For a nation supposedly disenchanted with elites, the public response to the royal wedding last weekend was puzzling. If ever there was a display of elites, this was it – from David Beckham to Oprah Winfrey, and with the Queen and the rest of the House of Windsor out in force. Yet the public, by and large, appeared to love it, including those watching on television, said to number more than two billion worldwide. The event and the response to it confirmed Juvenal’s cynical point that you keep the masses happy by giving them bread and circuses; and this was a stupendously generous helping of the latter.