This RF are slimmed down, far more modest than before
How anyone can reach this conclusion I do not know!
They may be slimmed down in personnel but that’s because of illness or in Andrew’s case because of his “difficulties” .
It wasn’t a voluntary action and it didn’t come about because someone is looking seriously at the set up and took an initiative.
Charles said something about slimming down but there’s been absolutely no sign of it.
And then Anne appeared on telly and appeared to undermine what her brother had said and stated they couldn’t slim down any more than currently anyway. And the obsequious interviewer didn’t ask the obvious question about reducing the scope of their remit?
How are they more modest? I’d genuinely like to know! Because they didn’t all wear tiaras at the Coronation? Give me strength!
I had to laugh when I read that Charles had worked hard to make the Coronation seem less ostentatious! I guess he forgot about the gold coaches! 😆
The whole shebang was ridiculously over the top; particularly considering the grandeur of the late Queen’s funeral, which at least she had earned.
The trouble was, Charles only appeared to have looked backwards at his own forbears when making this decision, instead of looking around in Europe and seeing that truly modest monarchies, relatively speaking, are content with a church service and a handshake, dressed in business suits, in order to be crowned monarch. They didn’t see the need to charge their tax payers £72 million.
If they had been going to spend that much, why not wear a suit, get blessed in a dignified church ceremony at Westminster Abby, and then invest the money in a beautiful park for children in a really poor area of The Midlands and fund it’s upkeep? Coronation Park.
Or spend the money opening up part of Balmoral to the public; the Coronation walking trail?
Or establish rapid cancer diagnostic centres; one each in Scotland, England, N. Ireland and Wales: the Coronation clinics?
Someone with some drive and imagination should make some changes!
And what about all of their homes and estates? I know Charles has been ill but it’s not like he didn’t have plenty of time to prepare for his role? There doesn’t seem to have been any slimming down going on in their property portfolio?
In fact, Charles has added properties inherited from his mother and grandmother to his portfolio. And let’s not enquire too closely about the inheritance tax! And of course we don’t get to see details of the will for ninety years. For example, the Castle and gardens of Mey in Scotland, the late Queen Mother’s “party castle”. Isn’t that just lovely for him?
They say Charles works extremely hard. and perhaps he does, but for a start I imagine managing and visiting fourteen residences on a loop takes up a lot of time!
Seriously though, I know that a couple of Charles’s more modest properties preserve and showcase local heritage and crafts which is admirable, but I find the fact that their property assets are so vast in a time when the homelessness crisis in the UK is at its height, bordering on the obscene.
Could not Charles have immediately set one of his many teams to work on a project for opening a few of their estates to the public? Or selling one or two and returning the revenue to the state or ploughing it in to the NHS?
Why does he need fourteen residences or however many there are? It’s excessive. And it adds to the fog clouding their finances and accounting.
If we had an elected Head of State this would all be transparent and above board. But there are currently so many financial grey areas relating to the upkeep of private and state residences. Rather useful one might conclude!
Edited: this article contains more information on Charles’s assets
www.businessinsider.com/royal-family-net-worths-money-finances-king-charles-2023-5#a-large-portion-of-charles-wealth-comes-from-the-sovereign-grant-a-taxpayer-funded-grant-given-to-the-monarch-2