Outrage in some quarters - and guilty snickers in others today - following remarks by Dave Prentis, the head of the UK's biggest worker's union, Unison, who made a joke at his organization's annual conference comparing Kate Middleton to young mums who have babies to access welfare payments.
During his speech to delegates in Liverpool, Dave Prentis was arguing against cuts to welfare payment, saying: "In the tabloid press, so much is written about benefits abuses - young women having babies to get state hand-outs. But conference, that's enough on Kate Middleton."
Mr Prentis's joke went down a storm with delegates but was later downplayed by an official spokesperson as "a throwaway remark".
It does, however, point up the significant hostility felt among many left-wing British people in particular to the undeniably lavish lifestyles enjoyed by the royal family, the bill of which is ultimately footed by the nation.
