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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Kate Middleton

573 replies

WILKO9 · 27/09/2015 13:13

AIBU to find Kate Middleton really annoying ? It's probably just me but I find her so smug. Anyway feel much better for getting that off my chest !!!

OP posts:
riverwalk · 28/09/2015 22:39

Booyaka all the royals wealth has come one way or another from the taxpayer. Their independant wealth hasn't been earned.

Booyaka · 28/09/2015 22:47

I think their main income comes from land in the form of the Crown Estate which pays the entire Sovereign grant which replaced the civil list. So actually not a penny of what they get comes from the actual taxpayer at all. So you can dispute that they have a right to own those estates in the first place, but it's not correct to say that it all comes from taxpayers, because that's not normally the source. And Prince Andrew seems to have outside business interests anyway. And some of them are quite shady. He did a very dodgy deal selling his mansion to a Kazakh for more than the asking price, which was probably a kickback.

TheIncomparableDejahThoris · 28/09/2015 22:50

all the royals wealth has come one way or another from the taxpayer. Their independant wealthhasn't been earned.

Weeeeeeeell, they own lots of land, and owing property can generate income- rent, fishing, crops. I will readily admit that their land ownership was not kindly and respectfully negotiated in times gone past, but the same goes for all the other aristocrats who still own land, and we did not seize theirs either.

riverwalk · 28/09/2015 22:53

. If the royal family were to be abolished all the money from the crown estates would revert back to the people of the U.K. The huge chunk that they take from it could be used in a much more useful way.

Booyaka · 28/09/2015 23:03

It wouldn't necessarily revert to the state. Anyway £40 million is not a huge sum of money in terms of public spending. And it would be replaced by something else which would cost almost as much. Put it this way, if Tony Blair had been made president I don't think him and Cherie would have actually slummed it.

riverwalk · 28/09/2015 23:08

Yes but Tony Blair would have only made president by being voted in. People get the choice and if they're no good they don't get voted for again.
The money would revert to the state, no doubt about that.

redstrawberry10 · 28/09/2015 23:49

I'm not a fan of either of them, but to say they're lounging around on holiday at the taxpayers expense is nonsense

they only voluntarily pay tax. And the duchy is far from transparent.

it's a racket, pure and simple. and their overfunded "jobs" pay an incredible amount, no matter how they perform.

TheIncomparableDejahThoris · 29/09/2015 00:01

Talking of Duchies, anyone else remember why one shouldn't die intestate in Cornwall in particular?

Charles gets it to spend as he sees fit, that's why.

redstrawberry10 · 29/09/2015 00:03

Charles gets it to spend as he sees fit, that's why.

that's criminal.

TheIncomparableDejahThoris · 29/09/2015 00:14

It is. It is something I can imagine one glazing over if he invested it in Cornwall's needs, and did so well, although the principle would remain that hereditary title doesn't make you good with public money. (See various monarchs thus far.)

But he isn't even doing that. If he wants to provide scholarships to Gordonstoun, he should do it with the biscuit money.

TheIncomparableDejahThoris · 29/09/2015 00:14

Or funding to Gordonstoun, even.

merrymouse · 29/09/2015 06:11

although the principle would remain that hereditary title doesn't make you good with public money.

Exactly.

It seems silly to call the royals bone idle and lazy (we don't know what they do all day), when they could be opening day care centres all day and the system still wouldn't make any sense whatsoever.

TheIncomparableDejahThoris · 29/09/2015 07:19

I call it foulweather republicanism.

redstrawberry10 · 29/09/2015 09:42

although the principle would remain that hereditary title doesn't make you good with public money.

of course. all a hereditary title does is guarantee who your mother is.

why that would make you a good person, head of state, or anything is beyond me. It is the antithesis of merit.

riverwalk · 29/09/2015 12:05

It seems silly to call the royals bone idle and lazy
If Prince Charles who has 161 servants and has never undressed himself and has someone to iron his shoelaces, is typical of the rest of the royals (and there's no reason to think he is isnt) I think we can safely say that they are indeed bone idle and lazy.

DixieNormas · 29/09/2015 12:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Cerseirys · 29/09/2015 12:37

There's a story of Prince Charles' valet forgetting to put the toothpaste on his toothbrush and Prince C coming out of the bathroom saying his toothbrush was "broken". Apparently he thought you just press the toothbrush and the toothpaste automatically gets squeezed out! This story may however be just an urban legend...

TheIncomparableDejahThoris · 29/09/2015 12:43

You kinda took that clause out of context there, river.

Anyway, I can't believe Charles went through boarding school with a servant helping him get changed for bed and PE or that he has been visiting ladyfriends for the night his whole life with a valet in tow.

Ta1kinPeace · 29/09/2015 12:55

Dejah
Anyway, I can't believe Charles went through boarding school with a servant helping him get changed for bed and PE or that he has been visiting ladyfriends for the night his whole life with a valet in tow
I hate to disabuse you but ......

Prince "Eco credentials"
has seven eggs boiled every morning for different times so he can decide at the table how cooked he wants it, rather than waiting while they cook it.

pinkfrocks · 29/09/2015 13:08

No- that is a complete myth about the eggs. I read it somewhere then later on it was discredited as a load of rubbish.

TheIncomparableDejahThoris · 29/09/2015 13:09

^Prince "Eco credentials"
has seven eggs boiled every morning for different times so he can decide at the table how cooked he wants it, rather than waiting while they cook it.^

Oh, I believe that. I just don't believe every single girlfriend he's ever had has been willing to still carry on with the evening if he insisted on bringing a valet to undress him.

I think he can get his own trousers off now at a girlfriend's apartment.

Ta1kinPeace · 29/09/2015 13:09

Fair enough,
but the four or five outfits in a day and thus tons of luggage on overseas trips is visibly true.

riverwalk · 29/09/2015 15:03

Charles won't have 161 servants to stand idle. To have that many they really must be doing something of use, putting toothpaste on his toothbrush is probably true. I really couldn't be attracted to a man who's so soft and pampered.

pinkfrocks · 29/09/2015 16:10

I sometimes change my outfits 3 or 4 times a day and I'm not a prince or princess. Work clothes, dog walking clothes, sports clothes, lounging around house clothes, going out in the evening clothes.
I know I need servants to manage it all for me. But it's so hard to get really decent staff these days.

harshbuttrue1980 · 29/09/2015 17:12

If a rich lady chooses to spend her time getting her hair done while palming her children off onto a nanny, that's her business. When its the wife of our future head of state doing this, that becomes the business of the taxpayer. She's very pretty, and fits the stereotypical "princess" mould (tall, thin, rich, with nice hair). However, when she ages and gets less physically attractive, what substance is there?? Compare her with Queen Rania of Jordan and its clear that the Jordanians have the better deal. When she doesn't look like a fairytale princess anymore, I think people's patience will run out.

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