30th anniversary of Royal Wedding goes unnoticed...

[HovaGirl]

Why can't we directly elect our Head of State, instead of someone being born into it? We are all born equal, except for those in the Royal family, it seems. Why can our kids aspire to become anything in this country, except for Head of State? Utterly ridiculous. Oh, and why does the Royal family have to cost £180 million, whereas in a republic like Germany, the Presidency costs around £26 mil?

The tourism theory is a myth as well. Do you honestly think people visit Britain, and in particular London, because of the Royal family? Do you visit Spain because of their monarchy? The only real event to back up that theory is a Royal wedding, but as we've seen in the past week, that's had a negative effect on the economy too.

Where did you get the idea the Royal family costs £180 million? They cost £7 million, out of the Civil List, and give the residue from the Crown Estates to the State, which is about £170 million. Hence, our Royal Family is cheaper than the Republic of Germany (according to your figure of £26 million) plus we make money out of them, via tourism and through the residue of the income from the Crown Estates.

Yes, people do go to the UK to see all the pomp and ceremony, the historical buildings, the places where Diana lived and went. We, from the frozen north, go to Spain for the sunshine. Britain doesn't have much of that, so people certainly don't go to the UK for the weather. There are Royal Families all over the world, but ours is the only one known as The Queen. If foreigners refer to The Queen, they mean Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain (etc).