10 million on the Queen, inspite of the recession.

I suspect it was considerably more.

Not to mention the money lost to the economy due to the extra bank holiday.

Not really that bad that we spent millions on the Jubilee.

The money would mostly have gone to firms and workers who needed it badly. It would actually have served to stimulate the economy, contrary to the current government who seem to believe that austerity actually works in a prolonged downturn.

The economy is not a grocer’s shop or a domestic budget. Gross overspending is damaging but the economy relies on money actually circulating around the system. I pay you, I get a service, I feel better, you get money to spend on someone else, they pay the government taxes which increases the total taxes they gather so they don’t have to cut so much and there is more money in the system – and so on.

The last time we tried these policies in Europe in a similar economic situation was the 1930s and we ended up with poverty, hunger, extremism, social collapse and the second world war. The Americans only came out of recession after a Keynesian stimulus package under Roosevelt. We only came out of recession because of spending on the war, after successive impotent governments had tried to cut our way out of it. Anyone fancy rise of fascism in southern Europe followed by massive war as the answer to our problems. No? Oh well.

Sure we needed a big cut in the public deficit – what we didn’t need was cutting so hard everyone remains too frightened to spend for several years, because their jobs (public or private sector) are at risk.

Not a great fan of the Royals, and would have preferred the money to be spend on hospitals, schools and roads, but at least the money is being spent.