The Royal Wedding...

3 May 2011, 11:47 1 Comments View Comments | Add Comment

When it comes to the Royal Wedding I can probably best be described as agnostic. I have no interest in the occasion myself, but equally have no problem with those who want to celebrate and enjoy Kate and William's big day.

However, the decision to have the wedding on a Friday, bang in the middle of two Bank Holidays, and the middle of economic uncertainty has to rank among one of the worst ever made by government.

The estimated cost to the UK economy and business is £8bn for this 'unofficial' day off. My guess is that this figure is on the low side. Productivity across the business community throughout April, as people inevitably started to mentally wind down and put their flip flops on, will be significantly down.

That the impact on business was not even factored in when the wedding date was set - at least I presume that to be the case - demonstrates how far we still have to go in genuinely understanding and creating an enterprise culture.

Good luck to Kate and Will for sure. But even better luck to struggling SMEs who have virtually had to write last month off, because of a wedding that could have, indeed should have, been held on a Saturday in August.

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Not sure whether you have botheres reading reports, the FT for one is reporting decent growth in April due to the wedding and good weather! That aside I think you have missed the point. Yes it may have cost a few quid but what better way to advertise the strengths of the UK than have the whole world looking at us! If your "guess" of £8billion is correct then its cheap at twice the price...…

comment by WW | 20/05/2011 06:19:34

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