AIBU to loathe the Royal Family

[InWinoVeritas]

The way the media is so gushing about everything Wills, Kate and Harry do, just been watching the evening news, there is a story about Wills and Kate doing a radio broadcast, makes me want to vomit..
And the issues about mental health - really? Do we need Royal 'endorsement' just to get more funding?

But the abolition of the British Monarchy won't mean there's suddenly a pool of wealth available to sort all our problems out.

Read my post up above about how much they cost and what the money saved could pay for. Not that i think it would be used for those things but why should we be throwing so much at one family when everyone else has to suffer cutbacks.

I don't have sour grapes about Harry getting help. I just think it's easy for someone in his position to give that advice, secure in the knowledge that for him, help, if sought for anything, will aways be forthcoming.

I would far rather hear from someone with experience in the real world, who could give practical advice about how to get support when you're not in a position to pay for it, and don't have an income that keeps on rolling in regardless of your ability to work.

My mum once made a point years ago that has always stuck in my head, that the Royal Family stops the UK from ever descending into a dictatorship.

Nobody is claiming the RF are personally to blame for inequality, just that by their presence they underpin stagnation and immovable social barriers, entrenching inherited privilege.

It is actually getting worse not better:

www.equalitytrust.org.uk/how-has-inequality-changed

I don't see how things can change unless we get rid of them, how can we claim to be an equal society when we have these parasites sitting on top of it?

We don't get a return on our investment imo, unless you think a few positive words from the Cambridges about mental health ensure that the fortunes spent on them (e.g. £1million doing up their Kensington Palace home) is money well spent.

How do you just 'get rid' of an entire family??

What would you do with all the empty royal residences? All the royals staff? Belongings?

The empty residences could be open to the public together with all the artwork 'held in trust' for us (though we never get to see most of it at the moment). They could be open all year round to attract tourists and generate income for the country as do ex-royal residences like the Tower of London, Hampton Court and, indeed, Versailles.

Many of the staff would still be needed to look after it all. The RF themselves would be free to go wherever they choose, I doubt they would starve.

Songbird said "Why should ministers tell us to tighten our belts and accept massive public sector cuts to jobs and essential services while at the same time allow Prince Charles to take a £30.000 chartered plane for a 4 day jaunt to Scotland."

I am no fan of Prince Charles but compared with what a certain D Trump, Esq charges the US taxpayer for his weekend trips to Florida, that's cheap - and therein lies the problem. You wouldn't get rid of all this cost if you had a republic, and if Trump is anything to go by you would if anything probably add to it.

Well whatever you think of Trump I don't think there are any comparisons to be made between him and & prince Charles.

As US president he is head of state as well as government, Charles is neither. I can't comment on whether the cost of Trump's weekend trips is excessive (that is for the American people to decide) but don't think there is any argument that Charles's public duties are so arduous that he is entitled to time out at great public expense….such as a chartered plane given Charles is so keen on protecting the environment.

If our presidency was run the same as Ireland's it would be two and a half times cheaper. Then it wouldn't be necessary to fund Charles's jaunts.Theres no reason to think it would be run like the US.

Kaybush - how exactly do the RF 'protect' us from a dictatorship?

My mum once made a point years ago that has always stuck in my head, that the Royal Family stops the UK from ever descending into a dictatorship.
That wouldn't happen though, the UK would just be like the rest of Europe, and the majority of the world.

My mum once made a point years ago that has always stuck in my head, that the Royal Family stops the UK from ever descending into a dictatorship.

That's not a 'point', it's a completely unfounded assertion which makes no actual sense. And worth pointing out that one of the reasons why the Prince of Wales who would briefly become Edward VIII was being spied on at the behest of his father, the ruling king, and later at the behest of the government, was because of his pro-Hitler views.

And that the current Queen has shaken hands with, and knighted, her fair share of dictators, from Mugabe to Bashar al-Assad to the Sultan of Brunei.

Or are you suggesting the monarchy is only fine with foreign dictators?

Sorry there are a few more than Holland but not on such a big scale.

If our presidency was run the same as Ireland's it would be two and a half times cheaper.

It would be way cheaper than that, wouldn't it? Micheal D gets 250,000 euros it was reduced under Mary McAleese with the public servant cap plus the use of Aras an Uachtarain, plus a plane and car as needed. I remember Mary McAleese giving back a chunk of unspent travel allowance at the end of her term, too.

I live in the US. Obama cost a lot too. Also I've become a lot fonder of the idea of hereditary peers. We have senators voted in here and they spend their time in office fundraising. Hereditary peers were wealthy families. I think a mix would be a great idea with the hereditary titles moving to the next generation (eldest male or female) when they turn 70.

Then adding people based on their accomplishments rather than their politics makes an awful lot of sense. I have no idea why thatcher ever went to the House of Lords. She had her influence as PM. Most of the appointments are political and they shouldn't be. I'd like to see more appointments made from different areas such as music, arts, construction, medical sciences, agriculture, commerce and public services such as policing, social care and education.

I would like to see the. Monarchy abolished after the queen. They are just ordinary people with privileged lives.I wouldn't curtsey to any except the Queen and that only out of respect for her many years on the throne. Can't stand hearing about any of the others and their pretentious exploits which we pay for.

I live in the US. Obama cost a lot too.

Sure, but no one is suggesting (I assume) that we dismantle the UK's current system of government and replace it with a US-style one, only that we abolish the monarchy and replace it with some form of elected ceremonial figurehead with minimal political power.

Look after you end up with two clowns to pick as your president I thought that at least if this happened in the U.K. we would have the monarchy there as a sounding board (and influence to counter their nuts ideas).

We have Donald Trump. I pray he comes to meet the Queen. Hopefully she can have a word!

I think that is wishful thinking Want2bSupermum, the Queen is famously silent & has to follow the advice of her government.

As has been pointed out above she has hosted - and knighted - all kinds of unsavoury individuals, dictators etc. So even if she did try to privately influence them about their excesses, it didn't work very well did it?

I oppose hereditary privilege so don't agree with hereditary peers filling the Lords and having unearned influence….I agree though with distinguished individuals from all walks of life, rather than ex-politicians being appointed to the Lords. I don't know how to change things though, it has been ripe for change for decades.

Haha the royal family aren't going anywhere.....funny old thread

Reminds me of the 'leftists being nasty' thread - what is wrong with the royal family, I think they mostly do really well in a crap job - who would you rather have doing the job -Tony Blair - he is almost as rich as them!

The personalities of the royal family is less of an issue(overall in this argument right now) - but the monarchy as an institution should be abolished as an anachronism. They are an unelected overprivileged family who contribute nothing necessary to our country. The tourists will still come to visit the many palaces and castles (as they do in France, Russia and other places who no longer have a royal family).
It is beyond belief that anybody bows and scrapes to them, it's demeaning.
Most galling is the money we pay to support the lavish lifestyles of the most unproductive members of the extended family and their offspring and spouses - Edward, Andrew etc and the many cousins or other relatives of the Queen who are propped up in central London grace and favour apartments.

notstopped - the belongings are the belongings of the nation. They can go into museums, the palaces and castles can become museums (complete with artefacts). The staff can be deployed as guides or seek alternative employment.
What do any of us if our employers Close down - (what did the miners, steelworkers, retail and post office staff have to do when their employment ended?)

Oh god, how dull..... more stately homes full of rubbish, nobody will want to see homes where previous tenants were evicted from

Nobody cares much about the places we have now! So many listed buildings fall into disrepair..... there's no money and little interest as it is, why add to it?