos, but at what cost? £20million has already been paid out in Quango redundancies. The final cost of axing Quangos is not known! A request under the Freedom of Information Act has revealed almost 1,000 redundancies so far from 29 of the 481 public bodies being wound down. In one case The Crown Prosecution Service paid a single recipient £200,000. The government, which aims to save £1bn a year from the closures from 2014, said it was pleased with progress. It has announced that 192 Quangos - will be abolished and a further 289 changed by merging them with other groups. Among those being abolished entirely are the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales, the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (pity about that one) and Cycling England. How could they do that? Cyclists up in arms, you’ve nothing to lose but your wheels. A spokesperson for the Department for Business, which is responsible for closing some Quangos, said the process was being carried out in a way that protected taxpayers' interests and provided value for money. I should coco. I should also mention that in writing about aid to Russia and China, aid is actually being withdrawn from sixteen countries in all. Is someone in Whitehall also showing a bit of sense?
South Somerset District Council (oh woe the ratepayers of South Somerset) have paid out £429000 to Philip Dolan, ex-chief executive who has taken voluntary retirement and who says he would like to work in local government again, once more no doubt getting a handsome payment when retiring. It’s not only divorced wives these days who run screaming with laughter all the way to the bank. The figure of Mister Dolan’s payment only came to light because the poor dear took umbrage at the rumour going around that he was actually paid £569000. Tell me, is it me who is slowly going mad?