Can even ardent royalists justify this?

How nice it would be though if there was a ballot for a percentage of free tickets for the charity workers. The hard grafters on the minimum wage.

Am not a Royalist, but this is better than it coming out of taxes.A lot of people will be happy to stump up the money and go to it.It will have to be paid for,and in the end if charities can sell on a lot of the tickets, they will make some money out of it.Hard to believe the Queen will be ninety this year, makes us all feel quite young!

hmm, not sure about this.Although I suppose it is better than the taxpayer coughing up for the whole thing. I am not a royalist but appreciate the hard work undertaken by the Queen and feel that her 90th birthday merits a celebration. But not sure that I would appreciate the donation I make to The Dogs Trust being used to pay for an M & S hamper and profits to Master Phillips. I always had a sneaking respect for Princess Anne keeping her children out of the public eye and not having titles etc., but it looks like Peter is making money out of this.

It is intended as a fundraiswer for the charities? Well, expensive do's have been used many times before to raise funds. It would raise more if they all paid that for a bread-and-cheese lunch in a community hall, ceremonially opened by the caretaker, with entertainment by the caretaker's grandchildren singing offkey accompanied by the cleaner on the out-of-tune piano, but how many tickets would they sell for that?

There are probably enough people who are happy to pay £150 per person to be at a party with the queen to fill it up. We don't have to go, it is not compulsory. Let 'em enjoy themselves. Live and let live.

I meant to say Prince Harry could organise it for free.

Whatever the true story it's all bad publicity, isn't it? It would be better if Her Maj had a garden party and invited members of the armed forces wounded in action. Prince Harry could organise it.

I have lost the plot here - surely the idea is that the charities should gain?

Yes, I understood it was to be a fundraiser for the charities concerned and that expenses (including salaries one presumes) would be kept to a minimum.

Perhaps Rosie Millard hasn't had her invite yet (and not likely to now )

It is quite a complicated affair almost guaranteed to cause confusion.

I have read that all but 1000 of the 10000 tickets will be given to charities who will give them to deserving people, although the charities can sell 40% of their own allocation to raise money for that charity.

1000 tickets are to be available to people happy to pay £150 for one.

Costs are to borne by corporate sponsors and it is not intended that there be any profit made other than for charity.

I agree with the Royal Family on the whole, but this sounds like a very bad idea to me.