Entry for April 16, 2007

I see that Prince William has split from his girlfriend. I know this because it was on the radio, the television, Yahoo News and the front page of every paper. Clearly the editors had to make a choice between this story and the gripping tale of Robert Nomkins (35) of Grimsby makes a nice cup of tea.
Am I entirely wrong to suggest that the story might be entitled “24 Year Old Man Splits With Girlfriend”? I appreciate that William will one day be my king, and I will have to tug my forelock if I see him or I will be whisked off to the Tower, but that does not mean that I am interested in the vagaries of the young man’s love life. He has, after all, never enquired after my own affairs of the heart. He has never thought to pick up the phone to commiserate me on any of my failed relationships. No! He is too busy practising how to wave with the back of his hand and learning how to shoot furry animals in the Highlands. It is enough to make one become a Republican.
Are our lives so small and uninteresting that we need to enliven them with tales of Princes and would-be-Princesses and their not so happy everafters? Haven’t we grown out of this nonsense yet? These two people are human beings with living, beating (and possibly broken) hearts. Report it by all means, but how about a bit of tact and restraint.