Some thoughts on the wedding...

[sp1814]

Firstly, something I noticed from the BBC's (excellent) coverage - I noticed that amongst the flag-waving crowds, there were quite a lot of black and Asian faces, all enthusiastically getting into the excitement of the day.

How on Eafrth can this be possible? According to the usual bigots - they don't want to integrate into the 'British way of life'?

Secondly, I think we can safely say that Middleton, wearing McQueen was by far and away the best looking royal bride ever...

...at least in my book.

[237SJ]

spudqueen, I saw an interview with David Emmanuel the other day and he was saying that he was shocked how creased Diana`s dress was when she dismounted from the carriage. You would have thought that when he designed the dress, he would have thought about how he was going to bundle the whole lot into a confined space without it being creased. It did look a bit like a duvet. The fashion in the 80s was for those huge meringues with the bow on the back though. Kate`s dress harked back to the 50s and was classic.

[sp1814]

237SJ

My point is that there WERE a number of blacks,.Asians and Chinese in the crowds...all happily waving flags - and this is something that certain bigots on AB would like to tell us never happens. They bleat on about immigrants 'not taking part', but when the evidence is in front of their faces - they suddenly lose their voices.

And I agree with some of the other posters - it was an organisational triumph. Just getting that number of people outside Buckingham Palace was pretty impressive.

[SUSPECT]

sp1814 how do you know they were Chinese i ask this as last night i found out the new staff in my local Chinese are in fact from Malaysia.
Are you not doing what some others do on here when they call all people from asia Pakistanis and Indians.

[sp1814]

Don't know what word to use - is 'Oriental' correct? Or South East Asians?

Whatever, the point remains - the bigots who like to paint non-whites as ghetto-dwelling non-contributors are perhaps...talking utter cobblers.

[sp1814]

tiggerblue10

Exactly what I was thinking - there were echoes of Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn in there...and to wear a dress from the house of McQueen was just flipping inspired.

[SUSPECT]

I think Oriental is more correct , Mark will probably point out if i am wrong later on.

[boxtops]

sp, excellent point, and many of those "from overseas" were interviewed by the various commentators and gave support to the comment that nobody does events like these as well as the Brits do.

Did you see Boris Johnson beforehand? He gave a big plug for Moss Bros then launched into a spiel about how this was an excellent rehearsal about how to manage things for the Olympics. He might have a point, but the two events are (IMO) quite unrelated!

[BertiWooster]

sp - they were all drafted in and paid , to mingle amongst the crowd - for good TV pictures .

Afterall it wouldn't have done , for the tv pictures to show that only ' white ' people were showing thier support .

[modeller]

Whilst watching it I turned over to the international news channels to see if they were showing it and they all were with two exceptions . Russia and Press ( Iran ) .
Russia didn't seem to show it at all and Iran made sour grape comments like // The UK has 8 million unemployed and there are only a few hundred lining the route// We now know there were one million.
It was a magnificient achievement by all concerned . No other country can come near to putting on such a spectacle with such decorum. It has and will generate masses of goodwill and income for this country . Maybe those AB Republicans will now keep their narrow blinkered views to themselves.

[VHG]

> My point is that there WERE a number of blacks,.Asians and Chinese in
> the crowds...all happily waving flags - and this is something that certain
> bigots on AB would like to tell us never happens

Of course some "immigrants" are happy to be part of British society, but do you really think people waving at the royal wedding are representative of all immigrants.

A few weeks ago I drove up the Stratford Road here in Birmingham early one evening, and outside a take away were a large gang (30+) of young black men, and a menacing gang they looked. Do you think they were all waving at the royal wedding.

Another day I drove through Small Heath, and saw so many Burkas I thought I was in Afganiastan. Do you think they were all waving at the royal wedding.

Many times on the evening news here In Birmingham we hear of shootings amongst the black (mostly) drug gangs. Do you think they were all waving at the royal wedding.

The reason some of us have a concerns about immigration is that we see the negative signs of it on a daily basis.

Picking out a few friendly "immigrants" in a royal wedding crowd is hardly a serious study of race relations in this country. Anyway these people may in fact be here on holiday from Africa or the West Indies or China or India and not even live here.

You call others "bigots" when your comments are silly, ill thought out and simplistic.

[Twenty20]

I find your original post somewhat strange.

Do you really go looking at crowds to see how many black or Asian faces there are? What makes you do that? I find it somewhat odd that you are actually looking for black or Asian faces in a crowd.

You obviously do not just see people, but rather you see the colour of their skin. And how patronising to say they were 'enthusiastically getting into the excitement of the day'.

I would say that your post was insulting to those black and Asians present and, as I said, patronising too.

People are people, not colours.

[boxtops]

VHG - that sounds little different then, from when I lived in Birmingham over 20 years ago - I remember the Handsworth riots - not black v white but black v Asians.

[askyourgran]

I was pleased to see all nations enjoying the day.It is something we do well. and gratified to see that the mad mullahs were not in evidence as they had threatened to be. Kate's dress was lovely so simple and effective. Not the whole pavlova as my old auntie would say.

[sp1814]

Twenty20

No - I didn't actively look for non-White faces, but I think when there are so many people who enjoy pointing out the worst in blacks and Asians (see VHG's post), it's great to be able to point out the other side of the story.

[sp1814]

And the word 'bigot' could not fit better.

[BertiWooster]

//A few weeks ago I drove up the Stratford Road here in Birmingham early one evening, and outside a take away were a large gang (30+) of young black men, and a menacing gang they looked. Do you think they were all waving at the royal wedding.//


I have passed , on numerous occasions congregation of menacing looking white youths - who if quite frankly, had asked me to jump I would have asked - how
high ?
Do you think they were all waving at the royal wedding.?
Would you say they were representative of the ' white ' population in britain ?

Why do you consider a group of black youth who ( to use your words were a meacing looking gang ) to be reprersentative of ' black ' population in britain ?

[ELVIS68]

Berti, I think you`ll find the point he was making was not all blacks and asians were waving flags in response to sp1814s post that every bro was in the crowd all enthusiastically getting into the excitement of the day.

Sp your the first person I`ve heard call her by her surname, is that a Gok Wan thing you`ve got going there?

[joeluke]

London is a magnet for foreign tourists, they obviously followed the rest of the crowd up the Mall

[youngmafbog]

Yes I I did notice that the BBC did not follow Cameron into the Church wheras Sky did. Political Bias? the BBC chose to interview someone in the crowds. Yes I had both channel running as I suspected they would do it.

with regard to your race point, many have integrated and they were there. Unfortunaltly many do not integratge and I doubt they were there. If only they would follow the example of those there we would have not problems.

[youngmafbog]

And the best part of the wedding

Blair and Bottler not invited, Baroness Thather and Sir John Major both invited

HaHAHAHAHAHAHAA

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA