When I heard of the engagement of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and their plans to marry in the spring, I was immediately delighted. Maybe it would mean another public holiday.

I’ll always be grateful to the royals for those mornings when their marriages and anniversaries have allowed me to wake up without a bullying alarm clock.

What was notable about the official announcement was how brief it was, and how much padding the TV reporters had to do to fill the time before and after it.

But it wasn’t long until the airwaves filled with the inevitable speculation. Just as Edward and Sophie became Earl and Countess of Wessex and Harry and Kate became Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, so it was suggested that Harry and Meghan will be named Duke and Duchess of Sussex. It would be just what we need as a country to lead us forward into the 11th century.

And of course there were comparisons drawn between Meghan, an American who has been married before, and that other American divorcee Wallis Simpson, who married Edward VIII and caused a constitutional crisis. Would the Church of England allow a divorcee to marry in one of its chapels?

It struck me as an odd question, considering that the Church of England was only created because of a divorce. It was founded so that Henry VIII could ditch Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn.

There were other causes of raised eyebrows. Meghan isn’t a British citizen. Even if you’re married to one, you have to have lived here for three years, passed the “Life in the UK” test and meet various other conditions before you can become officially British. Will she have to tick the same boxes as other immigrants?

Members of the royal family are supposed to be strictly impartial in politics, but Meghan has made no secret of her opinions, and has told interviewers she is no fan of Donald Trump or of Brexit. Can she stay silent on politics from now on, for the rest of her life?

My problem with the royals is not with the individuals themselves. I can only hope the marriage of Harry and Meghan turns out more successfully than those of Princes Charles and Andrew or Princesses Anne and Margaret.

It’s with the amount of taxpayers’ money they receive and the idea that they’re somehow better than the rest of us. All the fawning deference, and over-excitement about their births, deaths and marriages, always nauseates me.

One Twitter comment on the engagement read: “Think they will do a lot of good for the world.” So we needn’t get too worried about global hunger, climate change catastrophe or nuclear holocaust - Harry and Meghan are set to do a lot of good. Those living in the shadow of the erupting Mount Agung volcano in Bali will be relieved to hear it.

This may be wishful thinking on my part. But I suspect what this marriage might do is begin to undermine that deference.

When the Queen ascended to the throne a sizable proportion of the population believed she was appointed by God. There can’t be many people who believe that now.

Some among older generations sustain the belief that the royals are superior human beings. Younger generations don’t think that way, and as time passes there won’t be many left who do.

Harry has even encouraged this to some degree, by admitting that none of the younger royals really want to ascend to the throne.

And so their transition from our God-appointed betters to famous-for-being-famous celebrities moves further along.

In future the royals will be viewed on a par with Big Brother contestants, footballers’ wives and Britain’s Got Talent runners-up - and no more entitled to our money or our deference than Katie Price.

The Government have now declared there are “no plans” for a holiday to mark the occasion. Let’s hope they mean it in the same way that there were no plans for a general election this year.

In fact Theresa May could get a much-needed boost to her popularity ratings if she performed a U-turn on this. No-one votes against a day off.

If we do get get a holiday, the wedding should be televised and all those who are royal worshippers should be allowed to watch the whole event. After all, we’re paying for it.