Not this again! The royal palaces DON'T belong to the sovereign but to the state. If she were a president, living in the presidential palace, we (tax-payers) would pay for the lot, like we do for the PMs residences and the various other country and town houses various officers of the government live in free of cost. Remember John Bercow and the fuss about refurbishing the Speaker's House? And the Queen DOES pay towards the upkeep and repair of various state residences - after the fire at Windsor, for example. If I were the Queen, I'd retire to Sandringham or Balmoral (which she does own) and tell the government to make its own arrangements for entertaining assorted foreign heads of state, criminals, and other people they want to get on-side and for travelling the globe flying the flag. And while this is under discussion, why doesn't Margaret Hodge, a Labour MP but one who inherited considerable personal wealth from her family, scrutinise the cost of running the Palace of Westminster, Portcullis House and other subsidised facilities for MPs and ministers?