Diamond Jubilee: Avoiding the hype

The Diamond Jubilee celebrations have ended with a recorded thank-you message from the Queen.

In the last four days there has been a series of events including the Thames River Pageant, a concert in front of Buckingham Palace, and a flypast.

But some people have done their best to ignore the celebrations.

BBC News website readers have been speaking about how and why they have avoided the series of Diamond Jubilee events.

Richard Wells, St Austell, Cornwall

Richard Wells: "There has been far too much hype about the Diamond Jubilee"

Over the weekend I went on a nice bike ride, taking a packed lunch so I don't even have to go into a pub.

In the evenings I've been painting and reading.

I have ignored the celebrations - it has nothing to do with me.

In my village street parties were planned for the bank holiday weekend, but as far as I'm concerned there is nothing to celebrate.

All this fuss has been absolute appalling.

There has been wall to wall coverage, even on the <link> <caption>Today</caption> <altText>Today programme link</altText> <url href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/default.stm" platform="highweb"/> </link> programme which I like.

Even <link> <caption>Gardeners' Question Time</caption> <altText>Gardeners' Question Time programme link</altText> <url href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qp2f" platform="highweb"/> </link> managed to get something on the Diamond Jubilee into the programme.

Also, when there is nothing to say about the celebrations, programmes go back in history to talk about Queen Victoria and other monarchs.

I think the BBC is acting as publicity agent for the royals.

I have nothing against the Royal Family personally, it's the institution that I disagree with.

Their power is played down - they have enormous power that they lend to the prime minister of the day.

The anniversary just means that it has been 60 years of not having the right to choose our head of state - I won't even start with their costs.

There has been far too much hype about the Diamond Jubilee. I expect more from the BBC as they're supposed to give a balanced view.

There have been republican viewpoints but they have been minimal.

Alison Topel, Newcastle upon Tyne

I have done my best to avoid any Jubilee activity.

Apart from visiting my mother-in-law who is a staunch royalist I hoped to be far from the maddening crown and the media overkill - It's been way too much.

I don't see why we're celebrating.

The whole thing has turned us all into children with all the flag waving and face painting.

It has been a miserable four days of endless details about the Diamond Jubilee - I'm sick of hearing about it all.

I need to emigrate to France or somewhere!

The Queen is just a woman who has been very lucky.

In my mother-in-law's village, people take it in turns to hold garden parties.

This year it was my mother-in-law's turn and this year it took on a greater significance with lots of bunting.

There has been no escape - I've had to sneak off to read a book.

Steve Darby, Lancaster

Steve Darby says he prefers to canoe on the Lancaster Canal than take part in a Jubilee event

I've been at work, finishing on Sunday, and I have avoided looking at anything Jubilee related.

I'm trying to hold back my anger at the millions of pounds that have been spent this year for the Diamond Jubilee.

How many jobs could have been saved with that money in these times of austerity?

How many lives could have been saved around the world?

We are always seeing on TV how just £5 could give a family fresh water for a week or £5 could give a child life saving medication.

There are cutbacks in our police, yet wherever the Queen decides to go on her day trips, the police overtime bill for security must run into millions.

Those millions could have kept our police in jobs and kept them on our streets protecting the public all year around and not for a fleeting visit by the Royal Family.

I am not an anarchist - when Princess Diana died I signed a book of condolence, and last year I was happy about the wedding of William and Kate.

I'm proud to be British and I have nothing against people celebrating, but I get infuriated when I visualise how that money could be better spent.

<italic>Interviews by Andrée Massiah</italic>