A right royal fuss!

Why should I be different? Everywhere I look there are comments about the new British Royal Baby - yes, even living here in Spain we can't escape it! - so I thought I should add my tuppence worth.

I deliberately added the word British, in case there are any foreign readers who haven't heard the news, though I very much doubt it. According to Spanish TV - who were hanging around outside St Mary's hospital before, during and after the happy event - there were press representatives from as far afield as Australia. However, just in case you haven't already heard the news: the Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to a baby boy in St Mary's hospital in London yesterday. Splendid news!

I guess that I shouldn't have been surprised that Spanish TV cameras were there, after witnessing the reaction in Spain to the Royal Wedding.  We had gone out for the day with some British friends, and we planned to have lunch near the coast.  There was an unanimous vote to avoid any British bars, especially when we saw the boards outside them splattered with Royal Wedding deals. Don't get me wrong - I'm not an anti-monarchist, but neither am I a huge fan of the Royal Family. My friend Lesley and I agreed that we would quite like to see the dress (sorry, that should have read "THE Dress"!) but we didn't really want to watch the whole ceremony.

We sat down in a Spanish bar and ordered our meal before realising that the wedding was on Spanish TV too! A quick flick through the papers confirmed that every channel was providing coverage, so there was no escape. I just find it slightly bizarre that foreign media are so obsessed with royalty from a different country.

I thought that the fervour over the royal birth had died down today. The Pope's visit to Brazil was on the front page of ABC, the Spanish newspaper that we bought this morning. However closer inspection inside revealed that several pages were devoted to the "niño de Los Duques de Cambridge". Are Spanish people so interested in reading about this baby that they need five pages of information?

They say that good news doesn't sell newspapers, but in this case it obviously does. I admit that I'd far rather read about a new baby than some of the dreadful things happening in the world every day. I wish the parents well, of course, and I would like to congratulate William and Kate plus any other new parents out there. However excuse me if I say that I don't really care what name the third in line to the British throne is given. Why don't they just call him Prince?