Not being commercially orientated, we have a little bit of difficulty understanding the logic. But I would have thought that, when 47 percent of your readers tell you they are bored with a particular subject, it might be time to give it a rest.

This is only a local newspaper, but you get the same feeling with knobs on about the national media. But they plough on regardless with what seems to be a very interesting business model: find out what really pisses off your paying customers and give it to them.

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Y'know, I find Royal weddings to be deeply depressing.

There is this poor girl, who meets a tall and well-spoken bloke at university (or wherever) and finds him attractive. He seems to reciprocate the interest, so they have an on-again, off-again relationship for a while just to see if it lasts.

They seem to get on just fine, so they decide to make the relationship permanent, and agree to get married.

And wham! Instant media feeding frenzy, with competitions for photographing the first kiss, or whatever. And it doesn't let up. Once they are married, it will be photos of the honeymoon, followed a few months later by an in-depth analysis of whether she is putting on weight, or is that a baby-bump under that coat?

Poor girl. He at least, has been trained from birth to expect and handle this sort of stuff, but she has not.

Diana was different, because she was groomed from birth to be a suitable bride for Prince Charles (in good Tudor tradition).

But this poor girl was not, and the pressure will remain unrelenting until a suitable number of heirs to the throne have been duly produced on the royal production line.

It won't have dawned on her yet, but she is really no different to a brood mare.

And that is depressing.

Too funny, and too true. I have never responded well to being force-fed or being told, "...but you like this! This is your favorite!" Perhaps it is a business model a mother can get away with... You may have discovered in this survey an index to the attitudes of MSM and our democratic governments: we cannot be expected to know our own minds so, tut tut, be quite, pay attention, and listen to what we are being told. It's for our own good! And, for heavens sake, stop complaining, sit still, and stop fidgeting! Increasingly, we are encumbered with nanny-minders. But, it could be worse: when travelling in China, I was awe-struck watching an airline stewardess walking up and down the aisle scolding the passengers. And, in a restaurant in China, I was deeply amused by a waitress who scolded me for ordering a dish she didn't like. She said, "No, no! That is not good!" I said, "OK, what is good," and so she ordered for me. I was too amused to object, but perhaps that is where we are headed: the stern but benevolent care of a society of nannies.

This is a wise man.

Completely agree. It's easy to say 'well, if you don't like it then don't read on it / click on it' but after doing this you're left with very little.

The important must have news on Sky today is how poor Kate is going to sleep tonight.

Seems the writer is a master of understatement as well!
"Cherie Blair, the difficult wife of the former Prime Minister Tony,"

No room for a German journalist to mention the House of Hanover, or the Windsors' 1917 name change from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha?

(The Queen doesn't own all the swans, and we do have a written constitution, it's just not all in one place. "Queen Elizabeth" refers to the Queen mother not her. And the Brits are "citizens" - of the EU, which the German should have heard of. Otherwise OK.)

The single impression I get from the Speigle article is one of jealousy. They don't recognise their royal family, and it shows.

I am completely uninterested in media circuses of any kind, and this wedding will be particularly ubiquitous, and hence objectionable. But if it angers the Germans, that sort of makes me proud to be British. Perhaps this could be elevated into a citizenship test...?..

100% minus 47% = 53% must be doing something right, if a UK political party could show such figures you would think Africa !

My goodness, we are pissing off the Huns as well ... I suppose that is an achievement!

I don't have a TV and I don't buy newspapers so I haven't heard a thing about the royal wedding.

But everywhere I go has some article about how stupid and annoying the wedding is. By being anti-wedding they're still stuck in the wedding bubble.

Bubbles within bubbles, I suppose.

Has it struck anybody that, when we all had monarchies, everybody knew which country they were in, and looked after their own countries borders and interests, and all the armies were professional and knew how to fight.....

Thank you Richard for the links on this post, I seem to have had a moment of madness on you tube, and pasted 4 of them up on the old facebook with some little remarks - that place is now as quiet as a mouse, and I don't expect anyone to talk to me for at least a week, if at all ! Cheers