If we didn’t have the royal family...?

[Emma8899]

How would it work? Inspired by another thread. A few people saying that it should be dismantled when the Queen dies.

In reality, how would that work? What would become of the royal family if we decided we just wouldn’t have a monarchy anymore? Obviously they would be normal aristocrats in theory but without the tourism and tax payer money, would they have to get normal jobs?

I’ve never really thought about it before but I can’t really see how we would ever be without the monarchy?

The royal family are wealthy in their own right.

It’s not like the Queen does it for the money, she is Queen out of a sense of duty.

She would probably be gloriously happy out of the public eye, breading race horses and other country pursuits.

I have nothing but admiration for her.

I love the whole lot of them - they do a brilliant job and do so much for our country. Leave them alone - who would you prefer? Some left wing President Corbyn to 'equalise' society?

@StoneofDestiny

The royals are multi millionaires, the queen a billionaire. Don't think any of them need to 'find a job', they could just live off the money we have paid into them for generations.

Tourists would still come - as they do to the previously royal owned French Palaces and Russian Palaces.

We need rid of them all, they are increasingly embarrassing and there should be no place for them in a modern democracy.

This.

@Aroundtheroom

The royal family are wealthy in their own right.

It’s not like the Queen does it for the money, she is Queen out of a sense of duty.

She would probably be gloriously happy out of the public eye, breading race horses and other country pursuits.

I have nothing but admiration for her.

But HOW are they wealthy in their own right?

If it is title and duty only, why do people get so het up about us ‘funding’ their lives?

Surely their wealth only comes from the fact that they are the royal family? Not from having actually done anything?

@MagicSummer

I love the whole lot of them - they do a brilliant job and do so much for our country. Leave them alone - who would you prefer? Some left wing President Corbyn to 'equalise' society?

Their role could be performed by any number of people who could stand for election. Why should it be determined by birth right?

Why the hell don't people demand today they give back their jewels, to all the poorer countries they ruled and plundered and left divided???
I think India and Africa would be very happy to see the thieves resign and hand back the loot.

All this "withdrawing from public duties' is a joke - nothing changes when it happens.

Philip 'withdrew' and nobody has missed his 'contribution'
Edward does nothing anyway
Harry 'withdrew' and nothing has changed
William and Kate 'stepped back' to have kids - nothing changed
Andrew has 'withdrawn' and nothing has changed
Charles is still serving the longest apprenticeship, and the best paid', the world has ever seen

Their 'work' is clearly not essential and irrelevant. For sure their 'work' is way to expensive.

@MagicSummer

I love the whole lot of them - they do a brilliant job and do so much for our country. Leave them alone - who would you prefer? Some left wing President Corbyn to 'equalise' society?

I never said I wanted them gone - I actually quite like the royal family - I am genuinely interested as to what would happen if the people calling for abolition got their way.

And have you forgotten Prince Andrew @MagicSummer?

But even if we took all their assets away from them and I doubt we could ,there is still plenty of interest in the Royal family they won't be on the bread line

@StoneofDestiny

All this "withdrawing from public duties' is a joke - nothing changes when it happens.

Philip 'withdrew' and nobody has missed his 'contribution'
Edward does nothing anyway
Harry 'withdrew' and nothing has changed
William and Kate 'stepped back' to have kids - nothing changed
Andrew has 'withdrawn' and nothing has changed
Charles is still serving the longest apprenticeship, and the best paid', the world has ever seen

Their 'work' is clearly not essential and irrelevant. For sure their 'work' is way to expensive.

Yes, I don’t understand the ‘withdrawing’ business!!

@Love51

But if no one was living there we could make money from tours INSIDE Buck House.

Buckingham Palace IS already open daily for tours during the tourist season, as are Windsor Castle and Sandringham.

If the UK stopped paying the Royals, wouldn't that be ceasing the agreement established by George III where the monarchy turned over the management and, more importantly, the massive revenue from the Crown Estates (valued at over £14 Billion today) to the UK treasury and that property and mining rights etc would return to the royal's control? The UK makes a shit tonne of money for the treasury by having control of the Royal family's property..

The reason we get more tourists in France than the UK does is because we are bigger, it’s easier to get to us than to an island and we have better summer weather. It’s definitely not because we guillotined our royal family over 200yrs ago.

I would argue that the U.K. royal family is a large part of the attraction for U.K. tourists. Everything else you have, we have the same only better here on he continent including history things like castles, palaces, Roman ruins, museums.

If that happened, we'd probably sell off the palaces to the Americans/Chinese and most of the wealth generated from tours would magically disappear out of the country. I wouldn't trust the government to do a good deal/make any profit for the country if it happened.

Just think if their inhertied wealth was redistributed to those most in need, such as the children in Burnley who were ripping open packets of food out of sheer hunger.

They don't even pay inhertiance tax, unlike the average person who saves all their life to pass a meagre amount of money to their family accepting of the fact it will be taxed. That is if they have not paid for their end of life care.

I happily pay tax. I would also, happily see the royals stripped of their inherited assets and see that money redistributed.

Sadly it'll never happen. So we could take their wealth and have them work for their living. Have them opening things seven days a week with 20 days holiday. They can claim expenses or be salaried. Oo, or have them on zero hours so they only get paid for when there is work for them. That way they'd bring in money for tourism and the government whilst not being a drain.

@Aroundtheroom Ah. Thanks for that!
As you were then!

@Lockheart

They might actually be richer, given that the income from the Sovereign Grant only gives the royals 15% of the income from the Crown Estate and the government keeps the rest.

If the Crown Estate went with them then they'd be much better off and the govt less so.

They couldn't take the Crown Estate with them, it belongs to the nation.

"The Crown Estate belongs to the reigning monarch 'in right of The Crown', that is, it is owned by the monarch for the duration of their reign, by virtue of their accession to the throne. But it is not the private property of the monarch - it cannot be sold by the monarch, nor do revenues from it belong to the monarch.

The Government also does not own The Crown Estate. It is managed by an independent organisation - established by statute - headed by a Board (also known as The Crown Estate Commissioners), and the surplus revenue from the estate is paid each year to the Treasury for the benefit of the nation's finances"

They could run let out Sandringham and Balmoral as holiday accommodation.

@Emma8899
Prince Edward works predominantly in the fields of sports and the arts. His Wessex charity focuses on youth oriented causes, including hospitals and hospices, child protection and drug-prevention schemes, inner city drop-in centres, sex education initiatives, special educational needs libraries, sports facilities and arts groups.

This focus is reflected in the charities or foundations of which he is a patron, namely:

The British Paralympic Association
The Duke of Edinburgh's Award
The National Youth Jazz Orchestra
The Tennis and Rackets Association
Badminton Scotland
Birmingham Conservatoire
Central Caribbean Marine Institute
Chetham’s School of Music
Class works theatre
Commonwealth Games Federation
Creative Youth
Edinburgh International Festival
GB Snow Sports
Globe Theatre, Saskatchewan
Household Division Yacht Club
Haddo House Choral and Operatic Society
London Youth (formally - The Federation of London Youth Clubs)
National Youth Music Theatre
National Youth Orchestras of Scotland
Northern Ballet
Queen's Club
Royal Exchange Theatre Company
Royal Ulster Agricultural Society
Royal Windsor Horse show
Seafarers UK (King George's Fund for Sailors)
Sport and Recreation Alliance
The British and Commonwealth Fire Company Foundation
The Duke of Edinburgh's Award, Young Canadians Challenge Charter for Business
The London Mozart Players Trust
The Orpheus Centre Trust
(This is not a definitive list - he supports many other good causes).

He also holds a host of honoury military appointments to support various regiments.

All of the above will need to be visited, corresponded with and Edward will need to keep up to date with progress. This is in addition to his regular official engagements.

He also undertakes royal tours on behalf of the Queen, for example to the Baltics to mark the countries’ centenaries and celebrate their historic links with the UK.

I don’t believe it is fair or true to say Edward does nothing.

Sorry - my post above was more relevant to @StoneofDestiny

Everything else you have, we have the same only better here on he continent

Oooh. "Anything you can do France can do better". Are we taking that?

Why the hell don't people demand today they give back their jewels, to all the poorer countries they ruled and plundered and left divided???

Windows some of those jewels will no longer belong to the Royal Family. Princess Margaret’s children had a sale of her things which involved jewels and I think Prince & Princess Michael had a sale and there will be others.
Should those jewels, many of which came from the countries ‘they ruled and plundered” be traced so they can also be handed back?

it brings a lot of money into the country

Not more than it makes. All the security detail are not taken into account when they make their funds public.

They are a total waste of space.

The palace of Versailles makes an absolute mint. No totals there.

In the Netherlands, the royal family ride round on bikes and mix daily with the 'peasants'

The sooner the royal family is done away with, the better.

The privilege they receive just be made they're born is fucking sickening.

Elitism is an absolute scourge on society.

Totals = royals