You can always just start talking about the news. The royal wedding, for instance. I'm over here in the USA, and we had the wedding broadcast for hours, on 4 major channels. Here in America, we (most of us) love the English royalty, and frankly, I've never really even thought of the UK and US as 2 separate countries, despite the distance factor, and some cultural differences (many more similarities) Only thing that bugged me about the wedding, was the injection of the black "soul" singing. It marred what otherwise was a beautiful event. Generally though, I'd say it was very positive, and the start of a long, healthy part of history. hopefully it will last a long time, unlike other royals whose reign ended much too soon (ex. William & Mary - 1694)
The problem with debating the news in a light-hearted room like Young at Heart is that it can disrupt the flow of the chat..people in there use chat as escapism..making new friends..gossiping etc and don't want to hear about world events like The Yemen being bombed back into the stone age by the Saudis using weapons supplied by his country or live ammunition being used against young Palestinian boys throwing stones etc . . .and if you tried to debate it in The Lobby all you would get would be F this.. F that you stupid C, , , , ,