Queen cancels Christmas party

LONDON – Queen Elizabeth has cancelled a planned Christmas party for her staffers after deciding it would be inappropriate to celebrate as ordinary Britons feel the pinch from tough economic times.
The royal household thought the event at Buckingham Palace, paid for by the Queen herself and usually staged every two years, would be unseemly as Britons coped with deep public spending cuts to bring down a record peacetime budget deficit.
More than 400 staffers from Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and Windsor Castle and more than 200 privately employed employees of the Queen’s estates were expected to be invited and allowed to bring a guest, The Sun reported.
The Christmas shindig, planned for December 13, cost £50 000, or about US$79 000. (The Sun)