As the day of William and Kate's wedding draws near, concern is growing that the patriotic flags and knick-knacks being displayed in the cul-de-sac's front windows are a genuine show of royalist fervour, and not – as was originally assumed – an ironic post-modern gesture.
'I guess it could still be taken either way,' said sales manager, Gavin Baker, as he eyed his neighbours' growing collections of memorabilia, filling the bay windows of their Cheam semis, 'but I'm beginning to think they might be serious.'
Conversations over the eight months since he moved into the area had led Gavin to believe that he was 'pretty much on the same wavelength' as his neighbours, and so he had taken their tacky displays of royal kitsch as ironic parodies of the sort of tat actual royalists might indeed put up.
'I put up some bunting, and a Will'n'Kate pull-out from the paper – to show them I was in on the joke – but when they asked me if I'd like to put some money in for the street party, I began to have my doubts.'
His neighbours' ironic views on immigration, homosexuality and supply-side economics are also being reassessed at time of press.
