To wonder we still put em with em?

[Ryoko]

I can't stand the royals, they make a mockery of our democratic system, a relic from age that should be forgotten, we don't burn witches, we eat meat/fish any day of the week we like, people are no longer put in the stocks, kids no longer put to work, bout time they went out and got jobs like the rest of us mere mortals.

40 million a year to keep a bunch of inbred pets, stupid money spent on a wedding during a time when we are tightening our belts.

People in 2011 still happy to be called subjects, of a bunch of people given everything on a plate due only to the out dated belief of a divine blood line, a belief which is totally at odds with democracy and the capitalist way.

The supports constantly rolling out the lie that the tourists wouldn't come without them such trash, 3 million people visit the palace of versailles every year, only 50,000 visit Buckingham palace, Paris has the same amount o visitors a year as London. Turf the royals out of the palaces and you can make more money out of them then you can with them in the thing, does anyone who goes to the Forbidden city care that China no longer has an emperor?.

The wedding has cost the economy far more money then it has made in tourism money.

I agree with you. What really pisses me off about people, though, is what really short memories they have. The same people who complained that the royal 'system' killed Princess Diana and slagged it off will yesterday have got all excited about this wedding yesterday. No logic with them at all.

And all the crap about the bride's mother having a say in the wedding! Her views would only have weight if they were in line with what the palace wanted. If they didn't agree, her views would count for nowt. Absolutely nothing.
The Daily Wail having multiple orgasms because someone like 'them' has married into the royal family. Their stupid ideas that this wedding was like a village wedding in a nice South East village.

Yeah, yeah, they're really like normal people the royals, like F*.

Speaking of Diana, it was the sycophant fans who led to her death (if it is to believed that she died due to photographers on bikes chasing the car) how interesting that those strange morbid obsessive individuals are calling this woman the new Diana (I bet she hopes to god she isn't).

They (the royals) are about as normal as Boris Johnson.

"cachet ?" Yes... My reference was to the state visits. A reception at No. 10 is impressive but if you want to make your visitors feel awed and spoilt in equal measure, HM hosting a state dinner at Buck House does the trick. I'm told it was far easier to persuade contacts to accept an invitation on board the Royal Yacht than to a drinks party at our Embassy for the same reason. My toes used to curl as Tony Blair leapt forward with his permatan grin and loose cannon wife. At least you know the palace team won't let you down...

Don't recognise the description 'backward and comical' at all.

Of COURSE I'd rather an invitation on board the royal yacht. Everyone would ! However, ask any non British person to write a list of adjectives to describe us and they will come up with 'traditional, old fashioned, conservative...' is that good for business ? Backward and comical yes indeed.

OP, did you turn down the extra bank holiday then? Thought not.

How can people 'turn down' a bank holiday if their place of work closes?

I don't wholly object to the monarchy, as it is an historical institution that might possibly attract tourists and home-grown idiots to shell out money to the country's coffers.

I do object to the scale of the royal family and how ridiculously wealthy they are and how little work most of them do. Send the whole of the extended family to work and withdraw their money. Their are a ridiculous number of royal houses: limit the full-time royals to apartments within a few key royal properties (say about 3 in total), while opening the rest of them to the paying public.
Make them do proper hours and full weeks work with 6 weeks holiday a year. None of this fucking around playing polo all the time, swanning around on yachts Diana-style, and doing 'the season'.

Scroungers

"At least you know the palace team won't let you down..."

Provided you don't let Prince Phillip anywhere near anybody foreign, of course. Princes Andrew and Edward don't have the best of reputations for diplomacy and/or good business sense either.

What are you 'orrible lot going to find to moan about when the royals become self-financing and pay tax like everybody else?

BakeliteBelle - can we do the same to your house then? Or only to people who's money came as inheritance?

Why do people seem to think it would be OK to confiscate all the Royal family's property and share it out when they're as entitled to it as you are to a vase or house inherited from your grandparents? Is there some wealth cut-off point? Is it the manner by which the property originally became theirs?

Besides which, the Royal properties are cared for, and kept - unlike properties bequeathed to the church, or local councils 'for the good of the community' which in my experience are promptly sold off to fill the council/church coffers (one of the reasons my village has no allotments is the church decided to sell them off)

It's not fair to compare the royal palaces with somebody's home. Not least because there are huge amounts of royal properties, whereas the vast majority of people only have one home. Also, a fair chunk of cash is handed over every year from the government to the crown to help pay for the upkeep of the various estates. I don't think that royal properties pays council tax either, unlike the rest of us.

Anyway, a lot of the royal properties aren't being cared for properly because the people in charge of the estates claim they're not getting enough cash to keep them going. A quick google brought up this news report of roofs that need to be replaced and lots of other deferred maintenance works because they're saying that the government - or, rather, us the taxpayers - aren't giving them enough money to maintain these places.

If we are paying for the upkeep of these properties then I think we have a right to say that those properties should belong to the public. If the royal family wants to keep them as private residencies, then they should bloody well pay for them to be looked after. I'm sure the Queen (allegedly the richest woman on the planet) has a few quid down the back of the sofa she could put towards the costs.

If the royal family can't be arsed to do that, then the royal estates should be taken over by organisations who will look after them properly such as English Heritage or the National Trust.

Bakelite, I would take the day out of my annual leave rather than a buckshee freebie. Simple really.

Ryoko - I'm a Republican. I find it embarrassing that people want to be 'subjects' in the 21st Century too. It's just so toe-curlingly serf-like.

But I accept that I'm in the minority and it's probably going to stay that way. People love the Royals, watch Eastenders and actually like going shopping. It's not comprehensible to me - but there you go.

OP can you point me in the direction of the final figures regarding the money spent on this wedding and the money made? I wasn't aware that that information had been published.

i dont know that i agree with that Beatrice is "a student, a real student"

"Princess Beatrice's university digs have cost the taxpayer £250,000, it was revealed today.

The money was spent on redecorating a four-bedroom apartment at St James's Palace for her to use"

www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23713603-princess-beatrice-digs-cost-250000.do

my daughter is a student, she doesnt live in a quarter of a million pound digs

Re: 40 million. See how much they give back