Britain’s royal baby makes a splash, cheers the economy

Today, the witches from Shakespeare’s Macbethwould have been driven to remark, “A drum, a drum! Royal baby doth come.” At 4:24 p.m. on July 22, the Duchess of Cambridge delivered a baby boy in the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington. As these things go, at 8lb 6oz, he is perhaps a tad too healthy! Britons are exalted at the royal birth. After all, the boy has added as much as £370 million to the British economy. Britons can proudly declare that the baby is born with a silver spoon in their mouths. Now they must get on with repairing the economy with the same fervour.

The front page of the British dailies next day made for humorous reading. The Sun rechristened itself as “The Son” to mark the occasion. While the Daily Telegraph carried a picture of Prince Charles, who strikes a pose that could almost resemble a bhangra step, along with the caption “Oh boy! One’s a grandpa”. William and Kate are determined to give the child a normal childhood (whatever that means).

At some point, he will study Gove’s newly-prescribed curriculum that will inevitably lead him to read Shakespeare. Let’s hope that the royal baby keeps his hands off Henry IV: Part II that imparts a time-tested dictum, “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown”. The third in line to the throne would have none of that gibberish!