Future of the Monarchy

Maremia

May I just point out that you do not simply walk into a foodbank and load up your wagon with goodies.
You must first prove a 'need'.
You are welcome.

Yes, I think for some foodbanks ( not all ) you need a referral.
They are meant for temporary use in a crisis not a long term help.

I remember going to the waxworks as a kid, seeing this huge room just for the royals. Loads of them.
Now grown up, paying tax, I think Charles has done the right thing slimming down the RF.
My friends grand daughter says, BP should be turned into a gay pub 😂

People bringing up concerns about Presidents and mentioning Trump and Putin and Lukashenko, do this because they exist now, in our own time.
SORES, great post.

Article in the online Guardian just now, describing some
'encounters' with AMW in his post as Trade Whatever.

May I just point out that you do not simply walk into a foodbank and load up your wagon with goodies.
You must first prove a 'need'.
You are welcome.

Yes Grantanow but at least we could vote them out eventually.

If not the King then some redundant politician: Thatcher, Truss, Farage....

Oreo

Are you a teacher or a teaching assistant or another job in a school Jane Judge as the salaries in ‘education’ vary widely.
Teachers do not require food banks, neither do nurses.

In general, I agree here.

When I employed teachers, teaching assistants, mealtime supervisors etc, it went like this:
Teachers managed fine on the salary. Even dining out in restaurants.
TAs often came to ask for an advance a couple of months a year because their funds were running low.
Mealtime assistants needed help and were allowed to take home food from our kitchen for themselves and their families.
As said, in education as a whole, the salaries vary considerably.

BBC - 2 November 2024 - documentary

"The royal family has received millions of pounds income in rent from the NHS, schools and the armed forces."

Look it up if you don't believe me.

merlotgran

JaneJudge

Because she most people Do not have a horse

So what?

Many people have horses nowadays, not just Royals 🤦‍♀️

I have seldom read such common sense and reasoned thinking about the Royal family as I have on reading Stone if Destiny’s post.
It echoes all of my own thinking and put so well.
The “fans” of the family who greet every photo, every bit of gossip are sycophants in my eyes, perhaps not putting their own lives into perspective but envying the unattainable.
The clothes, the glamour, the lifestyle, all so beyond their own.
Like going to the cinema and then back out in the dark to real life.

Re Charles and Jimmy Savile, so many people failed to see the reality. In the 70s my parents lived not far from Broadmoor, and were friends with the chief psychiatrist and his wife - who incidentally came to my and dh’s wedding. Parents were invited to several events, presumably fundraisers, at Broadmoor, at which JS was certainly present at least once.*

If even Broadmoor’s chief psychiatrist, who was used to dealing with psychotic double murderers etc., could not see through Jimmy Savile’s carefully created facade, I fail to understand how on earth Charles was supposed to.

*My folks were introduced to JS, and my mother said at the time that he gave her the absolute creeps, but she was always a hyper sensitive type anyway.

Allira

Tuliptree

Yes, I know some of them. However, he was courageous in the Falklands.

That’s not a get out of jail free card is if? Or are you saying all ex -Fslklsnds service people can behave like this?

🤔
Nice to have you back 😂

I thought she had gone to play on Mumsnet.

I am astonished that so many people seem to think that if the royal family was abolished their perceived riches would immediately pass to the NHS and to support the homeless. Many of royalty's possessions do not belong to them, as in they are not allowed to sell them or give them away, they are their for future generations and and are frequently available for display and /or access.
Likewise the royal houses, which are not nearly so splendid or comfortable as the uninformed imagine, are open to the public as are the grounds.
Oliver Cromwell tried to rid the country of royalty with little success; the royal money and priceless assets such as the royal art collection and crown jewels were sold or melted down for a pittance, and used to pay his soldiers' wages; the country did not benefit. At the end of his life his attempt to pass government on to his son failed; the country preferred the restoration of the royal family.Charles 11.

I do wish people would check their facts before they parroted ill-informed prejudices, or perhaps just read history, the teaching of which is steadily and deliberately being eroded.

Tuliptree

This thread is not going to be a real discussion is it? I’ll go back to the similar one on MN

Hallelujah!!!

StoneofDestiny

The monarchy needs to go. It is a massive anachronism.

It's appalling to think that anybody, simply by being born into a particular family, can find themselves subsidised by the taxpayers in an extraordinary position of wealth and privilege for life, and can guarantee the same for their children.

The extraordinary battery of financial privileges they are given comes with an ability to hide their wealth from the taxpaying public. The Queen/King and their partners can pass on their wealth free of inheritance tax. They can keep their Wills private. No other member of the public can do that. As for the number of these independently wealthy multimillionaires paying peppercorn rents for mansions - outrageous, and all happening in front of us while we complain about the state of public finances, the decline of the NHS, the underfunding of schools, the in-repaired potholes etc.

The sheer arrogance of the royals saying 'never complain, never explain' is exactly why some of them have been able to get away with the offensive behaviour they have. They have nothing to complain about and everything to explain.
The problem is our media are so keen to get a picture of Kate in her latest dress they feel obliged to keep silent about certain things so as not to be expelled from the press pack at events.

We watched Philip turn up to every public event he looked pained to be at, only to insult the people less privileged than him or from a different culture or country. We were expected to tolerate his obnoxious behaviour with 'that's just Philip's way'. He was a national embarrassment.

We are now watching sheer royal corruption exposed by the Epstein Files. Look at the lavish lifestyle Andrew and Fergie enjoyed without a job between them. Look at how we had to pay excessive amounts in security to watch his daughters globe trotting at our expense.

Look at how little Kate and William actually do. Yet, as soon as his future lifestyle is threatened, he has become animated and 'concerned'. Why did he not speak up before? Why didn't Charles? Why didn't the Queen? No - she just came up with £12 million to silence the victim of her son. Shameless.

Where was 'all equal before the law', 'the law must take its course'? They are only saying it now because their positions are at risk, because the group 'Republic' made an official complaint to Thames Valley Police. The royals have enabled Andrew by their silence.

I'm tired of hearing about their 'duty', how 'Andrew served in the navy', 'Kate has had cancer', 'the King has cancer'. So have many of us had or have cancer, lost children to cancer, served in the armed forces, worked all our lives in public services, volunteered for good causes as well as working. The difference is non of these ordinary citizens are rewarded with jobs for life, endless mansions, servants, chauffeurs, Nannie's etc We just have to dig deep, and when ill with cancer get back to work before our sick pay runs out.

Nothing has changed in terms of tourism when a royal dies and no job is left undone. In many of our lifetimes, The Queen Mother, Princess Margaret, Princess Diana, Prince Philip,The Queen died. Nothing stopped running, tourism didn't drop off, the clocks didn't stop.People will visit whether the royals are here or not. Many of us have been to Versailles not expecting to see a Queen or King and many similar places across the globe.
We can still have pageantry without the royals - other countries do.

The country can run without Kates new dress display, Williams latest tantrum, the dilemma of what school his kids will go to, the saga of their dogs or what Meghan and Harry did next.

Thanks, saves me writing it.

They’re not free of transparency or scrutiny tho, as has just been proved.
We have existed here without a written constitution for a very long time, and we do have democracy thank you very much.

This is just an odd family stuck in the way of our democracy making no difference, coining it in, free from scrutiny transparency they are an embarrassment.
We need real democracy in this country get rid of the Lords have an elected upper house. An elected Head of State that's accountable to the people and a written constitution.

Junior nurses on the lowest, band 4 is £28,000 to £34,000
Band 5 is £37,000 to £44,000.
Then there’s band 7 and so on upwards.
Extra pay can be got from working nights, weekend and bank holidays ( double pay I think.)
Anyone can fall on hard times, with debts or anything else but it’s wrong to make out that certain professions are so badly paid they need a food handout.

Oreo I don’t think it’s as cut and dried as you say, I ve little information about teaching and teachers, but we are family of NHS workers and the conditions and work load is ridiculous. They live far, far from a well off life style, and I’m not talking about juniors either.

Get rid of the lot of them
Everything’s been said
Stoneofdestiny I agree with most of what you say
I was thinking it should be pared down to just a king and queen but the more I think of it, the more I believe that wouldn’t work either.
Their riches are an abomination
They should go or if they stay everything else should go, all their palaces and large buildings should be given to the country, all the land owned by them should be used to support the homeless, the NHS etc etc.
They should be there for the good of the country not to milk it into oblivion
However I m sure they ll stay, after all most people seem to adore them and never look at their lives and riches in any depth

Interesting that it’s the unions making a big thing of teachers and nurses who have used a foodbank!
They probably did a NHS survey and asked all of the NHS staff not just nurses who had ever, even once used a foodbank to get their figures.
How do posters think those on much lower incomes than professionals manage, and no we don’t all use foodbanks.Actually it isn’t easy to get foodbank use.
How many nurses and teachers are there in the UK? A huge number is the answer and most have a good lifestyle.

Yes, exactly, Allsorts.
Hubris.
Fallen from a great height because of the flaws in his character.
Pity is the right word.

I watched a documentary on Andrews time as Trade Envoy, when he was called Air Miles Andy, I am afraid the Royals knew then about his dodgy dealings but did nothing. The monarchy, a very pared down version needs to adapt now, to survive, people know more, I think William and Kate are just the people to do the job.
That picture of Andrew looking like a vulnerable wounded animal I found disturbing and I pitied him. He is alone in all this. Never liked the man or his immediate family thought he was entitled and arrogant and self centred and all this was bound to come out and he bought it upon himself and yet.

The main reason I support the monarchy is because I don’t like the alternatives. Can you imagine someone from the government being the head of the country ? Awful thought. Having said that , I think the monarch should belong exclusively to the UK as part of tradition. In Australia most do not have allegiance to the UK these days and come from many different countries so it seems a bit silly to adopt a person as monarch from a country thousands and thousands of miles away.