It’s a global love affair as William and Kate captivate eyes of watching world

The crowd of well-wishers who began gathering outside Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace some days ago, determined to book a front row seat, described themselves as a “mini-UN”.

Sitting in deck chairs and sipping hot drinks from Thermos flasks they looked distinctly British, but as the sleeping bags and tents were packed away the international flavour of the group became clear.

Those not content with live television coverage, some of whom had taken a 30-hour flight from Australia, shared packets of biscuits with others who arrived from Italy and France and, as their numbers grew, traffic was brought to a standstill.

Not that they seemed too concerned by the chaos they had caused. A little gridlock was all part of the fun.

“This is number one of my bucket list – the things I want to do before I die,” said Tina Owens, who had travelled to the capital from Melbourne. “As a child I remember watching films of people waving flags outside the palace and I said to myself, one day I’ll do that. I was terrified getting on the plane by myself, but when I got here I found friends on the other side of the ocean. Everyone’s looking after each other.”

It was obviously going to take more than forecasts of a few thunder clouds to put off the dedicated royalists. Among them this morning will be Christine Haughney, a journalist from the New York Times, who is combining the visit with a trip to see her in-laws.

Normally, she spends her days in the paper’s Manhattan offices writing about transport and subways. However, since the engagement was announced, Haughney’s mild interest in the Royal Family has turned into something of an obsession.

She has been blogging about Will and Kate’s every cough and sneeze and when she arrived in Britain last week, Haughney turned to Twitter to tell her now loyal following about the Catherine Middleton dolls she had discovered in Harrods, complete with their own pair of golden heels.

“My husband’s British,” says Haughney, by way of explanation. “Back in New York we began have Royal wedding dinner parties once a month with friends where we’d eat shepherd’s pie and watch The Lion in Winter.

“There are some people who think I’ve gone slightly crazy, but the first piece I posted about the wedding attracted 700 hits and it’s just gone on from there. It’s amazing how many otherwise rational Americans, especially my female friends, are fascinated by these weddings. When I wrote about Chelsea Clinton’s wedding last summer, one of my best friends who was doing relief work in domestic violence in the Central African Republic kept writing to me to share her thoughts on Chelsea’s dress.”

Americans rejected the British Royal Family 200 years ago, not that you’d know it by the wall to wall coverage. Trails for the live broadcast, which will be hosted by ex-pat actress Jane Seymour, have been impossible to ignore and the US Weather Channel, with its regular updates of the skies above London, has become a must-watch. Kate Middleton even made it into a sketch on Saturday Night Live. In a couple of hours time, the Daughters of the British Empire will be holding an afternoon tea party in New York and on the West Coast, Golriz Moeini, co-owner of the White Harte Pub in California, will be welcoming the 60 or so people who have reserved seats for the broadcast with sausage rolls and Cornish pasties.

However, before we assume that Cool Britannia is enjoying something of a renaissance, it’s worth remembering that a poll carried out by the New York Times reported that 42 per cent of Americans are paying no attention to the wedding at all. A paltry six per cent said they would be glued to the coverage.

“In the last few weeks I’ve filmed a number of videos asking people on the street what they think of the Royal wedding,” says Haughney, who admits not everyone shares her enthusiasm. “Some thought it was Prince Harry who was getting married and while others did correctly identify the right brother, they had no idea who the fiancée was, except that they’d heard she was a nice woman.

“However, by the time I left to fly to the UK it definitely felt that more people were getting into the spirt of things. People in the US loved Diana and so naturally there’s an interest in what happens to her sons, but there’s something about this wedding which appeals to the American sense of aspiration.

“We may not have the same class system, but the fact the someone like Kate Middleton can marry into the British monarchy gives us all hope.” Just across the Channel in France, William and Kate have become cover stars of the glossy magazines, with Paris Match sending one of its reporters to London to spend four days living the life of the soon-to-be Princess Catherine.

“This is an event of contemporary history and there’s a public infatuation like you wouldn’t believe,” says Stephane Bern, a French commentator, who has covered dozens of Royal weddings. “There is a real public desire for these sorts of events, a willingness to beat the gloomy times. It’s a global event and unprecedented. Marriage is English protocol and the Windsors are good at this kind of colourful show.”

Similarly in Germany, Kate has been a regular feature in the tabloid press since the engagement, but in those countries where the Queen is still head of state, the wedding preparations have also proved fertile ground for republicans to state their case. Canada will welcome the couple on their first official overseas tour, but when it does there’s likely to be significantly less bunting than currently lining the Mall.

“It’s one thing to pay for the Queen to come to Canada, but to also pay for her children and grandchildren to visit makes no sense,” says Tom Freda, national director of the Citizens for a Canadian Republic. “These people are not diplomats or heads of state, they’re just celebrities. Canadian taxpayers should no more pay to have this famous couple visit Canada than to pay for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie or David and Victoria Beckham.”

Unsurprisingly, Freda won’t be at Westminster Abbey today, but his sentiments have been echoed on the other side of the world.

“Could this be the event which lifts the British psyche out of its deep depression?” wrote Mhairi McClymont in The Australian newspaper. “Here, the Governor General Quentin Bryce said the announcement had ‘warmed our nation’s heart’. But having weathered the global financial storm better than most developed countries, you couldn’t really say that there was a need for the same national dose of Prozac as Britain. And in any case who is to say a Royal wedding has the same crowd-pulling power as it did in 1981. As Kate Middleton stood in front of the media wearing Diana’s engagement ring, glamour and beauty appeared to have returned to the Royal Family. It remains to be seen whether the wedding can soothe Britain as it did 30 years ago.

“And another question remains – does Australia care?”

If they asked Melbourne’s Tina Owens, the answer would certainly be yes.

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