"Bloody 'ell, MtheGM, haven't you anything better to do with your time?", asks theleveller<<<

Bit of a nerve, eh wot, theleveller? What biz of yours how I choose, in my 79th year, well retired & not all that mobile, to spend my time? & I can't anyhow see I have contribd more to this thread than you or several others.

I was disputing as to whether the majority wish the royal institution [as to which, let me say again, I am personally more or less indifferent] to continue or to be abolished; which latter many here would appear to favour, and just will not be told that they are in a small minority: & I extrapolated from that that anyone with any pretension to believing in democracy should respect this vastly in-excess-of-their-own majority view. My surveys were all on that topic. I take your point that such polls have their shortcomings; but such as they are, I put them to you and challenged you to find one with contradictory results. Your MEN survey, as to who should pay for the wedding, is not on the same topic at all, & its results were not the least surprising. As it has been publicly stated that the families of the bride & groom will pay for the wedding, that is a dead issue. Security is another matter: as I have pointed out, all sorts of necessary security has to be paid for from the public purse. I myself had much rather that less of my taxes had gone on policing those ill-behaved fire-extinguisher-flinging children last week; but that's the sort of thing the police are for, so the costs must be met ~~ just as must those for the education of your children, but not mine because I have none. Now don't wilfully misunderstand, please, & come back at me with an accusation of grudging it: I don't; I fully appreciate all our dependence on an educated next generation. I am simply pointing out the facts of the matter, but you don't always strike me as all that much on·the·ball when it comes to grasping just what is the point at issue.

Hope your snow-clearing activities have cleared your mind somewhat.

Regards

~Michael~