From this thread I take it that you aren't of age (it creeps up very quickly)I'm not an anti royalist or pro royalist and wish it ended when Liz popped her clogs, i think you make a very valid point on the obscene cost of this and every occasion like this, I don't have a counter argument, and my only observation would be that without this event there would still be 14 million in poverty. Poverty isn't a single issue problem.