to think Prince Charles may be a little more....

[Tchootnika]

... selfish and greedy than all striking teachers put together?

[PamBeesly]

In general or for something specific?

[cybboid]

How do you work that one out

or have I missed something

[SuePurblybilt]

No. I loves him.

[Tchootnika]

Income rise to £19M+ whilst staff income frozen...

[Tchootnika]

... am crap at links, but see e.g. Joan Smith in today's Independent.

[ThePrincessRoyalFiggyrolls]

Why? I think he runs a particularly tight ship really with the budget that he is given by the tax payer - which lets face it runs him/Duchess of Cornwall, Harry, William and now Kate and all their staff, which is 1/4 of what he personally pays in tax. So although he may be getting more money now than in previous years, he is also paying a considerable amount more since the 50% tax increase. Add to this the tax that the young Windsors pay to and it doesn't work out all that bad.

Question is, would you prefer him not to be taxed through some form of tax break and keep some of that income but take nothing from the tax payer, or pay the tax he does as a "high earner" and take a bit back for the service he and his direct descendents provide to this country? At least he earns money and pays tax unlike some other much more minor royals. I think he is probably the most efficient member of the royal family through his tax payments than any other.

[cybboid]

He's not the only one though is he

What about lazy arsed Premiership shag-aholic footballers who do BUGGER all for £125k a week?

He's a decent bloke I reckon, yes he's loaded but that comes with the territory

[ThePrincessRoyalFiggyrolls]

On brief reading through all I can say is that he has employed more people and not made any redundant at a time when others are being made redundant, the staff that work for him aren't getting salary increases (well who is?) The increase quite possibly reflects the newly weds and the wedding which she hasn't mentioned but which probably brou ght a significant income during that weekend from tourists and good will feeling.

I, frankly, am more disturbed by the BBC apparently paying £1.3 mill for 2 staff redundancies. Bonkers.

"The BBC refused to comment yesterday on reports that it has paid more than £1.3m to make just two of its most senior staff redundant, saying only that it has made "significant progress" in reducing the number and salaries of top executives. But the deputy director-general Mark Byford is believed to have received just under £950,000 in addition to a generous pension pot, while another senior member of staff, who had worked for the BBC for less than two years, left with just under £400,000. Presumably the corporation was contractually obliged to make the payments, but the question is why the BBC's salary structure was allowed to become so detached from reality"

[PamBeesly]

I like Charles, he is so bumbling and .... silly :)

[MrsTwinks]

www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/joan-smith/joan-smith-were-all-in-this-together--but-is-charles-2304491.html this one??

not read it all but glancing, hes actually increased staff so more jobs albeit ok at same wage, and his income is from everything so investments etc not just taxpayers etc.

no worse and alot better than alot of big company CEOs IMO

[MrsTwinks]

.. plus 5% isnt a massive increase in perspective, and I doubt his staff are on minimum wage. After all he had a wedding to pay toward this year

[Scuttlebutter]

But he doesn't sit there like a Bond villain with £19 million sitting on his lap.

This covers all sorts of costs which are not his personal expenses and are to do with his office, and his job. Much of the increase comes from the performance of the Duchy of Cornwall, on which he pays tax, over £4 million of it.

Sigh. All this is detailed in full on his website, including the fact he has no say on where he is sent by the FO, and the fact that the Duchy has actually created jobs (surely a good thing) in the past year. He has also taken on extra staff for the royal wedding and to provide Will and Kate with a team of staff.

A friend of mine works at Ffoslas racecourse where he visited last week. He spent over five hours there, had memorised the key biographies of a huge number of staff, asked loads of questions, and was "on" for the whole visit, which will do a lot to support the racecourse which was built on a former opencast mine and has brought desperately needed jobs and investment to Wales. Most people who met him were impressed with his professionalism, courtesy, respect and enthusiasm, and the fact his visit will have helped the racecourse a lot. Multiply that by all the other stuff he does and I don't think he's selfish and greedy. Slightly bonkers, yes, but hard working within the confines of his role.