Thread:Comments:Prince William marries Kate Middleton—live updates/Baffling/reply (14)

It's doing no harm. These people get a nice wedding, and the tourist industry will get a boost. I would be very surprised indeed if, in total, the tourist income from the event were less than the cost of the event itself.

To be honest, this is one of the nicer ways we could spend taxpayers money - I'd rather this than spending it on MPs' expenses, bankers' bonuses, or killing people in the Middle East.

I've always been of the opinion that the royals do little good, but certainly no harm. They attract tourists, and would hopefully act as a last resort to block a total government takeover by a lunatic - I doubt the queen would give assent to that - but that's an unlikely event. But tourism gets a boost. And since my town was built entirely out of fish and tourists, I'm not going to say anything bad about tourism ;-)