Yes, they’re in love but this oh-so lavish wedding won’t endear Pippa to the public – or help the Royals

THERE is little in life more uplifting to the heart than the sight of Love’s Young Dream. So it is with the wedding on Saturday between Pippa Middleton, younger sister of the Duchess of Cambridge, and James Matthews.

Pippa may now be 33 and her multimillionaire prospective husband 41. Both may have been around the block a bit. But doesn’t that make it all the more joyous that they should be settling down at last and, one hopes, starting a family?

And yet, reading the newspapers over the past few days, it has been impossible not to register some qualms about the extreme lavishness of the nuptials. Whether they like it or not — and there is strong evidence that they do — Pippa Middleton and James Matthews are closely associated with the Royal Family.

So there is a risk that an extravaganza that might seem more in keeping with a Russian oligarch who has more money than taste will end up damaging the royal brand.

Without a doubt it be all over the airwaves and newspapers. The Mail, among others, has already covered the bizarre build-up. Although the couple have made clear it is a strictly private event — even instructing their lawyers to reiterate the point — they have made provision for the media to take photographs outside the church. Pippa, it must be said, has never been shy of publicity.

This has become a public wedding. All the more regrettable, then, that many people will see the wellpublicised antics of the Matthews and Middleton clans and their guests as proof of Jeremy Corbyn’s contention that the rich occupy a different planet, and should be brought back to earth with a bump.

Do I exaggerate? Consider first the enormous glass pavilion which has been put up in the Berkshire garden of Pippa’s proud parents, Michael and Carole. People who know about such things suggest that the cost of this temporary construction may be as much as £100,000.

Then there are the ‘ throne rooms’ being provided for guests, which are designed to resemble a permanent luxury bathroom. They boast oak fittings, porcelain basins, spot lighting and full-length mirrors. Most people do not enjoy such luxuries in a lifetime. EVEN as I write, I can sense Jeremy Corbyn and his Marxist sidekick John McDonnell licking their lips at this unexpected boon to their mantra that this country is run for the benefit of the fortunate few.

It is true, of course, that the Middletons have made their fortune out of planning parties, and they must have brought many of their skills to this wedding. No doubt they want to impress their guests, as parents are apt to do on these occasions. But is this flaunting of wealth wise or necessary?

Wouldn’t it have been more seemly to have an old-fashioned English country wedding with a straightforward marquee and perfectly adequate Portaloos?

The Middletons have made money, and good for them. Few would complain if they displayed a proper degree of modesty. They are not, in fact, members of the super-rich, though James and his parents (who may well be sharing the stonking bill) probably are. Yet this would seem to be a grotesquely opulent and rather unEnglish affair.

One might add the word ‘pretentious’. That certainly seems the mot juste to describe an aeronautical display planned for the edification of guests. vintage aircraft will perform manoeuvres. Spitfires are expected to fly past.

It sounds the sort of show that might be put on for the Queen at public expense on an official occasion. But this isn’t such an affair. It’s the wedding of two individuals who would be almost unknown to us were it not for Pippa’s connection to the Royal Family.

And that is surely the point. With so much media interest ( which has hardly been discouraged), the Middletons and the Matthewses should be doing their utmost not to taint the reputation for reticence that our naturally self-denying Queen has nurtured.

After all, Prince William will be there along with Kate. So will Prince Harry, whose American girlfriend, Meghan Markle, will probably not attend the church service (for fear her presence might set tongues wagging about an engagement), though she is expected to be at the sumptuous reception in the pavilion.

The world will inevitably regard this as a sort of royal wedding notwithstanding the presence of James Matthews’s brother, Spencer, a louche reality television star who has publicly boasted of his innumerable sexual conquests. This character may well be James’s best man.

Also expected to be present is Pippa’s uncle Gary ( her mother’s brother), who once lived in Ibiza in a mansion called La Maison de Bang Bang. He has been caught boasting about drugs and his royal connections. A photograph of him trying on a smart new three-piece suit (said to cost at least £1,700) has been posted on Instagram. WELL,

many families have embarrassing members, and Pippa and James can hardly be blamed for theirs. But all the more reason to do everything they can to ensure that the occasion is marked by dignity and restraint.

The odd thing is that there is so much to admire about the Middleton and Matthews families. Both have worked hard and are self-made. Both are said to be close and tightly knit.

On the assumption that they have all paid their taxes and that everything has been above board, I don’t see why any of us should begrudge them a single penny of their fortunes. They have, it seems to me, epitomised the best of middleclass values, which many people less fortunate than them would naturally admire.

Why, then, must they risk the charge of behaving like vulgar Russian oligarchs — or at any rate give rise to the belief that they should be viewed in that light? Why the need to make a mark with such tacky displays of wealth?

I’m afraid it was this appetite for naff self-aggrandisement that led to Pippa and Kate once being cruelly nicknamed ‘the Wisteria sisters’ in society circles because they were ‘ highly decorative, terribly fragrant and with a ferocious ability to climb’.

It is, as I say, all grist to Corbyn’s mill. Of course, he preposterously (and conveniently) lumps together the person with a salary of £80,000 and the banker with tens of millions. The excesses of Saturday’s ceremony may be twisted by his envy-driven camp to condemn a whole swathe of people, some who are not really rich at all.

In other words, the over-thetop nature of this very public (and much publicised) wedding will serve as a focus of the class hatred which the Corbynistas are aiming to fan.

Even more to the point, if the young Royals — William, Harry and Kate — think that such a shameless exhibition of conspicuous wealth is going to commend the younger members of the Royal Family to the wider nation, they are sadly deluded. This is not how rich people should behave, especially if they are connected to the monarchy.

Let’s hope Saturday is a wonderful day for Pippa and James. The terrifying truth remains, though, that the reputation of the Royal Family partly rests in the unreliable, and possibly somewhat selfinterested, hands of the Matthewses and Middletons.