<p>While on the one hand the 4 day jubilee going on in England is costing the royal family a small fortune that probably could have been used elsewhere, but its their money. Don’t know if any “public” funds are being used to pay for all the events and security. But that said, there is something charming about seeing so many people celebrating the queen’s 60 years on the throne. Even if she is just a figurehead monarch, it is nice to see so many people so excited and united in celebration. Haven’t heard of any protests or negative reaction, though surely not everyone is uniformely thrilled at the pomp and circumstance. But I confess, I found myself watching a bit of it on the news this morning. Nice to see so many seem to be genuinely happy. I wonder if the opening day of the olympics in London will be as grand. May be a hard act to follow.</p>
<p>Well, Katherine Jenkins will be having some part, she won’t say what yet. I think it would be hard to top the Opening Day of the Olympics in China…</p>
<p>Totally agree, LMNOP. China’s opening ceremony was spectacular.</p>
<p>The companies that I work with are all based in London and are off work this week for the jubilee. We are all saying we should be British for the week, too… :)</p>
<p>I don’t expect the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the London Olympics to rival those in Beijing.</p>
<p>Beijing had to prove that it deserved its place on the world stage. London doesn’t. Its stature as a major world city is beyond question, and the UK is among the best in the world at creating events that mix mass appeal with official pomp and ceremony. </p>
<p>The London Olympic organizers don’t have to top Beijing. They just have to do what the British always do, and they’ll be fine. </p>
<p>And if all else fails, we can critique the Duchess of Cambridge’s fashion choices and wait for the inevitable appearances of Paul McCartney and Elton John.</p>
<p>Just read that Paul McCartney is going to close the opening ceremonies which will make it very much the London games.</p>
<p>I have been gobsmacked by the Brits and the Royal Family for many years. The celebration over the last 4 days has been wonderful. I wish I had a British accent instead of my Kentucky twang!</p>
<p>Lol. My mom is half British and spent much of her childhood living in England. I’m facebook friends with a lot of my family that still lives in England. While many Brits are excited about everything, they’re not among of them. Apparently, they’re irritated by the massive tourists and traffic disruptions. It’s just funny for me to see their statuses mixed in with my friends who are over there.</p>
<p>*The companies that I work with are all based in London and are off work this week for the jubilee. We are all saying we should be British for the week, too… *</p>
<p>My company also has offices in London, and every summer I say that I want to move there. They take their holidays (official and personal) very seriously!</p>
<p>I am waiting for a very important and urgent request for information response from a “Fortune 100 type” company in London. </p>
<p>They told me they will give it their attention “when they return from the Jubilee festivities.” I am utterly flummoxed!</p>
<p>Mom is British, but my paternal grandmother’s side made the jump across the pond in the early 17th century and figured prominently in the revolutionary war. I’m siding with grannies revolutionary roots, so when I see the Royals I tend to bristle a bit. I really just do not understand the fascination with this dysfunctional family. 
And I really don’t understand why the American media fawns over these celebrations. Very interesting that they don’t show the protesters (they ARE there). Oh well…enjoy the show!</p>
<p>Really? Our fascination with dysfunctional families surprises you? The Kennedy family…?</p>
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<p>And now our new royalty, the Kardashians. ;)</p>
<p>Gag .</p>
<p>Nrdsb4, we can only hope that people will ignore them someday, going out of favor like Paris Hilton. Now I admit to being raised to worship the Kennedy clan.</p>
<p>I’m not a huge fan of the Queen though I support the idea of monarchy for Britain. In their system, the sovereignty of the nation is separate from the political system so the leader of government can sit - must sit - in Parliament. We have this odd system in which the national leader embodies sovereignty and yet is also political. This is not usual. Most countries have either a monarch or a Premier who is political plus a President who is not. Many of our issues in governance come from the weirdness of not having the leader being also the political government.</p>
<p>As for the Queen, I think she has done next to nothing for the British people, which is a shame because that is her actual responsibility. As a monarch for life, with some dozen PM’s in her reign, she stands beyond politics. But she says and does nothing and has allowed that to become the standard for all royal behavior, to the point where even innocuous comments - like Charles’ dislike of a modern building proposed (and then dropped) for Trafalgar Sq - are decried. There are many topics she could have touched. Heck, it took her until the present to visit Ireland to further the process of acknowledging and moving past the tremendous wrongs done on the Irish. What if she’d done this 20 years ago? If she’d had the nerve to speak about the past - not the present but the past - so the past could become the past instead of infecting the present. She’s never acknowledged Welsh or Scottish feelings about who they are in the UK. Everyone knows the history with all its betrayals and violence. She is the only person in the world with the position to speak about it because only she could draw a line of royal succession through the centuries to her. She just dresses up and says nothing.</p>
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<p>It’s like Canada never happened…</p>
<p>Of course public funds were used for the jubilee. Where do you think their money for the monarchy comes from, or where do you think “their money” came from if not taxes?</p>
<p>[BBC</a> NEWS | UK | Cost of Royal Family rises £1.5m](<a href=“http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8124022.stm]BBC”>BBC NEWS | UK | Cost of Royal Family rises £1.5m)</p>
<p>romangnygypsyeyes: Believe me when I say…I don’t “get” the Kennedy fascination either! But, given the current international fascination with the cult of celebrity, you would think I’d be used to it by now. Royals, Kennedys, Kardashians, or Dancing with the Stars…it’s all the same mishmosh.</p>
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<p>This may be a shame for Queen Elizabeth, who might have something valuable to say if she thought it was her place to say it, but the precedent is a good one for less thoughtful monarchs – such as, say, her likely successor, Prince Charles, who seems to have opinions on everything, many of which are downright weird. Homeopathy, anyone?</p>
<p>It seems the majority of the funds for the jubilee came from private and corporate donations but public funds were also required. I found this interesting however :-</p>
<p>But the biggest cost of all will come from the time off that the public take to watch it all. The Bank of England warned that the impact of people not working on the bank holidays will knock 0.5 per cent off GDP for the second quarter of the year - wiping over £1bn off the national output and prolonging the country’s double-dip recession. A lot of cheering up will be required.</p>