…to suggest that it’s time the Royal family stands on its own feet and stops taking money from the public purse?

As an actual,public servant, yesterday I was in calls from 9-1 regarding a major incident at one of the hospitals in my patch. That involved liaising between about 5 different teams in the hospital, ICB and region. I then ended up going to the hospital tin person yesterday afternoon (a two hour drive away) and lending a hand in the ground which involved mopping up water, moving patients and helping clean. In between that I was on the phone to our comms team and the comms teams in the hospital ans the ICB talking through how to handle the media (it’s not in any paper apart from a very local one due to other things being more of a headline thank god). I got home at 9pm after leaving at 7pm. I left the chief exec still mopping water. So far this morning I’ve been in three sit rep calls about that incident. Tomorrow is when I get to do the rest of the work I should have done yesterday.
now this isn’t a usual Friday for me, usually I’m in about 4-8 calls about problems in different services with a spot of report writing for our exec team in the gaps.
im not complaining as I get paid well for my mopping, but life would be considerably easier if all I had to do was get dressed up in nice clothes that were chosen for me by a dresser, get my hair styled and make up done, get a lift to a random place and make small talk, smile, wave and get given a bunch of flowers before going back to my tax payer funded house with numerous tax payer funded staff and have my house all nice and clean while my taxpayer funded chef cooks my food and my taxpayer funded butler serves me a G&T.

Where are these? I didn’t know about this.
I’d be less disinclined for the taxpayer to fund them, partially or otherwise, if they just…behaved.
Why isn’t there some sort of published charter they’re robustly held accountable to? With full transparency on their private assets.
Give them KPOs and SLAs and review their funding properly like the rest of the workforce.
If there already is such a concept, it’s not working.
The outdated idea of them being more special and deserving than the general public isn’t holding up.

I stand corrected

This is all we need to know. Royalists hate this diagram

Thats true
Bear in mind @Ihateboris - when posters resort to insults they have usually lost the argument.

No those were the previous tariffs !

They own lots of property, some are holiday homes that they rent out. Surely their own money could pay for themselves and they should not be publicly funded. The King owns a good number of properties in Yorkshire that are holiday rentals and they are not cheap to book.

I still don't think people should resort to being nasty. There's really no need for it.

The tariffs have also been shot down by the US supreme court

Seems like you have missed something yourself

Trump has announced global 10 % tariffs . No mention of exemptions for the UK .

I would usually agree but to be fair, you do seem unable to engage beyond the very basic ‘it’s unfair, some people are rich and some are poor’ type thing.

Yes, you have missed something. Google ‘Trump’ and ‘Royal invitation’ and ‘tariffs’.

Why do you feel need to resort to being so nasty and condescending. Does putting someone down make you feel big and clever. There's really no need to be quite so spiteful. You just come across as a mean girl.

Our soft power really matters as we found out recently.

When did we find this out recently? Am I missing something?

I find it laughable that people think they "work hard" and raise awareness for charities. Yes things like environmental causes and mental health are worthwhile but these are issues that are already in the public eye and heightened awareness of these haven't been due to the Royal family. They've merely attached themselves to the cause. They aren't doing anything new or groundbreaking for example when Diana (and I was by no means her biggest fan) shook hands with the aids patient or walked through the landmines. At least she wasn't afraid at the time to tackle controversial issues. It would be great to see Kate use her platform for example tackle gender inequality and gender based violence but she's notoriously silent on these issues.

And let's face it they aren't working hard. They have a vast array of people who will do the hard graft for them.

It's always typical as well people use the tourism line as well. I'm in Scotland, we have a great tourism industry and trust me it isn't because of the Royal family. Places like Buckingham palace etc can still stay open without the need for the Royal family. And in 2021, none of the Royal residences made the top 10 most visited places in the UK.

And for diplomacy?! We're literally seeing how well that's gone at the moment with Andrew. Prince William is currently on a state funded visit to the Saudi Royal family who have absolutely appalling human rights records. Is that what we want our money going towards? And their role is ceremonial, while they may create a favourable atmosphere they don't actually negotiate the trade deals or business contacts themselves. And the soft power vs economic power is hard to measure precisely.

I think as things go this is (hopefully) the start of more things to come out and for a serious discussion about what exactly the need is for a monarchy in a modern society.

I think we need to ensure Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle etc are properly maintained and cared for as they’re essential to our history and tourism. It’s not a reasonable request to insist somebody open their home to the public and we get to treat it as public property, but we won’t contribute to the upkeep of it. So I’m happy with some kind of reasonable grant for that.

I also think security is something the public should foot as they didn’t ask to be born with a target on their backs 🤷‍♀️

Plus expenses for things like banquets, staff and so on - they host all manner of politicians and dignitaries for the good of the public, and it would be unreasonable to expect them to do all of this for free, or on a shoe string. Our soft power really matters as we found out recently.

All of that; I’m happy to fund. But they need to be transparent financially, pay a fair rate of tax (basically what anyone else would in their position), and be answerable in their financial decisions.

😄😄😄

Probably because he pays nothing or the bear minimum. I wish I could choose whether to pay tax or not

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/apr/05/windsors-v-borbons-comparing-the-public-pay-of-european-royal-families
This article compares the costs to their countries tax payers of the remaining European royal families. There is absolutely no reason why we should continue to fund ours to the extent that we do. The king, William and his family, fine. But the rest, just why? They can get jobs or live off the vast existing wealth that they have. And the ones we do fund should use their own wealth to fund the more extravagant aspects of their lifestyles and not expect the tax payers to do so.

A typical royal engagement is a half hoir phone call. By that metric I did 7 engagements yesterday. Where are my taxpayer millions?

Yeah Andrew is great for soft power

To quote you" why is the crown estate in the possession of the state and not the royal family?". Did you even bother to check why? The. Crown estates were handed over because the royal family couldn't pay for all their obligations such as funding the royal navy, army, civil service etc from the crown estates. Instead the tax payer took on the job and made up the difference. Did you think they handed them over out of the goodness of their hearts? The crown estates are not in any way the personal property of the monarchy. The head of state should be completely transparent in their financial dealings instead of concealing their wealth and it's sources.

The hardworking royals like Princess Anne and Charles so many hundreds of engagements a year, plus lots of meetings and organising behind the scenes. Charles has his Prince's Trust, which takes up his time. They do a LOT. For the less lazy royals, it's a full-time job. Sadly, I don't think we'll ever see that level of public service from William and Kate.

I support the monarchy because I love our traditions and because the absolute last thing I want is a slimy politician at the top of the totem pole. There's a lot to be said for continuity and a layer of constitution that's above politics. However, I believe they should have a lot less money and property than they do, and I think they should live much more modestly than they do.

Andrew and Fergie are disgraces, but they are peripheral. The rest of the family is nothing like them.

lol