Well the economy needs some stimulus, when you are in a recession you need the state to step in and spend to get the economy moving again.

Of course they do, so when your piggy bank is nearly empty and you have bills to pay, it's wise not to splash out on the brand new electric bottom wiper you had your eye on to make toilet trips that bit easier.

How much has all this cost? To the nearest million will do

So, you believe the rest of the world's population enjoyed much better standards of living in Victoria's days? If so, please give GDP per capita figures for 10 countries.

They will argue that it brings tourism in yadayada and how could we replace all the lost tourism if the Queen wasn't there.

I reckon we could abolish the monarchy and instead stick a golden statue of David Beckham in Pall Mall in heroic pose with his knob out like a Greek god, that will get all the Chinese and Japanese flocking to see it, Queen or no Queen, and it won't cost as much to maintain as the royal household, all you'd need was some bloke to clean the bird poop off it.

I'm one such public sector worker and I'm really glad that we have had the Jubilee weekend this weekend. Do you know why? It's cheered me up.

Look up the word 'morale'.

I'm not sure what your argument is here. Is your argument that in Victorias days the UK was more developed than other countries and now those other countries have caught up hence this is the decline of the UK?

'Morale' doesn't pay the bills.

You sarcastically suggested the British masses were hard done to under Victoria. I inivited you to compare their their lot to the masses of other countries. I do so again.

Yes under Victoria the masses in Britain lived in slums and poverty. The masses in developing countries lived in slums and poverty.

Under Elizabeth the masses in Britain live relatively affluent lives, we all know that they are on £30000 a year in benefits and have plasma TVs and the likes, even the ones that don't work. The masses in developing countries slave away on $2 a day.

So yes Great Britain has made huge steps under Her Majesty's rein, as Harold MacMillan told us a decade into her reign, we've never had it so good, then Lady Thatcher came and made Britain Great again.

Now that's what I like to see - the unemployed working as slaves for Her Majesty: www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/0 ... unemployed God Save The Queen!

Now that's what I like to see - the unemployed working as slaves for Her Majesty: www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/0 ... unemployed God Save The Queen!

So, you have evaded the question. The bottom line is that you have been brought up in comfort (relative or actual) on the backs of your Victorian forebears. Your sneering disgusts me, as it would them. Hang your head in shame.

No actually most of the comfort was due to the investment made just after the Second World War.

Ridiculous. When did the nation's wealth and power drive forward? The wealth and power that just about saw the country through WW2?

as someone who voted for Mrs Thatcher three times bcause the alternatives were not a realistic proposition IMO to say the Iron Lady made 'Britain Great again' is a joke

if you consider selling off the family silver, a pointless war in the middle of nowhere, the closure of the pits,hospital wards and schools plus the lack of investment in the infrastructure making the country 'Great' then you need a radical rethink...

if only Callaghan had called the election in autumn 1978 all this Thatcherism nonsense would have never happened...

Tell me more about this electric bottom wiper, I'm interested.

Presumably you believe that it was in the period from the mid 1800s to the start of WWII ?

Presumably you'd rather turn a blind eye to the poverty, complete lack of any social care, and unfettered pollution that was carried along on the back of this wave of national wealth and power ?

Presumably you'd accept a return to those conditions in order to reignite this nations wealth and power ?

Don't be afraid to admit this, you'll be in good company, the current governing party being only one of your fellow supporters.

Dally would have loved the Victorian days. Loved them. The poor were kept in their places, only those of a certain social standing could access decent education and healthcare, homosexuality was forbidden and there'd be barely a foreigner in sight. This is what springs to Dally's mind when he hears the word 'heaven'.

No, but giving it a boost provides a nice break from worrying about paying the bills, and we all need a break from our concerns sometimes.

And it'll give Osbourne something new to blame when the next quarter's figures are worse than the last quarter's figures.

It's called 'bread and circuses'.

And, as the link provided earlier by Sally shows, some people were made to work for nothing to ensure the events went ahead, enduring dismal situations, with the promise that they might - just might - get a bit of work at the Olympics.

I bet that did wonders for their morale.

I'm just pleased that Game of Thrones came on at 9.00pm.

After flicking backwards & forwards between watching a dire game at Odsal to watching a bunch of sycophantic, young performers being upstaged by a bunch of equally sycophantic, yet talented, old performers, all stitched together by even more sycophantic, unfunny "comedians", the blood and snot that was GoT went some way to rescuing the evening's entertainment.

You forgot the trips to Bedlam for a Sunday afternoon's entertainment

That's where the likes of Jeremy Kyle and the [iDaily Mail[/i fill the gap.