Why do you love The Royal Family?

[pedropony76]

I previously posted this on The Royal Family board but only received one response so wanted to post here for traffic.

For those that love The Queen & The Royal Family, can you actually explain why?

I often see MNetters saying ‘Oh I love The Queen, I love this member and that member’ but no one ever says why. I came across the video of Stacey Solomon saying she doesn’t get why the country is so obsessed with this family as it could be any one of us born into royalty and I totally agree.

For me, when I think of The Royal Family, I instantly think of colonialism and how many of the jewels on the Queen’s crown has been stolen from different countries. I understand not everyone thinks like this but why do some love the members of this establishment as if they’ve done anything to better your life? I’d love to hear people’s views. I’ve tried to have this conversation in real life but everyone I know couldn’t care less about The Royal Family so I’m none the wiser.

Here’s the Stacey Solomon clip for any who haven’t seen it before

I wouldn't say I love the royal family, but I do like the Queen. I don't really get the narrative that she's never worked a day in her life though- she volunteered for the land army and actually genuinely got stuck in, she could have hidden away at home and been excused from it. She's had engagements practically every day, and no not insinuating this is hard manual labour but neither are all jobs. But having all of your time accounted for must be quite suffocating.

I wonder how much of it is because she's a woman, if it was a king I'm sure some would view it more as work. I'm not sure she should carry the burden of colonialism either really.

PA was only able to do what he did because he was "royal"

This applies to all men with an ounce of power or fame though. They're so used to people falling over themselves to spend time with them or being told how wonderful they are that they do feel entitled. I'm not excusing what he did of course, but it's not limited to him being a royal. It's epidemic amongst men, just look at how many MPs are being investigated, how many celebrities fell out of me too etc.

Yes Prince Andrew is despicable, but to say he could only do what he did because he was royal is complete idiocy

Do you honestly think Jeffrey Epstein would've been schmoozing plain old Andrew Smith who lives in Bolton? PA was open to flattery by extremely wealthy men, and despots and dodgy dictators sucked up to him because he was Royal and could open doors. From then on came parties with young girls and the rest is history.

I would not describe my feelings as love for the Royal Family. Mine is that given the choice between the history and tradition of the Monarchy and having the political process of an elected president, I'd choose the monarchy. I'd take away any formal or theoretical political role.

I respect the Queen as a person handsomely compensated for the role she does, but like all societies, we change. I think Prince Charles has it very right with regards to seriously trimming down to just the ‘senior’ royals, whose role is to simply act as figureheads there for hosting state visitors, highlighting charities and representatives. If we’re going to keep this anachronism, it needs to be streamlined to the essentials.

The Queen, as a person who was born into a role and has made the best of it, is still guilty of excess with regards to the grace and favour living of obscure family members and allowing the royal ‘business’ to try and avoid rules applied to other people (Scottish environmental/carbon tax implications - Google it).
I think titles should now be abolished as they are about division and placing one person, without merit, above another. We are a much more equal society now, thank goodness.

What on earth is ‘divine right’ in todays scientific world? And why should people curtesy to someone like Duchess Kate or Prince Edward? (Both probably lovely people, but again, just people doing a handsomely paid job).
We can’t change the division of wealth or sadly, land ownership, but we shouldn’t continue this remnant of a feudal system. The biggest PR scoop ever has been convincing the masses that the wealthiest people in the country who own vast swathes of our land are somehow connected to our value or morality as a nation.

The Monarch doesn't pay IHT, on personal or other wealth, nor do certain other members of the RF.

The Queen paid nothing when her mother died, and Charles won't pay anything when the Queen dies.

www.express.co.uk/news/royal/1508459/Royal-family-inheritance-tax-queen-evg

I would love people to read this book. Its author is a respected person, formerly a member of the Privy Council, MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State etc.

I imagine a lot of Royalists won't read it because they would hate what it says.... the truth. An eye opener.

www.amazon.co.uk/What-Do-You-Royal-Family-ebook/dp/B07RN38QC5

Quite true, but why should we have to tolerate it from a member of the royal family....

The queen (who never puts a foot wrong) didn't care and gave him her blessing. 😣
Why so many people put this family on a pedestal never fails to amaze me.

I'm not a fan. I don't hate them, and I can't get myself that worked up about their cost and privilege. I just think the whole thing is an anachronism. I do find it really weird how much some people love them, in the same way that I am baffled by how invested people are in celebrities in general, and how they actually seem to feel they 'know' them.

'But how would you feel about president Boris?' is a total non-argument imo. Having a figurehead monarch doesn't really do anything to mitigate the effects of a poor government (as is very evident atm). Any country can end up with an arse of a leader.

Curtsey to any of them? Not likely. Never ever.

I mean... come on.... is this what we are in the 21st century? Here's Zara looking like she's sat on the toilet

The biggest PR scoop ever has been convincing the masses that the wealthiest people in the country who own vast swathes of our land are somehow connected to our value or morality as a nation.

The Queen and RF are not the wealthiest people in the country. They don’t even make the top 250 wealthiest people of the U.K. Rich List.

Funny that stripping someone of all their royal titles and roles…basically giving them the sack is “a blessing”.

No, it isn’t tax on our tax. The RF is privately wealthy, they pay tax on income independent of the taxpayer. In any event, every public sector employee pays tax on our tax, shall we criticise them too?

Because their finances are totally opaque. That's why.

I don't think people are tolerating it are they? Hes rightly been stripped of all of his Royal titles and duties, with family I think people would be surprised how many parents don't just abandon their children completely after stuff like this. I don't think that means she wasn't bothered about it. I'm sure many are convinced they would but who knows. The case against him wasn't really about whether he had sex with her (of course he did I don't believe she would lie), but about whether he knew she was trafficked. She was of legal age here, again not saying that makes it okay, but it means legally he wouldn't be brought to task for that. Unless there happened to be written correspondence (highly unlikely) where he was told she was trafficked he wouldn't have been found guilty. Actually a pay out was a good outcome for her as well, she sadly never would have got 'justice' if he had been questioned anyway.

Rousette, men don’t have be rich and powerful to abuse young girls. The Rotherham perverts were shopkeepers and taxi drivers.

That’s not exactly correct. All the sucking up happened because Prince Andrew was working as a Special Trade Representative. Anyone in that position would have been a target. No one was sucking up to him when he was flying helicopters for example.

No they are not “totally opaque”. Their finances are published on the internet for all to see. Unlike most of the people actually on the Rich List.

Blossom Of course I know that. I am talking about PA and JE. Their relationship was based on money and royalty.
I know that is not always the case. In this instance, it was because he was Royal and 'useful'.

Of course it's out of our tax. We aren't talking of their private wealth. I'm talking about her annual income which is from the taxpayer. Why would I criticise pubic sector employees. I made the point because someone mentioned the queen paying tax as if it's admirable. It's from what we give her, fact.

The RF do in fact pay IHT. The only exemption special to the RF is that bequests between sovereigns are exempt of IHT. Might want to read what you linked. It’s not a blanket exception for the entire RF applying to all inheritance.

And also from her private income. Fact.

If you’re going to criticise the taxation source of one public servant, surely you have to criticise them all? Unless, of course, you don’t believe in consistency.

No it’s not “out of our tax”. You’re quite simply wrong. The Queen voluntarily pays income and capital gains tax on her private wealth. These tax payments are not from the sovereign grant we give her which come from the Crown Estate. And while the Crown Estate does belong to the State/we taxpayers, technically not even that money comes from our tax. The Crown Estates income is almost all business and rent income.

So you know the worth of the coastal areas the Monarchy owns, the sea beds, Regent St in London, retail parks, shopping centres, farms in Texas, the list is endless. To pick it apart and work out who owns what is impossible. How do you distinguish between the Crown's wealth and personal wealth. Much of this comes from conquests and of course colonialism.

She is the largest legal land owner in the world and you think you know all that worth? The estimate is between £16bn and £18bn, or more.

We are spoon fed what the Monarchy want us to know. I urge you to read the book I linked to. It will become clearer if you do.

That £1.4 billion isn't her own money though! It's other people's money she helped raise with her charitable work. No one knows how much she privately donates, though occasional donations make the news. I'm sure it's just a fraction of her wealth though.