I wanna be just like Uncle Jimmy -not!

Errr - This isn't a news item that I had noticed or knew anything whatsoever about - but could it be that they just were not suited to one another for private reasons, nothing to do with the ones you assume? Couples split up all the time.

From the tone of your blog post, it seems that you are strongly affected personally by the news, enough to blistering about Prince George's supposed snobbishly aristocratic reactions and to give a pseudo-Geordie voice to his mother.

Are you perhaps a friend or relation of Ms Air?

There is a large whiff of chip on the shoulder here? Want salt and sauce with it?!

What's wrong with having an ancestor who was a coal miner? King Coal still rules in the North East.

I have no interest whatsoever in the royal family or those associated with it - and I have no idea who Donna Air is. Nevertheless, I find many of your comments extremely snobbish and insulting to the majority of people whose recent family trees do not include members of the artistocracy and may even (shock horror!) include a miner or two.

Unfortunately relationships do end for any number of reasons and you can't possibly know what caused the breakup to which you refer. Also, although referring to children from past relationships as "baggage" is quite common, I think it's a cruel and hurtful expression.

Oh dear, GrandmaB63. I know this is all a bit of fun, but you're in for some stick here. There are going to be other Gransnetters, like me, whose ancestors were nearly all coal miners (for goodness sake) and again like me, are bloody proud of it!

I thought that the blogs on here were chosen by GNHQ for their interesting content and/or topicality. If they initiated this one, then they must have been seriously short of topics and bloggers. Their standards are slipping.

a) This was old news a year ago, and not of all that much general interest anyway, so neither topical or interesting.

b) I can't remember when I read a more unpleasant piece of writing on GN - except certain trolling posts a couple of years ago. It must be unofficial - GNHQ have more taste and sense.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

nasty and pointless posting.

I don't honestly think that GrandmaB63 meant to be unpleasant though. It's just an attempt at humour that didn't quite hit the target.

I have been checking. Blog posts put on by GNHQ are in a different format to this - they start with an introduction by HQ. The author of this one has started blogs before, the previous one was on Achilles Heels. I wasn't aware that the starter post could be inserted by anyone - I know that Jane10's post about posh department stores was an official one, timed to come out on a specific day, and I though they were all like that.

Well - I had already reported it, asking GNHQ whether they had added it, because if so I didn't think much of their judgment. I don't think it adds anything whatsoever to Gransnet, it is petty and vituperative.

Are you looking for good well-placed step-dad material for your DD then?

If so, then James Middleton must be available if you OP is to be believed.
Although just because one is related to the Royals does not necessarily make one suitable step-father material.

Sorry, I meant DGD!
Unless you want a well-connected step-dad for your DD too.

Two for the price of one so to speak.

There's blogs and guest blogs. My one was an official guest blog. Anyone can post a blog though -and take their chances as to how well it goes down.

Anyone can post a blog though -and take their chances as to how well it goes down.
Well this one seems to be going down like the proverbial lead balloon. And I'm not in the least surprised. It is very unpleasant and not at all funny.

GrandmaB63 are you somehow in the know? Have you got any interesting insider gossip to pass on. Tell us some more pleeease. We are all ears. You can be the 'Daily Mail' bit of Gransnet.

I think GB63 watched Tracey Ullman last night and thought she could improve on the script.

Ooooh dear - I appear to have upset a lot of people who've recently undergone a sense of humour bypass! This was purely a tongue in cheek exercise and for your information most of my ancestors were in service so I enjoyed that chip with lots of salt and vinegar thanks. I am neither a snob, nor a great lover of the Royal Family and I adore my coal fire thank you very much.

As the well known Face Book quote goes - "Please let me know if anything I write offends you so I can unfriend you immediately".

I apologise for misunderstanding the philosophy of "Gransnet". I thought it was meant to be light hearted fun. I shall just keep writing for "The Oldie" Magazine and the "Mature Times".

Bye and all the best to the fun Grandmas.

Not necessarily upset,( I don't believe there are any entrenched Royalists on GN,) just somewhat bemused at the point of it all.

I didn't realise it was meant to be funny. Anyway, having re-read it, I don't think it is funny.

No need to be a Royalist to consider it in bad taste, and insulting to both ends of the social spectrum - and not even funny.

The Oldie does have a tradition of brittle barbed "jokes".

My understanding was that the Middleton ancestor was a Durham miner and not from Yorkshire as the dialogue appears to suggest. Nothing wrong with Durham miners, several of them were my relations. Donna Air was a Tyneside lass who magically lost her Geordie accent after Byker Grove.

I am no royalist and I thought it pointless and unfunny. Since when has Catherine spoken with a northern accent, she is from the Home Counties. Rubbish.

One of my ancestors was a girl of rather loose morals (or maybe just dreadful taste in men) who produced two bastard babies in sequential years to two different post-Waterloo soldiers, and was twice hauled up before her parish for interrogation about the vanished fathers before she was awarded any support.

However, I don't post sarcastically about the evils of military commanders or the administrators of church finances. Neither do I parody her probable illiterate Kent accent.

I reckon I can write a bit better, too. #hubris

An unpleasant example of inverted snobbery which is almost worse that overt snobbery. Get over it, blogger.