Monarchy

Table banging-gate?

When Prince William’s engagement to Kate Middleton was announced, we credulously noted Prime Minister Cameron’s report that members of his cabinet responded with a “great cheer” and “banging of the table.”

We even provided what we were assured was exclusive video of the table-banging.

Now, in the course of a New Republic article by Marcus Wilford about how the Royal Wedding may or may not save the British economy, we learn:

One of the ministers in that cabinet meeting where Cameron announced the wedding plans told a mutual friend later in the week that they did not, in fact, all cheer and bang the table. While welcoming the good news of course, he relates, they were not all old Etonians behaving as if they were teenagers in the Hogwarts dining hall.

For reasons I can’t entirely explain, this comes as a great disappointment to me. And it certainly bears further investigation.