That wedding...Yanks say 'Nobody does it better....'

Mathew Norman’s article in today's DT had an observation about an America that revolted against a British King, being so infatuated with British royalty. Millions of Americans were glued to the live telecast of The Wedding and millions more to the incessant replays.

I cannot deny Norman's observation. It is true. America's primary roots are Anglo Saxon. Those immigrants cast into our much discussed melting pot melt in an Anglo Saxon mould. Our language, our law, our surveys, our values and our very culture is anchored on British foundations.

Granted, other influences can be seen such as French in Louisiana and New England, Spanish in Florida and the Southwest, American Indian in place and geographic feature names, and African owing to the slave trade, but our mainstream orientation remains largely English and Scottish.

The consensus at the Wine Shop Friday evening was nobody can do pomp and circumstance like the Brits. You put on a riveting show for us and the world to see. Your royalty earned the keep this year from the billions that were generated by the gala, although we Yanks are not inclined to demand that the ceremony or its royal origins pay their own way. The Monarchy can be certainly justified through a cost/benefit analysis, but never mind, we like them for themselves alone.

I should add that these likes are often capricious and our heroes are not always the same as yours.

America loves Diana and, dare I say it, Tony Blair. We find aristocratic snobbery repulsive, we wallow in the original and the sequel TV series Upstairs Downstairs and the BBC remains a paragon of broadcasting.

Our disdain for snobbery does not apply to the House of Windsor and all those who are in it. We also have heroes in common such as Churchill, Mountbatten, and scores of your scientists and inventors as well as the RAF, SAS and fancily dressed honour guards, but not Field Marshall Montgomery.

Thatcher has a smaller following and we rather dislike Enoch Powell, but not Robin Hood and his merry men, and we pay a lot of homage to your great train-robbers along with the Lavender Hill Mob.