I believe 'Iain' posted that anecdote somewhere, and it took place in Edinburgh. I highly doubt if most Londoners knew who Queen Beatrix (or any other foreign royal for that matter) is, the english are pretty isolationistic and still convinced of their own supriority (I recently saw a programme on the BBC about Europe and two ladies could only exclaim 'we are superiour', which was rather hilarious for non-english people to see, it brought back memories of Margaret Thatcher).
However, the british media often compared Queen Elizabeth II to the more relaxed Queen Beatrix I during the crisis of the british monarchy in the 90-ties.
To Squidgy:
A lot of funds are wasted here as well, especially on officials who are doing a bad job and have to be fired (but get so much money afterwords) or on public buildings (I believe the CEO's of the goverment organ which deals with social benifits had marble (!) toilets, which caused a big scandal and because of public outrage two of them were fired....after receiving a bonus, of course
Now the royal palace on Dam square and Palace Noordeinde have to be restored, it will take years.
BTW: The boys who threw the eggs were released from jail but they have toappear for court in due date and can receive up to 5 years in jail. After so many pie-throwing left-leaning people, the murders on Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh and the flow on deaththreads on public persons the last 5 years the rules are much stricter then they used to be and these foolish boys won't get away with this easily!