More heartbreak for the Queen

Grany and others:
Most of the UK monarchy’s expenses are not paid by the taxpayer, but by people who rent land and buildings from the Crown Estate. Travel and security costs are borne by the taxpayer, however. When the Queen needs to go a long distance, she charters an aircraft. The monarchy has no equivalent of Air Force One except for short-haul flights.

The US president’s salary is comparatively small, but he has a large budget for his staff, and his travel and security costs are absolutely gargantuan compared to the royal family. He takes two massive armored cars with him wherever he goes, along with a mobile operating theater. The two Air Force One planes are expensive to operate as well. Whenever he goes someplace, the Secret Service researches it for weeks in advance. The Queen doesn’t go through nearly that much fuss.

The monarchy also brings in money to the nation through tourism and knickknacks, which the presidency does not, so that’s on the positive side of their ledger. Every commemorative plate with the Queen’s face on it that’s sold produces 20% Value Added Tax. US presidents don’t stay around long enough for a lot of commemorative plates to be made.

Finally, there’s the colossal cost of US elections. These are born chiefly by the donors, not the taxpayer, but they still involve an absurd amount of money. The Queen isn’t elected, and British elections are quick and cheap.

I agree TerriBull

As the Queen never speaks of giving money to charity it’s
amazing that some one who writes a book knows she not only
gives money but it’s not her money.

ten gardeners.

I presume you are referring to the extensive gardens at Highgrove which are open to the public by appointment and often used for charity funding events.

The royals are a pretty ghastly crew. I wish they'd do the decent thing and count their lucky stars and go away - they've had a very good run. I'm fed up paying taxes to support an entitled and not very bright set of spongers.
I see people sleeping on the streets, queuing at food banks and having operations cancelled in decaying hospitals and wonder why on earth we pay taxes to maintain these already very wealthy people. What am I missing?

But where did the Crown estate come from??
Why do monarchists not do full research into the history of the Royal Family and how they "acquired" the land and money to pass on.

Charlies"duchy" estate ,entitled to the contents of all shipwrecks off the coast,anyone who dies without a will he gets the estate ..ad lots of more very unfair wee things that the ordinary jo/joe would be called out ofr.Its theft by another name .Thats where their money comes from and always did come from,they haven't done a days hard work in their lives ...any of them Annepl the "crown" estate was handed over to government by one of the Georges in payment of his debts he got an agreement to a share of the income ..nice "work" if you can get it ,the agreement has grown wings and they take a fair whack of it every year .

How many shipwrecks has there been in the last 50 years ?

The property of anyone who dies with out a will or identifiable
heirs goes to the Duchy.

The workings of the RF,their estates what they do, don’t do what belongs to the country , what they are custodians of, how many folks they employ etc etc is not at all as black & white as it may appear on the surface, if we did not have them then many many folks would loose their jobs etc etc, the situation is often portrayed as a one way street which is a misrepresentation.
Windsor town for one example is thriving due to visitors , cafe, shops , B& B etc
Factories producing souvenirs are also employers
We don’t all have to have a liking for them , but we should perhaps sometimes look at the bigger picture.

They do nothing whatsoever for the North of England . Brilliant for Windsor but We pay our taxes too .

Well that applies to all sorts of areas & situations.
Our whole world system is messed up, when look around the world where countries still don’t have on tap water or sanitation.

I agree with you Bridgeit but I am sick of being told that the royals are good value.

On a side note my dearest darling little grandson (10) told me tonight that when, (not if) he becomes a premier league footballer the first thing he will do is to pay for clean water for the poor people .
He’s so kind and lovely. I’m blessed to have him in my life .

Aw, lovely boy. We could learn a thing or two from him.

We could indeed Greymar thank you

Ahh that’s so lovely,

I agree being told they are good value can sound a bit gauling but they do have value. Nothing is ever as straight forward as we would want it to be.

Regarding tourist income etc The end is not justified by the means.
Some people will always have an answer Paddyanne. If you want to believe something badly enough you will find some way to justify it. Anniebach It doesn't mattter if there hasn't been a shipwreck recently, the fact is it belongs to Charles . Why should that be? Try reading your history books a bit further back.

Oh Gilly, what a little sweetie you’ve got there.

Annepel, not some people, we all do it.

Gillybob. The Royal family may, or may not ave a clue about living in the real world, to quote from your post.
What makes you think that you have any more of a clue about living in their world?
I wouldn’t swap places with them to be a target for every kind of scrutiny and abuse, without any form of defence or retaliation.
Neither would I want to replace the Monarch with any of the jumped-up pathetic so-called ‘world leaders’ who are making such a mess of their countries.

There are none so blind.......

It stated on the News last night that both Peter and Autumn Phillips and their children will continue to live in the UK, so doesn’t sound as though she is planning to move to Canada with the girls.

The POTUS hasn’t the same role as the Queen - he has a political role as well as being Head of State, so arguable more important at and in need of greater security etc. We could have an elected non political Head of State - nothing to stop Prince Charles or William standing for election - they may win. Alternatively we could have a non royal standing maybe David Attenborough or someone non political of gravitas. That would bring us into the modern world.

Bit off topic, but does anyone else think Kate looks painfully thin?
Saw her on the news last night and she’s literally skin & bone.
Hope she’s okay.

vegan I’ve tried several times on GN to make the point about the difference between a Head of State and a Head of Government and that the USA combines the two whilst many countries don’t - close to home, Ireland and Germany are two examples.
As for tourist income, is there really any evidence as to this? Why do people visit historical towns with castles in countries like France and Germany and yet no monarchy? The clue might be in the word ‘historical’.

Yes agree. Hardly any tourists see the royals so to say they bring in tourists is ridiculous. Far more tourists visit Versailles than Buckingham Palace, and they chopped their royals heads off centuries ago.