to show this link to everyone who complains about the cost of the Royal Family?

[Tuggy]

Well... great YouTube link (also like his other videos)

So Happy 85th Birthday for today Queen Liz if you're reading this... I found it pretty interesting as someone who always gets pissed off at the people who go "oh blah blah the royals sit on their arses all day costing us money and give nothing back - my taxes pay for their life"

Alot of people make the mistake of thinking that those of us that are against a Monarchist state are against the Queen personally!

i admire the Queen greatly, I wouldnt want her life and it was thrust upon her and her father in a way that neither of them could have anticipated. She has taken that responsibility seriously and worked hard and done her best.

However, I still believe that as an institution, the Monarchy is an expensive luxury that does not give back anywhere near what it costs the county and that we would be better served as a republic.

Not yet - Mumsnet needs a bottle of wine in the garden

I'm quite a fan of Queenie's devotion & work ethic, but fail to see why they have to be so rich. The Dutch & Scandinavian royal families seem to do fine with far fewer trappings.

Anyone who has got lots of time might want to read about the 'enclosure acts' which often amounted to the rich confiscating public land to make them richer still.

They hang the man, and flog the woman,
That steals the goose from off the common;
But let the greater villain loose,
That steals the common from the goose

Expat, being a Catholic doesn't make you a different ethnicity. Otherwise my husband and I would be ethnically different. And we're not. We're both Anglo-Celtic Brits.

The Catholic 'thing' will change.

• oh, and primogeniture is a disgrace. Anne would have made a fab monarch, having inherited her mother's common sense.

"and live ridiculously lavish lives at our expense."

Yes, but they don't that's the whole point. They EARN us money

"Philip, Andrew, Charles , Edward - Tossers of the Hghest Order. WTF should I pay for them?"

Again.. You're NOT paying for them. They are sending YOU £2.50 a year or something. I bet they don't sit at home saying you're a tosser and why should they give you that money

Where did the crown estate land come form in the first place , yes thats right taken because they wanted it. £40 mill. to keep them but another £80mill. plus, paid each year in protection on top of the £40 million. France gets more tourist than england . I admit the queen has done a great job but Charles is a calamity waiting to happen, he is so prolific in his spending and dont get me started on camilla, there is no way she should be queen. Even worse prince andrew and his galavanting back and forth meeting his sleazy pals doing goodness knows what with young girls.

Re the ethnic thong, I heard an interview with one of Williams ex's mum who said the secret service came round to check up on them "and make sure we weren't Muslim or anything"
made me giggle.

WELL DONE OP! I have been invited to The Wedding and so, obviously, I think the Royals are well worth it.

They work extremely hard and I doubt it's fun going to endless dinners and having to make small talk with complete strangers. They also don't have their privacy and have to put up with a lot of 'bashing'.

People get upset about comments on MN so imagine having to endure comments from the media all your life.

So what, Ab1de. It's discriminatory and outdated, just like primogeniture. There might be a move to change that, but not the discriminatory rule regarding Catholics.

How anyone finds crap like this acceptable in this day and age, I don't know.

Each to his/her own, I guess.

Ethnic thing not thong! That is a whole different issue!

lmao at 'ethnic thong'
Is it made of beaten bark and dyed with natural berry colours?

"The Catholic thing will change"
Oh so the Act of Settlement is due to be repealled is it?

£40million civil list
£80 million in protection .
The protection money often gets missed out when the pro royalty lot tell us how much the royal family cost us.

Happy Birthday dear Queen Elizabeth - The Royals especially the Queen do a lot for this country and bring joy to many people - I for one will be watching the Royal wedding.....its good for the soul to have a bit of pomp and ceremony and to look back at our rich history - if you don't like them don't look - no need to be so bitter and rude about it - I don't like football/world cup etc but we can't escape from that either - you have to look at the bigger picture - I will be filming my little ones at the royal wedding bbq we are going to and then show them the film I have of me prancing in the silver jubillee celebrations - its a moment in history

"Anne would have made a fab monarch, having inherited her mother's common sense".

Slight problem of Prince Charles still being older than her and having 2 sons of his own.
How would she have been Queen?
( She always looks as if she's chewing a wasp to me. But each to their own)

There will probably be a move to change the Catholic part. Not that most Catholics give a monkeys. I certainly don't. But I agree that it is odd that a monarch can be married to Muslim, Jew or Methodist, but not a Catholic. I think it will be amended at the same time as the inheritance part.

The Kings expenses (when the income from Crown Estate was swapped for the civil list) included running the army I believe. Now do the maths.

Off with their heads!

"The Catholic thing" just a harmless idosyncracy?

You know, campion, I was going to check that but decided I couldn't be bothered I bet she would have been granted the monarchy, if the Queen had the right to choose her own successor. It's all bonkers, imo.

One of my pet soapboxes, onagar! Plus, the right to an uninterrupted view, whatever it was called - which meant landowners razed villages to the ground with no warning or compensation.

Abr1de, I think you don't know what you're talking about!

lets just get rid of them all and have a head honcho for a while , how about Richard Armitage.

I personally think that the monarchy is a medieval anchronism [sp] that we can do without.

The queens personal fortune is estimated to be $420 million and the crown estates valued at $6 billion. Then there is the personal wealth of the rest of the family.

So why we are providing any money for this extremely wealthy family beggars belief. I'd like to see more tax being paid too.