Empathy for Our Queen? ( As a Mother)

I think Andrew has diplomatic immunity

I think all her children have been a disappointment to her. When she dies, she will not be replaced by someone of the same calibre. However, at least Prince Charles, Princess Anne and Prince William take their obligations seriously, unlike a certain young man with ginger hair, who is more concerned with his own personal agenda than royal duties.

I do have sympathy for her but he knew what he was doing was wrong . Andrew thought he could hide behind the cloak of the royal family and get away with it . He has brought disgrace upon the royal family and the queen should of put damage limitations in progress sooner . He should never be allowed to do royal duties again and should never be given another penny from the royals . If he wants to act like a low life , go out earn his own money .

PA does not get a penny from the Civil List, he is given an allowance from the Queen, so day to day, he costs us nothing. However, he was able to claim travel expenses, when performing Royal duties and did use more expensive forms of transport than was necessary. Thus 'Air Miles Andy', He has never endeared himself to the general public and flaunts his privileged position. He is arrogant and this has come about by the indulgence of his mother. However, I do have sympathy for HMQ. It must be very upsetting when one of your children turns out to be such a disappointment.
I do wonder what PA's protection officers were doing whilst he was, allegedly, having sex with the 17 year old. They would have been aware of anything untoward or they hadn't been doing their job properly.

The Civil List was replaced by the Sovereign Grant some years ago ( and vastly increased HM’s income) nice in times of austerity. I think she pays him £250k from this. As he won’t be earning this now ( if he ever did) she could donate the sum to one of the charities dealing with human trafficking

Being a bit picky, on all these royal threads we keep reading about the Civil List. This was done away with back in 2012 by George Osborne, I believe. Replaced by the Sovereign Grant or something similar. I think the only ones on the CL for some time back had been HM, the D of E and the QM when she was alive. I think HM has to pay back a certain amount to the Exchequer, and she pays the other members of the RF herself, not Charles, William and Harry, theirs is from the Duchy of Cornwall. HM also gets income from Duchy of Lancaster, not sure why.

suziewoozie has beaten me to it with some info on CL!

We can see that this must be stressful for the Royal family (particularly the Queen due to her years) - but to be honest, it is those who are the victims that I feel more sorry for.

The Queen is a victim of her birthright. Her father smoked himself to death and because our Queen had to take up being the monarch we have put her in the role of Queen probably long before she could have time to enjoy just being a mother .
You cannot say she has not been a very hardworking you cannot say she has not worked hard.

Oops my dreadful typing.

My parents who were her age, worked very very hard, and died with multiple health problems in their 70s and always had to worry about money

Anyone whose children have ever given them problems must be so grateful that they are not in the public eye.

Perhaps PA is in temperament a little more like Princess Margaret , than he is the Queen.

Second child syndrome ?

Margaret, Andrew, Harry , spoilt ?

Andrew was the Queen's 3rd.

I can’t believe that Prince Andrew said that his actions had not had a bad effect on The Queen. Does he not realise that first of all she is his mother, and all mothers would be horrified if their son behaved as he has.

Surely this is the logical result of this awful system whereby we revere, defer, bow and scrape to people purely by dint of their birth? This is what has contributed to PA’s extreme arrogance, sense of entitlement and determination that HE need not explain himself to anyone - and certainly not to mere ‘subjects’ It also most likely explains his lack of sympathy or empathy for Epstein’s victims. After all - they couldn’t possibly have the same ‘worth’ as his ROYAL daughters - their function was merely to entertain. They should’ve been grateful!
Makes me fume.

He seems to me to be an arrogant idiot who was drawn into the wrong ‘set’. I’m pleased to hear that he won’t be a drain on the economy anymore and I hope her Madge docks his pocket money.

I do feel sorry for his family especially his girls, but did they not realise what company he was keeping? Are they all so isolated from each other?

Yes third child but 2nd in line

I am not a fan of the royal family or the queen. However, I do have some sympathy for her at the moment. Any parent would find the current situation to be distressing.

However, I have more sympathy for ordinary people who have the normal anxieties of paying the mortgage/rent, transport, energy bills, council tax, phone, etc, plus inadequate support for child or elder care. Difficulties with young people are often created or exacerbated by a lack of time to spend with children and a lack of finances to create emotional and material security - something which the royal family does not have to contend with.

Yes, that's what it is known as now suziewoozie, the Sovereign Grant and HM pays whoever is carrying out duties on her behalf from Royals to Footmen

Charles has his own income.

Andrew gets £20,000 pension as an ex-Lieutenant Commander (promoted to Vice Admiral since leaving naval service!)
He's not due his state pension yet, though, so could be strapped for cash.

I think the Sovereign Grant was increased by so much because expensive repairs were needed to Buckingham Palace which had been neglected by governments for years.
It is the office of Head of State and where foreign dignitaries, other Heads of State etc are entertained; it's not a home as such.

Some such residence would be required whoever was Head of State. Building a new one would cost far more.
Routine maintenance is more cost-effective than leaving a building to rot, leak and then have to pay out a fortune in repairs.

suziwoozie you are right about many born around the same time as the queen.

I don't suppose the queen is worried about keeping warm this winter, how she can get to the doctors/hospital when she needs, whether she is eligible for a care package, or whether she can afford her TV licence.

I feel so sorry for the Queen, at her age and after years of serving her Country, she should be enjoying the twilight years, as many of us are.My sympathy goes out to our lovely Queen.Long may she reign.

The Sovereign Grant is very different from the CL and was a great wheeze dreamed up by George Osborne and no doubt a gleeful BP. It means we never have a debate now about increasing their income and more importantly they get massive year on year increases. 8% is the lowest I think since it started and it’s sometimes been in double figures. Meanwhile ... we were just played weren’t we and continue to be’