A Tale of Dedication

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Surprise Party":
Evelyn:
Possibly you could find out the total cost of the Royal weekend that you beautifully described and divide this by not just the 1.5 million people in personal attendance, but the additional population of Britain (reduced by 13% - being the percentage that are anti-monarch - this was in the paper recently) and you come up with a number per head.
I don't think it fair or appropriate to add in the global statistics of those who watched on TV.
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There has been discussion on T.V. about cost of the Queen's  Diamond  Jubilee . I think I heard eleven million pounds ,with exchange could be as much as $22million 
The Lord Mayor of London was on Letterman last night. He said the population of London was five point something million.
None of it is relevant to our  situation.
British Royalty to the British government  is as much about promoting tourism to that tight little island  and stirring up pride in the nation as anything else. I doubt  city dwellers were out of pocket for the event.
The Lord Mayor was in New Yoek to promote his book about London which was again  probably more about  tourist promotion and exploiting the occasion.
Unless you have lived  in London ,the effect  of such an event  cannot be imagined.
In the whole wide world, nobody does it better than the Brits. Nobody has the bones to build upon. 
I have memories from childhood.
On one occasion. every school child in the land .received a newly minted bright copper penny.. It was a large coin. Not the smallest denomination. You could bu a lot with a penny. Nobody evr suggested we should keep iy as a memento. I don't think that was it's purpose either.  It bore the  image of the new King's head.
Another time  a  bar of chocolate was distributed in red shiny wrapper with  gold lettering ,again the monarch's image and the occasion commemorated.Of course we ate the chocolate. It was a tremendous treat.
Later, it would be the  Queen's father, every child went to  a "picture house" to watch a film  of  the  coronation.In Irvine, it was The Palace picture house. We didn't call them movie houses. 
In 1953,  we spent the night in the rain, on the sidewalk in Hyde Park. just inside  Marble Arch . Next day. we  watched the gold coach wobbling past on wooden wheels, bearing the newly crowned Queen, around three in the afternoon. 
The year before emigrating, I went to the Mall and watched the Royal procession to the ceremony of  Trooping of the Colour 
When  the procession  returned to Buckingham Palace, I fell in with the crowd that moved slowly behind  like a river, to the gates of the palace to wait for the balcony appearance. 
At that moment, I gained a life -time respect  for dedication to public service that had nothing to do with the theory of royal blood,  divine intervention and  all that crap. 
The Queen  is a small person. The horse is a giant. She rode side saddle.
In a black riding skirt, scarlet tunic with gold buttons and black hat with a side- swept brim and  cockade, securely atop auburn curls the  same color as the horse .
Her left hand lightly held the reins Her right arm held at attention by her side. Not until  she reached the statue of Queen Victoria within yards of the  palace gate, did her shoulders sag ever so slightly. 
Grown men  carrying rifles, in scarlet uniforms and giant busby hats would keel over  on the parade ground from strain of standing to attention for that length of time.
While the  tiny  Monarch,, maintaining control of a notoriously skittish, magnificent horse named Churchill  invariably stayed the course.. 
It was a test of will and super human discipline for all to see, from beginning to end.
To me ot was a mark of her determination and dedication to excellence  more than any words could express .