King calls for creative ways to tackle inequality

This.

Also, contribute a few billion ££££ to state schools so they could offer the facilities and opportunities the public schools offer.

You don't actually know what I contribute....I do actually give to charity and manage with less. So do many other people. I feel that people should contribute what they reasonably can to support the poor and vulnerable.

But unlike the Royals, I have also actually paid taxes for decades which (among other things) contribute to the alleviation of poverty. I have never advocated that the royals should just hand over all their wealth; just that they should contribute on the same basis as everybody else and in proportion to their wealth. I don't think the Royals are solely to blame for it, but they are a symptom of the problem which is gross inequality.

There are tried and tested ways of alleviating poverty. Some countries do a lot better than we do, and we should emulate them. We don't need 'creative solutions'; just a country committed to acting in the interest of all its people and contributing to alleviating poverty overseas. The Head of State should be taking a lead on this, not hectoring the rest of us and putting the onus on the rest of us to 'get creative'.

I point out that I have also have not inherited vast wealth amassed over generations and centuries, through dubious means.

That's a good point about relative wealth... but whilst the average person in the UK does indeed live a life that much of the world would view as immense wealth, we're hardly unusual in that there are probably around a billion other people in the world with a broadly similar level of wealth and standard of living.

Still a minority, of course, but a very significant proportion of the world's population nonetheless. By contrast, people like Charles must be in the top 0.0001% of people in the world by wealth and profligacy of lifestyle.

If you are living in the UK, then you appear as wealthy to the rest of the world as the King appears to you.

Does this mean you should sell all your belongings and give the money to people living on the street in Rio? Would this actually help, on the larger scale of things?

Personally, I would be happy to do with a less to make the world better, if everyone else was contributing as well. If I just do it on my own, I ruin myself for nothing.

I’m still not used to it being King!

It just doesn’t sound right and I immediately think - momentarily - of the fleeting 80s pop star. King Calls For Creative Ways to Tackle Inequality And Limahl Agrees With Him would be an even better headline 🤣

That should of course read: they (the RF) are part of the problem not the solution.

What I am aware of, is how things have been gradually getting worse for most people and standards of living are declining, with money being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands I am in my 60s now and I can see how, over the decades, things have been getting progressively tougher for younger generations; and it is not questioned nearly as much as I should be.

Against that background, Charles's income is set to increase by £45 million (more than 50%) in 2025-6. And he sees fit to lecture the rest of us about finding creative situations to inequality?

Well, they should. But 20 million per year is nothing once spread across the population. For any real benefit, you need ALL very wealthy people to be making that kind of contribution.

This. I honestly don't understand how Charles can talk about inequality with a straight face when it is the monarchy itself that underpins and legitimises inequality in this country.

Those who claim that his personal wealth wouldn't make much of a dent, are missing the point. It is the principle that offends me, of a man who is largely exempt from the taxes the rest of us are obliged to pay (including exemption from inheritance tax on the vast fortune he gained from his mother). And that is before getting onto his son, presenting himself as the solution to homelessness: 'I don't like homelessness so I have 4 homes just to stop it happening'.

I'm afraid that however sincere they might be, their positions ensure that they can only ever be part of the solution not the problem. And their greed is sickening.

It is true that the media conspire with the RF in relentlessly going after Harry and especially Meghan; even though they left nearly 5 years ago and are the very ones who, unlike the others, no longer cost the public everything. The level and longevity of the hate is sinister, and an obvious distraction from the disfunctionality of the system.

@Hufflemuff
”Hes actually right... he means you can't just throw money at inequality”

well could we start with the Windsors throwing back some the money they’ve creamed off the uk population? Maybe start with that ?

If this call for them to pay their taxes gets louder I expect something along the lines of :
’ The king would like to plan to possibly consider the possibility of contemplating reviewing the overview of his expenses and blah blah blah …

Do nothing , waffle and hope everyone gets distracted with the latest hate fest the tabloids use to distract the sheep . It has worked so far ( looking a bit threadbare now though )

Rory Stewart an idiot?
Bloody hell, read it all now.

I have been to a Q&A session with Rory Stewart. He is highly intelligent, his talks about the History of Israel and where we are now are hugely interesting

Rory Stewart is about as far from an idiot as you can get.

I’m working atm so can’t link but have a look on You Tube for his Ted talk on the subject of extreme poverty.

So agree.

The media hold back because Royals give good clicks. Little Charlotte made some cakes, Kate's stunning dress, Charles looks a bit peaky, Camilla is a rock... and so on.
The media are merciless in their Meghan tear down, and sycophantic in their revering of our Royals.

Yes the Panama papers did indeed reveal an uncomfortable truth for the Queen. Duchy of Cornwall and Duchy of Lancaster funds deposited in tax havens to avoid tax.

Very murky. Bear in mind the Paradise Papers only came about because of a hack followed by a leak to some German journalists. Just imagine what we don't know about...

Maybe he and the rest could pay inheritance tax . That would be a start. The money raised could help William and his plight to end homelessness

@Ukisgaslit Bravo!

There is much that is wrong with how the Monarchy operates and just a simple one is... pay your taxes, unseal your Wills, be open to the FOI Act that the rest of public servants are, and stop hiding your wealth.

Forbes estimated the RF were worth £23billion and Charles's personal fortune to be £2billion and that was back in 2021.

I know they are part of the fabric of our society but they could be pared back to the absolute minimum to just perform the necessary tasks.

Please don't talk about tourism, that is a myth!

Charles cannot talk about inequality when he is literally at the top of the tree.

Didn't the Panama Papers leaks reveal how much The Late Queen had in offshore tax havens as well? It will not be a big story in the UK because the press will suppress it. The press, who's main job, and the reason they are allowed to get away with as much as they do, is to hold truth to power. However, in exchange for a slap up lunch at Buck House will throw it all in the bin or bury it somewhere amongst all the stories about Meghans failed jam business or something.

Yeah - if people are really worried about the super wealthy hoarding money, the royals aren't top of the list. As far as the monarch goes, his or her power is actually much more limited than those who have far more money and a lot more ability to manipulate politics. To some extent the whole structure of constitutional monarchy is a way to limit the power of wealth and political positions, capitalism took kind of an end run around that.

He's an idiot if he thinks that.

Loans or gifts that are carefully targeted can in some cases have huge positive results for poor people, sure.

Especially in places "overseas" where people have access to very little in the way of community support.

That does not mean that redistributing large amounts of cash to people will somehow change the nature of rich vs poor.

It does nothing to change the underlying elements that mean you get some very rich and some very poor people in society. Even in places where that difference is much lessened, you still get some who are quite wealthy and some who aren't, whether you are talking about the Nordic countries or communist experiments in China or Cuba, or anywhere else.

And large, random windfalls? Ultimately they typically make no difference to families after a few years - in fact some end up worse off.

Its heartening to see that so many posters see through her lies that the population has been fed for years about the royals .Why must their wills be secret ? Because their vast wealth must be secret or there would be even more of an outcry about the half a billion they are now taking from the people yearly

The few royalists who have defended the Windsors are repeating in the same lies they’ve been fed for years
oh and btw the Windsors do not own the crown estates . The state does. But lizzie got it changed so the Windsors would take a percentage and royalists think they are generously handing the rest back to the state! Exactly what the royal gaslighting wants you to think .
Interesting that one royals poster described the crown estate as ‘farmers’ . What a nice image . Except it’s mainly made up of shopping centres, garages , factories . That’s where the money is . And the Windsors do not manage it . They sit one of the plonkers on the board but they have no control ( they were found to be abusing it when they did ) . But they take the money

Charlie pay your inheritance tax and all other taxes and shut up . Tell your even more obnoxious son to do the same

I will be very interested to watch this.

I just don’t understabd for example how it is equitable in this day and age that the King can receive money from the Duchy of Lancaster, which covers more than 18,000 hectares of land in areas such as Lancashire and Yorkshire, as well as property in central London. Worth £654m,

It generates about £20m a year in profits which as far as I understand the King is allowed full access to and can spend privately. He can’t have any money from the sale of the assets but benefits from the income they generate.

I don’t understand why the general public cannot benefit to the tune of £20 million a year?

Well that's very true, but the key is having the structures in place to make sure that the people who most need it get it. It's far too easy for this type of money to be diverted. Hence structural change.

I suggest you should look at what Rory Stewart has written about on this subject. He is involved in charities overseas that give direct cash payments to end-users and they have a transformative effect.

I think what people don’t realise is that abject poverty is expensive and a small cushion can allow everyone breathing space and to budget more effectively. You need a little money to be in a position to create more in other words.

He also believes that world poverty could be eradicated pretty quickly and that it wouldn’t take as much radical change as we have been led to believe.

Hes actually right... he means you can't just throw money at inequality, we need provisions and programmes to be installed which will actually make a difference! Propper mental health provisions in the NHS, outreach to communities in poverty, engagement with vulnerable youths in the cities.

The Princes Trust does amazing work with young people and have helped many get back on their feet or get started. So I think he's got a lot more insight than most into this kind of thing.

For example, it takes 100 Billion per year to run the UK education system. If the King's private wealth is 600 Million, then his entire wealth is six one-thousandths of the amount that is spent on education alone in a single year. Not enough to even register.

The whole royalty thing gives an odd illusion of political power and wealth, but it's actually small bikkies. A distraction from where the real wealth and power is, really.

Maybe this will be a way to open our eyes about inequality and the monarchy. Apparently the Palace worked hard to try and suppress this reporting. I wonder how 'creative' the truth will be, Charles....

For the first time, Dispatches can reveal the secret millions the Royals are earning.

For years they've kept the details of some of their wealth a secret but now we can reveal who is paying them and for what.

Watch on @Channel4 on Saturday 2nd November at 8.10pm.

x.com/C4Dispatches/status/1851647186368634898?t=2Xdcaw8RxuBomfIaHw8whA&s=19