To think Kate Middleton should have kept her tits in

[moogster1a]

Surely she can't be unaware that she's one of the most photographed women in the world and there are paparazzi everywhere.
I know in an ideal lovely world she should be able to skinny dip in privacy, but in the real world I think she is being a bit naiive to go topless and then be so upset when the pictures are published

melika, surely all the more point to have effective laws to prevent the invasion of privacy.

the royal family under the Queen's direction is expected to do their job of providing public service

Ha! Ha! Given that you believe this nonsense, I have a bridge that I would like to sell to you.

The royals are a bunch of parasites who would not know hard work if it hit them in the head. And kate, duchess of do-little, is top of the list. Never worked a day in her life, but yet needs loads of holidays with us footing the bill for her security and goodness knows what else

And stop comparing these good for nothings to public workers who are selected for their job based on some form of merit at least, are reviewed by superiors, are answerable to the public and can be fired.

like someone has said already, what privacy have we got?

Like it or not, the Civil List, or, as it is now known, The Sovereign Grant, is actually a fantastic deal for us. The Civil List gave around £8,000,000 to the monarch to meet official expenses ( including staff costs) and the Crown estates ( relinquished to the Government by George III in return for the Civil List). Last year, the Crown estates made a profit of around £240,000,000, the majority of which was paid into the Treasury. By my, admittedly not fantastic, maths, that means that we were in fact over £230,000,000 'in profit' on the deal!

Even if you deduct the costs of security, which are borne by the taxpayer, it is still a good deal for us.

Maybe if she had got them out at Balmoral she would have been safer, are you really telling me there wasn't a more private spot eg, courtyard, that she could have used?

She was asking for it, if you ask me!

maybe Kate is pregnant and the pictures clearly showed her smoking while pregnant and THAT'S the true reason behind the Palace's outrage......

dons tin foil hat

more conspiracy theories to follow....stay tuned.

~Does she smoke???

Flatbread - what exactly do you think they are doing? What do you think the 91 year old Duke of Edinburgh is doing? He's not sitting around on his bony, tired 91 year old arse - no, he is out there opening buildings, visiting his 750 odd charities, hosting dinners for the Government of the day, hosting visiting guests from other countries. I'm not saying this couldn't be done by other ambassadors for the UK, but at the moment it is done by the royal family. It is factually incorrect to say that they are not and have not been in this Queen's lifetime giving public service.
I'm all for a debate about whether or not we should have a monarchy - but it has to be informed, not just fuelled by prejudice.

But on your figures, by my admittedly not fantastic maths, I'd say that potentially we could net an additional £8,000,000 pa by getting rid of them once the present Queen has died.

Surely this complete dimwit with no work ethic and nothing to say for herself can't be a figurehead? Where will it end?

Oh dear she is now tainted by getting her baps out and she smokes too! I hope the country does not fall out of love with her

Is she really upset? We'll never know. And aren't they all a bit weird anyway? And don't half of us have boobs? I think this is an issue between the press and that family, what the press can report and can't, more than it is about Kate's boobs and how she feels about them being out there. Remember the dress she wore at the university fashion shoot??? That was pretty fleshy.

Agree Nancy, the degree of outrage smacks strongly of a pre-emptive strike. Kate is apparently in a 'panic'. I hope we get to find out. Smoking with a baby seems a bit too tame. I want something better than that.

actually, no, we could not net another £8,000,000 . Around 70% of the civil list is actually paid in staff salaries. And if the monarchy as to be abolished, those members of staff would have to be made redundant. it is entirely possible that a number of them would end up on benefits, so they those members of staff would still in effect, be costing us. And of course,as long as they are employed and paid from the civil list, they are also paying tax and NI. So a considerable portion of the money is finding its way back into the government coffers anyway. If you also consider that things like the garden parties and other entertainment expenses are paid by the civil list funds, yet more of the money is finding its way back into the economy.

I suspect that if we were lucky, financially we would break even if the monarchy was abolished.

I really can't say much about the queen as I have no idea what she does and could care less. Prince Philip, from what I vaguely recall, was a Nazi supporter. If that is true, I would find him morally repugnant.

We fund embassies around the world and pay for a foreign service department. Their job should be meeting dignitaries and promoting business interests. No idea if the monarchy promotes their own interests or ours when they rub shoulders with the rich and powerful. I think they are redundant and the 'public service' they supposedly provide is already performed to the required level by professionals.

Regarding the cost and revenue, an analysis by some experts who have done the math:

"Evidence contradicts that the Crown Estate compensates expenses. Republic estimates we actually spend over £200 million in maintaining the Monarchy. This is by including, for example, the lost revenue from the Duchy of Lancaster and Cornwall and other expenses not included in the 40 million salary. Tourism is also a hard one to justify when the royal wedding is estimated to have cost the economy £10 billion, whilst only bringing in £500 million from tourism. Also, the top three countries benefiting from international tourism are without Monarchs. Parliament has recently attempted to make the royal finances more in line with Crown Estate revenue by introducing the Sovereign Grant Act. This act makes payment to the monarchy 15% of the Crown Estate revenue. Yet Prince Philips? expenses are not included; instead, he receives a parliamentary annuity. Furthermore, Republic in their ?Republic Parliamentary Briefing Sovereign Grant Bill? opposed the act on the grounds that it has placed no upper limit on payments, a review every seven years of royal expenses is too long and the act perpetuates the belief that the monarchy has a right to the crown estate."

And I still don't understand what arduous 'public service' Kate performs that she needs all these holidays...she does come across as quite lazy. She didn't work before she got married and apparently prefers to sun bathe naked to working 'hard for us' . Can't blame her though, no tangible benefits to prancing around pretending to promote British interests. At least with naked sunbathing she can ensure she looks good for the photo-ops.

Slightly convoluted sayithowitis. Also we could repossess the Crown Estate. Like a latter day Dissolutuion of the Monasteries. Buckets of capital. Brilliant wheeze.

Cross-posted again :(

If you have no idea what the royal family is doing Flatbread, how can you possibly comment with any degree of knowledge or authority on their activities!!!!!! Perhaps, if you informed yourself, your arguments would hold more weight. It is easy enough to find out, their engagements are published in the papers & on their website.

To be fair Charles has shown passion on about three causes I can think of, architeture, organic and complementary therapies outside of charity, state work. Dianna famously spoke out against landmines, she was dead not much older than William and Kate. Will and Kate show no compassion for anyone, just outrage at how their family and themselves are treated.

Be fair to Kate, she did work. Two days a week buying accessories for about 18 months. Then for a few years Kate took the catalogue pictures for Mum and Dad. It must have been exhausting for the poor thing.

Disclaimer, if Kate is unwell then it is understandable she worked part time.

Prince Philip served in the Royal Navy during WW2.

Members of his family, living in Germany at the time of WW2 may well have been Nazi supporters. This does not make Prince Philip a Nazi.

So yes, your recall is vague.

kate and william are tagging another holiday on to the end of this trip aren't they?

I don't think they work that hard they bloody live forever! Even margaret who liked a bit of a good time lived to a good age considering her habits because the rest of her life was EASY!

Ugh... I can't believe that a woman started this thread. What about the scummy excuse for newspapers we have in this country? The scummy excuses for 'journalists' who would write/photograph this kind of thing... and the scummy excuses for members of the public who support them by buying/viewing the articles.

...could care less

So why don't you do just that and actually care less then, Flatbread?

You seem to hate the Royals so much yet by your own admission you care more than you should.

Or did you actually mean you already 'couldn't care less'?

Confusing to say the least.