To be a Republican?

[TheRhubarb]

Sorry to be a miserable bitch but I really do hate all this Jubilee crap. I don't give a crap about the Royal family one way or the other. I'm very happy to let them exist the way they do so long as we don't have to treat them like some kind of minor gods. However that's just what everyone appears to be doing and I cannot turn on the TV, listen to the radio, buy a newspaper or even walk out of my front door without this Jubilee shite being shoved in my face.

Now even Mumsnet has bowed down to her Maj.

The country's gone to the dogs thanks to the Coalition, vulnerable people are more vulnerable than ever because of cuts, unemployment is high, kids can't afford to go to University, families are relying on food banks and yet we are supposed to forget the fact that our bank and bellies are empty to cheer on some millionairess who is so far removed from real life she might as well be a Martian.

I don't normally care that much to have an opinion about this but when people actually expect me to join in a rendition of God Save the Queen then the fine red mist descends.

It's turning me against the Royal family and making me wish we were Republicans. Anyone else or is it just me?

Sorry, missed this debate, I was out waving flags about. Not.

I have nothing against the Royals as individuals. Well some of them anyway. I don't like it when bloody Andrew uses tax funded helicopters to ferry him about to parties and I don't particularly want to pay for masses of bodyguards and servants to wait on these people hand and foot.

They are no different to me. What I saw this weekend however was something akin to worship and that makes me cringe. Why are we worshipping a human being? I did not elect the Queen, I have no say in who becomes King or Queen after her and therefore the Royal family, as someone said earlier, is not part of any democracy.

I do not agree with the "them versus us" viewpoint. I do not like aristocrats, I can't stand people thinking they are better than me because of their priviledged birth. I am very much of the view that we are all equal and this is what I tell my children. No-one, not one person, is any better than them. We will all turn to dust when we die and no matter how many riches you've amassed, they will rot away too just like our bodies. I refuse to be subservient to anyone.

That being said, I realise people will think I am being miserable and yes I did acknowledge that in my OP. I love a party just like the rest of us but I don't really see the point in hero-worshipping someone who, in my eyes, doesn't deserve it.

There are nurses and doctors who save lives every day. There are campaigners who put their own lives in danger to save others. There are ordinary people who, by sheer grit and determination, have changed their communities for the better. Those are the people I would happily wave a flag for, not a priviledged woman who can do a posh wave and gets to wear a sparkly crown. Yes she brings in tourism and that's all very nice, but that ain't reason enough for me to want to bow down to her.

Sure it's nice that communities come together. But I think our priorities are all wrong. A true celebration would have been the prevention of library closures or the grand opening of more youth centres or a huge hamper of food for OAPs living on a state pension - that would have been a reason for celebration. It was the Queen's chance to be generous and do something truly remarkable for Britain. She didn't.

So I stayed in and went to work as usual. I had no choice. I'm self employed and if I don't go out to work, I don't get paid and we don't have any money in the bank at the end of the month. So please excuse my miserable attitude.

"They don't really cost us any money at all. They put into the system far more money via the Crown estate than they take from the civil list, so the argument about the taxpayer funding them is only for the ignorant. Even if they didn't contribute anything, they cost about 60p per person per year. I only wish our government was so efficient in spending money. I think I'd rather have Liz being our chancellor than Osbourne!"

Niceguy, sorry you're the one being ignorant - this is the royal PR machine at it's best and is complete and utter bollocks. The monarchy costs us considerably more than 66p a year - this figure is based on stripping out all the security costs!

I'm also not sure about how they're putting money in from the Crown Estate - it's not theirs! As I understand it, it's ours, and we could be spending the money raised from our land on the NHS, or whatever we like

From www.royal.gov.uk.

"The Royal Household receives annual funding to meet the costs of official travel through the Department of Transport. The majority of Royal Travel expenditure pays for The Queen?s helicopter and charter and scheduled fix-wing aircraft.

A separate grant is voted by Parliament each year, through the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, to cover the upkeep of the Royal residences. These are: Buckingham Palace, St James?s Palace, Clarence House, Marlborough House Mews, the residential and office areas of Kensington Palace, Windsor Castle and the buildings in the Home and Great Parks at Windsor, and Hampton Court Mews and Paddocks, as well as The Queen?s Gallery.

The money is used to meet the cost of maintenance and some utilities.

The Civil List

This is the amount of money provided by Parliament to meet the official expenses of The Queen?s Household, so that The Queen can carry out her role as Head of State and Head of the Commonwealth. The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh are the only members of the Royal Family to receive an annual parliamentary allowance.

About 70 per cent of the Civil List expenditure goes on staff salaries. It also goes towards meeting the costs of official functions such as garden parties, receptions and official entertainment during State Visits. The Queen entertains almost 50,000 people each year.

This is the parliamentary allowance for the members of the Royal family

The Duke of York (£249,000 per annum)
The Earl of Wessex (£141,000 per annum)
The Princess Royal (£228,000 per annum)
The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester (£175,000 per annum)
The Duke and Duchess of Kent (£236,000 per annum)
Princess Alexandra (£225,000 per annum).

(note there are some family members missing here)

Total Royal Public Finances for 2010-2011

They are the most expensive monarchy in Europe

The total cost is around £200m a year.
From 2013 they will be given around 15% of the annual revenue of the Crown Estate - which is the property of the citizens of Britain.

They also get income from the Duchy of Lancaster and Cornwall and should anyone die without leaving a will in parts of Cornwall or Lancashire, that money is transferred to the Duchys of Cornwall and Lancaster.

The site I have linked to breaks down in more detail what taxpayers money is spent on and includes an interesting quote from a former Royal Press Secretary about the family working very hard 3 days a week, 5 months a year.

Gotta go, busy week of working for me. Sorry to start a thread and then just dip in and out but unfortunately I've taken rather a lot on this week.

Rhub They do pay taxes now though. IMO we should,n't keep any but the royals closest to the throne and they should be made to keep any extra houses etc. They CAN afford it as you have pointed out.

The Dutch have it right I reckon.

YANBU

To be honest I've spent time in Scotland & Liverpool and it was pretty low key in both places. I am becoming this Royal mania is more predominant in London and the home counties.

They also get income from the Duchy of Lancaster and Cornwall and should anyone die without leaving a will in parts of Cornwall or Lancashire, that money is transferred to the Duchys of Cornwall and Lancaster.

Is this true?? I am agape!

All this royal stuff is confined to around London. Aand you are right squoosh the Queen does inherit as you have said definitely in Lancaster. How anybody can celebrate and cheer this sour faced miserable looking creature beats me.

YANBU
For a start, I defo don't remember this much hoo ha around the time of the last Jubilee - it does seem a bit forced, like an excuse to keep the masses distracted.
Also, why do they need that many palaces? In particular, if you think of London - how much overcrowding there is, shortages of housing, and there you have all these giant palaces, with dozens of rooms/apartments which could be used to house people, but instead are hope to a handful of inbred embarrasments. The Queen is okay, and has been a good monarch, but Prince Andrew is a liability and a massive embarassment, and almost as corrupt as Tony Blair, and they're expensive. Tax payers funded the security for his daughter's gap year - hardly the best use of money.

Didn't the last Jubilee coincide with, or follow, Liz's annus horribilis? A bit close to Diana's death and everything ? would have been a bit touchy to start giving it 'Look at the Royals, don't you just love them'.

No it was in 2002. So five years after Diana, and wasn't the annus horribilus 1992? That was the year Windsor burned anyway - I watched it from minibus in a traffic jam on the M4

Squoosh, yep, it's completely true! It is a little known fact - and one, obviously, that the royal PR machine keeps very quiet. Along with most of the bollocks about royal finances.

This 66p a year figure has become so ingrained in the public's mind it is totally accepted as fact when it is utter crap.

But you know what they say, a lie can be halfway around the world before the truth has even got it's boots on .

Abso, you're right about the last jubilee - it was much more low key. I'm not sure why this one has become so ridiculous. Riding on the back of the bloody wedding last year I expect .

'How anybody can celebrate and cheer this sour faced miserable looking creature beats me.'

Too right! Even on a news report about her that was supposed to be complementary (and discussing the jubilee), she was described as 'glum-looking'.

I think if we got rid of the Royal family then it might be a push for more equality in the UK. we are so used to this awful feudal system that is so ingrained here, how can it be a good thing to teach our children that shes the queen whose family got into power through murder and we still celebrate them? Goes against everything thats right.

Talk about housing benefit bills? I know of a large one getting far more than she should be entitled to.

Ariel, oh yes

I don't have another theory.

Well littlewhite there's not a hell of a lot of equality in the States is there? Was Britain a lot better under Cromwell? When the communists gained power in U.S.S.R. they didn't make their society better did they? Humans seem to need to have some sort of hierachy whatever it is.

And it's all this sucking up that gets me for awards and titles and such like. I had more respect for Nigella Lawson when I found she had refused and MBE. Good for her.