Royal Barge

Here's an anonymous artist's impression of the royal barge Spirit of Chartwell, which will lead a thousand boats along the River Thames from Battersea to Tower Bridge to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee next year. Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh will sit on ornate chairs under a gold canopy. TV's Rachel de Thame has the job of creating red, gold and purple floral displays using flowers taken from the Queen's gardens. All that this costly frippery needs is Handel to compose music to make the proceedings go with a swing. Will it take the punters' minds off recession, unemployment, the euro crisis, bankers' greed, mad Muslims, C of E hypocrisy, protest marches, illegal immigrants and all the rest of it? Gladiatorial combat and triumphal marches did the trick for Ancient Rome. Maybe this will do it for London....