The queen's decor

If she didn't live there it would still be a tourist attraction and we'd make more money because people would be able to tour it.

Btw I know this is off subject but did you know the queen doesn't even run her own bath. That's one of the duties of a housemaid who earns £6.92 an hour (276.92 per week gross).

Sorry, living there I meant.

Is there any reason why she could not be photographed there if the queen wasn't ;iving there?
After all, most of the time she's in one of her/our other seven houses/castles.

The first thing my Italian friend wanted to do was to be photographed outside the palace. It would never have occurred to me to stand there

The Louvre was a royal residence at one time, before the French court moved to Versailles. So was The Hermitage in Russia.
It took a revolution to change them to museums.

The French Govt spend a lot of money repairing monuments and churches etc. A local town near to us received no Govt money for about 50 years as the population was regarded as collaborators - the local chateau was used as the Gestapo HQ - but what would you do if held by the SS and your children threatened - very difficult question. This area had been Vichy France but the resistance were very active and there are all sorts of memorials to people taken away and never seen again or a town/village under siege and then bombarded. Very interesting reading all these things and makes you think what it was like to be occupied by a foreign power.

Would the French not consider maintaining the Elysée Palace?

Republican/Royalist , your view will skew the response to the question won't it.

Tourists go to Buckingham Palace because it's there .... no-one comes to the UK just to stand outside BP. It's very close to many interesting tourist sites e.g. Downing St, Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square, etc.

France is the world's most visited tourist country and they don't have a monarchy; the second is the United States.

The office staff could move into the apartments in St James Palace and Kensington Palace, the domestic staff , the kitchen staff, the footmen etc could be given a very long holiday , she has staff at Windsorno need to take them with her.

It would an awful job trying to find another place to replace it on a permanent basis. I wonder how they will manage to function if they all move out at the same time. Be interesting logistic or someone!

Buckingham Palace is very much a working building. Nearly 100 of the rooms are offices and a lot of staff members live there. It's a focal point for official occasions as well as being a huge tourist attraction.

I can't imagine Windsor castle being able to cope with all of this which is probably why the Queen likes it so much.

For one thing Windsor could probably not accommodate all the extra tourist traffic the Queen living there would generate. The traffic would be abominable for the local population and cause a lot of problems. There are many many tourists who clog up the town during a normal summer season with no royalty there. At least where Buckingham palace is situated it is a place with roads, tube lines and other transport links already established. It is also in a place near enough to other Govt offices - can you imagine the journey for the queen to open Parliament trying to get along the M4 and arrive on time - I suppose she could take a helicopter from the Great park to Hyde park. Also just think of all the trade that London would lose out on. I doubt there would be much support for that solution. Personally I would hate the job that they do so well and bring in much trade and goodwill from the rest of the world. Some of them probably could be culled but the State overall does profit from the work they do.

Talking about Windsor, why do they not just move there permanently?
She says she prefers Windsor to Buck House.
We can do up Buck House, then Parliament can move in there while Westminster is being refurbished.
Then we can use one of them as a very big museum or art gallery, to display all the art that the public is supposed to own along with all the big houses.

What wouldn't you do for your children if you could afford it? The country makes money out of the royal family, even if you ignore the effect of tourism and foreign visits promoting this country. Actual real money. You should focus your discontent on your MP, not on the Queen, if you object to welfare cuts.

It's a very large council house. She was lucky she wasn't asked to down size or pay bedroom tax . I am fed up with the hypocrisy of the windsors . the country is struggling, serious shortage of housing, homeless teenagers , the disabled losing money to help them live a fairly independent life and the windsors live a decadent life style still. Why should Andrews daughters be given apartments in one of our places ? Let them find work and get a morgage .

Today on a news programme I was amazed at the amount of money the Crown Estates put into the country's purse - far more than is ever mentioned being paid out to them in the Civil List etc - we are as a country making a huge profit.

The Queen spends some of her time their but it is not hers. It belongs to the country. If the monarchy was ended tomorrow the Palace would still be there and the government would still be spending money on it.

That's a thought !

Line up all those who do not pay tax, loopy? Wouldn't be allowed, even in Scotland.

Tax shoots dj ?
For a moment I thought this was a new sport!

The Crown hands over all income from property and commercial activity to the government and gets a small percentage back to cover the expenses of office. This has been the arrangement for nearly 300 years. All members of the royal family also pay tax.

Remember the Queen and I, by Sue Townsend of Adrian Mole fame- she got them sent to a council estate next to where I used to live- that would be fun and a nice change for them - and lots of fox hunting!

I can believe that it hasnt been decorated since 1952. I dont think that the electrics have been done since then either.

Nicola Sturgeon is going to get the money back, though. She's going to tax shoots in Scotland.

www.politics.co.uk/opinion-formers/british-association-for-shooting-and-conservation-basc/article/shoots-in-scotland-face-tax-re-introduction

I'm not 'claiming' ownership. We own it. She gets to live in it rent free.