Prince William has confirmed he will marry Kate Middleton next year

[phipps]

I wonder if we will get a Bank Holiday for it.

Princess, think it will be a long queue .

(And at your regal NN!)

cool, couldn't agree more - but no bowing and scraping going on here, only the scraping of violins if I here one more bloody commentator go on about how hard their lives are .

Fantastic news, how exciting for them!

hear not here obviously

I'll knock Katherine/Catherine nn Kate off our baby name list then. Baby due in May? Popular name? Noooo. It's ok, girls list very long. William not on boys list. Nothing at all on boys list in fact....

Glad I'm not the only one to think Kate Middleton is an utterly useless choice of future queen.

She's dull, she's never had a job despite being nearly 30 (unless a couple of months at Jigsaw doing bugger all counts), she just hangs around, wears bad clothes and does nothing. Oh and she very enthusiastically embraced bloodsports. Urgh, I can't bear that she is going to be on every paper from now on.

I suppose it depends how important a queen is to you. Those qualifications sound about right for the job to me.

What do you expect of a future queen then? I mean what do you think your next queen needs to do/have done/be like for you to feel happy about it?

I'm against the institution of royalty as such but don't dislike the Windsors personally. I am not bothered who William marries

Yes, coolascucumber - in an otherwise broke country, this seems absurdly irresponsible. Unless, of course, they fork out for the wedding themselves but then again, how could they, even their 'private means' (the Royals that is) have been acquired through public funds. All we can hope for is a low budget wedding ...

On polyhumia's point about KM. Seems extraordinary in this day and age that an educated young woman not so much can't as won't work for a living.

Broadly, I am a so-called monarchist - sing my heart out when the national anthem is played BUT their spending needs to be severely reigned in, as it were.

In short she seems to have done nothing except wait to be asked.

I'm old enough to remember the nonsense when Charlie and Andrew got married at vast expense. I'll have to leave the country to preserve my blood pressure.

I just hope that he's not marrying under any kind of pressure from his family. Look how that worked out for his father.

Otherwise, I'm only passingly interested.

What is it with the royals and their lust for horse-faced women??

I think Kate is pretty

Oooh that's a bit harsh LittleAmy

I saw the pictures this morning online and thought how very different she looks to his mother though

"She's dull, she's never had a job, she just hangs around, wears bad clothes and does nothing"

Sounds just like our current queen - she'll be perfect!

She's just so fucking dull for a commoner - at least a night out with Chelsey would mean come morning you've got tales galore, your knickers in your pocket an 5 new phone numbers!

she may change after the wedding

Not sure who I feel most sorry for. Him for marrying such a dull woman who has done nothing with her life except hang about waiting for a ring, or her for marrying into a life of media scruntiny.

Actually, on second thoughts, they both seem to have got what they want.

Right, I'm bored of it now, when's the firstborn coming?

Well zzz ideally I'd like a smart woman that has had a career (and it doesn't have to be a high flying one), who is urbane, who doesn't look like such a dull sloane and is a vegetarian LOL Someone who'd bring something new to our Royal Family. She and her family strike me as very in love with the whole being royal thing.

a vegetarian eh?
now you're talking

first-born
I reckon one year after the wedding

bland and inoffensive pair get married

cameron looked very smug - nothing like royal circus to distract the masses from all the cuts.

all a bit yawn for me apart from the prospect of an extra day off work (if i still have a job by then that is)

shall we speculate about the dress? Or not yet?

People who think Kate Middleton will be queen - you don't understand how this sort of monarchy works. It's a blood system - you have to be born into it.

As soon as I saw the words "BBC Live Coverage of the Royal Engagement" I thanked god I'm out of the UK and not having to endure the endless interviews with completely irrelevant "royal watchers", repeats ad nauseum of the announcement and no doubt on-going speculation about the wheres and whens that will be happening right now.

Do you think we'll have street party's like with Charles and Di's wedding?