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.

One can but hope schrodinger 😉

You should be the next president.

I'd make a better job of it than the Queen or Boris Johnson, that I guarantee you.

I doubt it.

@flossisboss

I'm a stonemason and the idea of a window or similar to mark the jubilee fills me with joy. It would create valuable work for skilled craftspeople, and add to our cultural heritage.

Slight tangent, but I don't think people realise that traditional crafts are fast dying out. We need these types of high profile projects to raise awareness of what we do so that younger generations can be inspired to take up these professions, and those who hold the purse strings release appropriate funding to maintain our historic architecture. The lack of value attached to our work can be heartbreaking. I've worked on some of the most historically important and beautiful buildings in the country, many of which are literally crumbling in front of our eyes. I've witnessed visitors to these places 'ooh!' and 'aah!' with delight, then complain about the price of admission or the inconvenient presence of a scaffold. I realise one could argue that the money could be better spent elsewhere than on bits of stone, brick and glass, but surely paying the wage of a stonemason or pargetter or gilder is still valuable?

I fully appreciate the London argument, and I agree that the city does have more than its fair share of splendour. I don't have an answer though, unless the piece could be toured around the country, or the money could fund several pieces of work around the UK.

Art objects do go on tour - that's not unusual.

Cathedrals of course are rather stationary. But there are a good number of beautiful buildings and similar across the country. You could make an argument that too man end up in London, but it's not like the rest of the country is bereft.

@stillsomewhatsheldonesque

There is a gulf between me now and the past me who was terribly poor. I never hated anyone for being richer than me.

The gift will not be for her or for her lifelong enjoyment because she isn’t going to be here forever. But it will be something to commemorate her service.

I’m sorry you are struggling for appointments. I haven’t for my parents - well, not more than normal. There have always been waiting lists. You can’t blame the Queen for that.

Appointments for anything are harder to get just now due to Covid - not the Queen.

We all crack on with it when we are unwell. Including the Queen I suspect.

Why are you not asking about the astronomical salaries of footballers? Oligarchs? Film stars? Pop stars? We fund them, if indirectly.

You are not a royalist. I am. And never the Twain shall meet. But if you have something to say about how anyone spends their own money - however it be funded - or how the nation spends its money - then write to your MP and see if you can change things.

But to not celebrate her reign is mean spirited.

This is actually an important point.

The public also funds millionaires and billionaires, the Dysons and Gates and Bezos of the world. We fund them by buying from them - not necessarily by choice either but often because of monopolies - and we fund them by working for them and creating productivity which they live off of. That's the fundamental structure of our economy. They do not make billions because they are that much more productive than a warehouse worker or factory line worker.

Many of them avoid most taxes though they are criticised for that. They tend not to get much flack for their personal private spending, or their lifestyle, compared to someone like the queen.

They can also vote and say whatever the heck they want about politics, and more to the point, use their considerable wealth to influence politics, often significantly, to their own benefit. There is a reason laws and regulations are so good for capitalists and not so good for workers.

I really don't think the Queen is the person who should be under the magnifying glass.

Aye goosefoot

The companies who use clever little loopholes to avoid paying taxes are more worthy of my ire.

They can also vote and say whatever the heck they want about politics, and more to the point, use their considerable wealth to influence politics, often significantly, to their own benefit. There is a reason laws and regulations are so good for capitalists and not so good for workers.

I really don't think the Queen is the person who should be under the magnifying glass.

I've no wish to defend the sort of people you speak of, but I don't really see their direct relevance to my argument about the Queen. There are all sorts of people who for various reasons and in various respects are 'worse' than the Queen - she's not a serial killer, she's not a dictator - but that doesn't mean she can't be criticised or that the abolition of the monarchy isn't worth fighting for.

@FrightClub

But which charity? And how much? And when? And who chooses it? And what about Cancer Research/ex-servicemen/lifeboats/sad donkeys, etc?

The MPs are paying for something historically significant to be added to a nationally important building, which will give craftsmen work, tourists something else to look at, and generally be a positive thing.

The tax payer isn't paying for it (unless you want to go down the 'we pay their wages' argument) and the Queen isn't stuck with yet another pointless painted goblet set.

Sad Donkeys!...Take all of my money now!

YABU.

The Queen is a symbol of this country and part of our rich history (whether you like it or not) and a platinum jubilee is an amazing milestone and it should be marked. The money is being raised by MP's not us so leave them to it.

There are already charities/funding in place to help those financially struggling due to Covid and never in the history of ever have our parliamentary folk thought "oh! There are peasants living on the street and with empty fridges so we should help them more and not spend money on other frivolities" and it's not going to happen now or in the future so I suggest everyone makes peace with that and stops blaming the Queen for every imagine slight.

Leave the woman alone, she deserves to mark her place in history.

So sick of these haves vs have not threads.

I'm sure this would suit HM right down to the ground!!

Hard to respect the Queennafter being bailed out, disgusting behaving when people are losing their livelihood and homes, for her to take taxpayers money to make up for profits she is not making on her investments

Can f off really. Absolutely disgusting and I love how people on here just ignore it and think she is so wonderful and deserves gifts etc.

No hand bsck the money you dont need it. Us subjects have to deal with the fact our investments aren't making much money either.

@FelicisNox

YABU.

The Queen is a symbol of this country and part of our rich history (whether you like it or not) and a platinum jubilee is an amazing milestone and it should be marked. The money is being raised by MP's not us so leave them to it.

There are already charities/funding in place to help those financially struggling due to Covid and never in the history of ever have our parliamentary folk thought "oh! There are peasants living on the street and with empty fridges so we should help them more and not spend money on other frivolities" and it's not going to happen now or in the future so I suggest everyone makes peace with that and stops blaming the Queen for every imagine slight.

Leave the woman alone, she deserves to mark her place in history.

So sick of these haves vs have not threads.

Yeah she’ll mark her place in history all right, as a woman who symbolises oppression, greed, and inequality, The total disregard for the people who fund her and her huge extended family is shameful. They’re an unnecessary drain on the country.

Hard to respect the Queen after being bailed out

Actually it gets even worse if you factor in not just the bailouts they've had, but ones they tried for:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11403544

Hard to respect the Queennafter being bailed out, disgusting behaving when people are losing their livelihood and homes, for her to take taxpayers money to make up for profits she is not making on her investments

I asked you to clarify this the last time you posted it. You still haven’t. Can we have a link or some detail, please? My memory is excellent and I don’t remember it at all.

Sold! @Dizzybintess (LOVE your name!)

whose salaries are paid from the public purse

I don't know whether anyone else picked this up from pages back, but if "the public" should decided what everyone who is paid for by the public purse does with their money, you are going to have a hard time getting doctors, nurses, NHS in general, civil service, council employees, police, MoD, etc etc etc to give in to you demands.....

@Baaaahhhhh - I haven't said anything about people whose salaries are "paid from the public purse".

These MPs are forming a parliamentary committee so are arranging this gift in parliamentary time. I am talking about what my elected representative is doing during the hours they are supposed to be representing me. Not what MPs are doing with their salaries.

Is your MP on the committee? Because I’m pretty sure mine isn’t. There will only be about three MPs, the rest are peers. I could understand if you were getting your knickers in a twist about them - they get about £400 a day just for turning up.

To be perfectly blunt, it will probably be the last jubilee event we will celebrate for many years so who really cares if it's a bit gauche given recent times

We said that at the last jubilee!

I don't know if the members have been decided/released yet, Vinyl. But as a body, the House of Commons represent the electorate - as a member of the electorate, I'm not happy with this use of their time.

The House of Lords needs to be abolished - it's unacceptable that these unelected peers have any say at all in matters of government - but that's drifting away from the point of the thread.

The link in your OP says who some of those committee members are, eg The Speaker and the Attorney General. There’s no such thing as “parliamentary time”. They don’t work 9 to 5, sometimes they sit until the early hours of the morning. It’s just another flimsy way for you to try to defend a very unreasonable opinion.

There’s no such thing as “parliamentary time”. They don’t work 9 to 5, sometimes they sit until the early hours of the morning.

That's no different from anyone who is contracted to work the necessary hours to get their job done - a common type of contract at higher salary levels (commensurate with what MPs are paid). That doesn't mean it's not being done in parliamentary time. If it wasn't, why would they form a 'parliamentary committee'? They'd just get together informally and sort it out.

While their committee is meeting, they'll be using parliamentary facilities, their parliamentary subsidised restaurant, and claiming whatever expenses they usually claim while on parliamentary business - e.g. for their second home, office staff, etc. They've already paid someone to write a press release about it.

@VinylDetective gotta say that am surprised you are stil trying to explain it all (again and again and again) to the BUT queen here.

[quote SchrodingersImmigrant]@VinylDetective gotta say that am surprised you are stil trying to explain it all (again and again and again) to the BUT queen here.[/quote]
I know. It holds a weird fascination. I’m intrigued to see where OP’s mental gymnastics take her!

It's really not complicated. I'm not happy about money being spent on the Queen and I think the monarchy should be abolished.

Others may have different opinions, but that is mine.