The royal baby was born to the sounds of a town crier.

What are your thoughts and best wishes?

Even though I don't live in the UK, I do live in a monarchy and I honestly don't get why the media seems to go crazy whenever the royal family has a child (happens here in Sweden too). Good for them I guess, and best wishes and all but I don't really see why I should care since if they have a baby or not doesn't really matter and they only serve a representative function. If anything I think they'd enjoy a bit more privacy.

Zlinqx : A lot of people think like that... and I certainly agree to a point. 

But unlike like movie actors and such, for those who live in the commonwealth realms, this baby is their new princess. Sure the royal family doesn't actually rule, but they are "technically" head of their government, and a big part of the culture that made up their country. 

So the entire commonwealth wants to rejoice together at having a new princess... which I also understand. 

The royal bairin has nothing to do with me and never will and I live in the UK.They are a complete irrelevance and I hate how the BBC have prioritized this especially since an election is about to happen on Thursday. In fact I would hate to be the royal correspondent for the BBC as the royal family hates them also it is quite mundane topic to talk about.

Totts : Just another baby. Royal or not. Nothing special. When it turns 18, then it matters.

Light Knight : I see where you're coming from but when more than half of the people in Sweden want to abolish the monarchy according to studies I don't really get why there's still this insane amount of coverage about a royal baby.

I don't think as many people are in favor of abolishing the monarchy in the UK but I do know that a fair chunk of the population there is as well (and that's factoring in that the UK is probably the most friendly country to keeping the monarchy) and even if you aren't I don't think most people really care that much about the royal baby or the monarchy. It's simply the media that falsely gives the image of most people actually caring by reporting things like "the whole world is celebrating the birth of the new royal baby" etc.

Either way I still don't get why it matters, I don't know the royal family or the baby personally and I probably one create more problems for them by giving so much attention. Since they only serve a basic representative function there's not really much of a reason to report about them. Not to mention the coverage is kind of ridicolous I've seen things like 10 pages devoted souly to the topic reporting about every single minute insignificant detail to the point where it's kind of a stretch calling it actual news about the baby as much as it is gossiping about the royal family. Which ends up taking away attention from actual news.

My knowledge of the UK is not much. Even less with the royal family role. I don't know if the family actually holds government power, if they have their title more due to a wealth thing, if they are just figureheads, or what. So I can't have an opinion on how citizens of the country should react or care.

But my question is why, for Harold's sake, do US citizens give a rats posterior? Why does our media cover it? Why do Americans obsess over it? If the baby pooped out rainbows of happiness that cured all diseases, THEN I would get it. Anything short of that, I don't see why we should follow the story of the birth of a baby who literally has no effect on what happens here.

Zlinqx : The amount of media coverage is definitely too much, I mean, there's only so much you can say about a new baby "It's a girl; her name is Charlotte, she's healthy; she's 4th in line of succession". That's about it. And as with everything, the media has a field day with it, maybe more so than usual. However, I can see both sides of the coin: People care about it because they have a new princess (although her power is very small, the royal family is a still a part of the commonewealth's culture), or people don't care cause it's just another baby. Both make sense to me.

Light Knight : The ridicolous coverage is mainly what bothers me since it takes away attention from actual news in my opinion, and you can't really call it news at all. Like you said there's basically only a few things to say. And I don't think most people do care but there's still a ridicolous amount of coverage about it which is what I don't get I mean like rcarter said it's even covered in the US (and here too), which makes no sense whatsoever.

I'm not against people celebrating it though I don't understand it, since the only part that commonwealth people play in it at all is paying for their expenses through taxpayer money even those who are against the monarchy. Which could be used for much better things in my opinion and also happens to be one of the reasons I'm for abolishing the monarchy overall.

Zlinqx : That I can certainly agree with.

Interesting fact though: the UK royal family is not "really" funded by tax-payers, it's by crown land.

You know how if your parents owned land, they can rightfully pass it on to you, and you can to your children? No one can take it from your family (unless there's debt or something), and it would considered unfair if they did. Well, for centuries, the royal family "owned" the UK and realms; all the crown land belonged to them, and they passed it on from generation to generation, just as anyone else can. However, as democracy and the government gradually gained more power, and the monarchy less, it became obvious that the monarchy couldn't continue owning all the crown land if there was to be a true democracy.

So the government took all the crown land (and other things, like Buckingham palace and the crown jewels) from the family. Sure it had to be done, but such a thing would of been unfair had it happened to any other family. So what the government did is say "sorry, we're taking all the land your family has owned for centuries, but to make it a little more fair, we'll give you a percentage of all the profit made from it". And so, now monarch is paid by a certain percentage (15%) of the money made off of crown land (like rent, natural resources, etc).

So while it's still "the public" who pays the royal family, it's not directly from taxpayers, but from crown land, which may be a little easier for some to swallow.

I'm from the US and as I see this on the news I think it's just so we can have something positive on the news?  Also since we are allies I think it's good face to show celebration to our allies when they are having something good happen like a new princess.  It's more of a moral booster during these hard times as I see it. If I am wrong ok then but it's just how I see it.

Totts :

I wish I could just dislike all of your meaningless posts...

Don't care, don't care.

Yet I know her mother puked more than usual when she got knocked up, she took her sweet time to get out into this world and she has at least one name after her grandma.

And seriously, I could care less yet I know all this just by reading headlines and I don't even live in a monarchy.