Britain’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport has estimated that the extra day’s holiday and a regular public holiday moved for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee have caused a £1.2 billion loss to the British economy, about 0.08 percent of the country’s expected GDP.
Moreover, after the British people went back to work on Wednesday 6 June, new figures revealed the business confidence had plunged.
The anti-monarchy campaign group Republic also said the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee cost British taxpayers “£3.5m, excluding security”.
Writing for The Guardian on Tuesday 5 June, commentator Simon Jenkins compared Diamond Jubilee celebrations to “the buzz of a school sports day or an afternoon’s football victory” which would help British people temporarily forget harsh spending cuts and unemployment.
“Wage growth is disappointingly anaemic, without much prospect of it picking up in the coming months,” said Osman Ismail, an analyst at the Centre for Economics and Business Research.
“Unemployment is still high, the double-dip recession has dented confidence, and plenty of public sector cuts are still to come”, he added.
ISH/JR/HE
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