to think the Queen should refuse this gift?

[WitchesSpelleas]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54915124

"A committee of MPs and peers has been set up to choose a gift "fit" for the Queen to mark the 70th anniversary of her accession, in 2022.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said it would be a "token of our respect". For her Diamond Jubilee in 2012, the Queen had a stained-glass window created for her in Westminster Hall."

The Queen has everything she could possibly need, and the money to buy anything she could want.

This gift will be funded by donations from MPs - of course, it's up to them how they want to spend their money - but at a time when so many of her subjects are struggling financially due to the impact of Covid19, I think it would be appropriate for the Queen to ask the MPs to make a donation to a UK charity instead of spending the money on a Platinum Jubilee gift.

It's not really a gift. It's a recognition in a public building.

Full disclosure, I'm a raging Republican. Good it's coming out of their pocket but crap these same MP's haven't taken a wage cut as others did - like the New Zealand PM - when the country is struggling. I think priorities are off, but it is their cash.

She is the only monarch to reach 70 years on the throne so yes I think there should be something to mark this occasion.

I haven't read the full thread.....but this is history in the making. It needs to be marked with something permanent. It will be generations to come that will value it and discuss it. The UK has such a rich culture of historical buildings/sculpture/parks etc. We can't just stop!

I am in no way a Royalist either!

@Margerine78 Do you know how much the NZ pm earns?

I knows it more than the UK PM to be fair, although PMs were going to give themselves a rise very recently until there was a huge backlash - I think that was poor taste given the pandemic.

“her subjects”???

@Margerine78 It’s a lot more. Almost £100k a year more.

I think it’s a wonder commemorative and respectful gift not just to the queen but to the nation who will treasure it long after she’s gone.

How could you view it as otherwise?

Don’t take her gift of an extra bank holiday (paid!) if celebrating her achievements and service offend you so greatly.

Don’t take her gift of an extra bank holiday (paid!) if celebrating her achievements and service offend you so greatly.

It'll be my employer who decides whether I'm working that Bank Holiday, not me!

So overpaid people donated money that will go BACK into the economy helping artists and laborers and you think its a bad thing?

Instead youu think it should go to 'Charity' where those very same artists and labourers will likely have to line up to get donated food while the money goes lines the overpaid charity CEOs pockets and pays the companies debts and bills?

Good it's coming out of their pocket

Is anyone quite certain of this, and that the "contributions" won't somehow find their way onto the expenses claims ...?

@mam0918

So overpaid people donated money that will go BACK into the economy helping artists and laborers and you think its a bad thing?

Instead youu think it should go to 'Charity' where those very same artists and labourers will likely have to line up to get donated food while the money goes lines the overpaid charity CEOs pockets and pays the companies debts and bills?

Firstly, it's yet to be determined what the gift is and whether it will help 'artists and labourers*.

Secondly, the construction industry has remained up and running throughout both lockdowns, so labourers are not top of the list of people who need help.

Thirdly - not sure what you are saying - that no charities are worthwhile because they incur running costs and pay salaries to their staff?

@WitchesSpelleas

Just as you are free to spend your own money on what you see fit, so are they.

I would be interested to know what my employer would say if I asked to form a committee of colleagues and called a series of meetings in work time for us all to make our Christmas lists.

I don't somehow think it would be 'what a good idea!'

When I was in the army, I was once part of a committee whose sole purpose was to make decisions about, arrange for, and purchase official gifts. Usually, though not always, for retirements.

You also might consider than in purchasing this gift which will go to the nation, from their own private money, the MPs will be making a purchase. Very likely from some sort of artist or craftsperson, many of whom are struggling at the moment to find commissions.

I can say with some confidence that they'd rather have the work and be able to buy their own tin of beans rather than receive a few cans as a hand-out.

So to reiterate: Private money. Substantial artistic gift of historical value to the nation. Income to person or persons in a currently struggling and depressed sector.

About those who worry about it being so far ahead - it takes quite some time to make the kind of item they are likely to be thinking off. A year is not an unlikely timeline. So they really need to get on it now if it is going to be sure to be done on time.

@Goosefoot

About those who worry about it being so far ahead - it takes quite some time to make the kind of item they are likely to be thinking off. A year is not an unlikely timeline. So they really need to get on it now if it is going to be sure to be done on time.

I don't doubt that, with a parliamentary committee on the job, there'll be a detailed plan about what to do should the Queen not live that long - I expect whatever it is would be repurposed as a memorial to her.

I expect whatever it is would be repurposed as a memorial to her.

Exactly.

So you can see the clear line between 'this window/statue/bridge is presented to her Majesty on the occasion of her 70th year on the throne' and 'this window/statue/bridge is a memorial to HM the Q'? It's not a gift in the ordinary sense.

It's a chance for the current serving MPs to get their names in the history books as the subscribers who made it possible.

I wouldn't support an expensive memorial either.

The Queen is a privileged woman who has lived a long time, owning endless wealth and multiple properties while people she reigns over are homeless. She might be far from the worst Royal we've had, but she's not a person to be proud of. I don't know how she sleeps at night.

You know, the thing is, it really isn't about the queen as a private individual, or even as a person. It's about the symbol of the state.

All countries have these kinds of celebrations and acknowledgements, which they spend money on. While the Queen also is my queen, I'm not in the UK. We fairly recently had widespread public memorials of the War of 1812. We have public art to commemorate all kinds of milestones, or people.

Nations spend money on these things because people have need of public symbols, of memorials of time passed, of shared events and experiences. One thing that holds together everyone living in the UK today is livig at the time of the longest reigning monarch, who is generally quite well respected and seen as having done a good job. If she's been a dud, they'd have that in common too. In fact it holds together several generations which is unusual.

Given that it's not really about the queen having something she doesn't need, or money coming out of the public purse, or even that there is so much money involved that it could make some real dent in helping out with the basic needs of the nation, it's very difficult to see this thread as being about anything much more than class envy. Which is not the worst of sins but is a particularly unattractive one.
I have to say, this thread increasinly reads like it's not really

One thing that holds together everyone living in the UK today is livig at the time of the longest reigning monarch

But the country isn't held together. It's very sharply divided at the moment. Coronavirus has highlighted the north/south wealth divide. Brexit has heightened the division between those who want an independent Scotland and those who don't. Our terror alert is currently at maximum. We're trillions in debt.

Those things aren't the fault of the Queen - but it's not correct to say her existence holds the country together, because the country is falling apart.

All abit previous. She's 94 for goodness sake. How does anyone know if she will be here in 2022?

I actually want to buy her a Swarovski corgi.
Shall we start a Crowdfund? The bigger, the better!

@Oreservoir

I never more worried that they’ll jinx her by starting to plan already. She’s 94.

Maybe I'm an awful, awful person, but that's the first thing that entered my head as well when they said they were making plans for almost 2 years in the future!

@WitchesSpelleas

One thing that holds together everyone living in the UK today is livig at the time of the longest reigning monarch

But the country isn't held together. It's very sharply divided at the moment. Coronavirus has highlighted the north/south wealth divide. Brexit has heightened the division between those who want an independent Scotland and those who don't. Our terror alert is currently at maximum. We're trillions in debt.

Those things aren't the fault of the Queen - but it's not correct to say her existence holds the country together, because the country is falling apart.

The fact that the country is very divided is a very good reason to want to make a bit of fuss about common experiences and common historical memory.

All kinds of people share the experience of living under Elizabeth II. Very old people, young people, people of all races, people of all political persuasions, bad people, good people.

A large part of the point of the form of constitutional monarchy is that is presents an image of the state as being a unity that exists above political divisions and personal concerns.