£162 million to bury the queen

[StoneofDestiny]

£162 Million to bury the Queen! AIBU to think this could have been better spent improving Public Services like the NHS, Education, Housing etc

You cannot think that what was done was pulled together on the fly. Of course it was all arranged when the queen was alive. She didn't die and suddenly everyone went "right, quick change of plans!"

If we didn’t have a royal family we would all end up being financially poorer and having to pay more tax.
They bring in much more money to the country than they receive (which costs £1/household/year).

Have you seen how much gets spent on policing G8 and G20 summits? And they've got far fewer world leaders attending than the funeral did.

Not true.

proven over and over again.

The plans were in place for 9 years.

I’m ex-hotel management. I do know.

The opposite is true. The tourism thing has been disproved time and time again. We'd be richer without them.....and what other institution other than the monarchy has its cost broken down like that to make themselves sound good value? That £1 a household is a lot of money going to one family. I'd like to see mine going to something worthwhile, not a family of billionaires.

Who's it benefited? not the man in the street.

While she would have been consulted about music, ceremonies, and invited guests, I strongly doubt that she was involved in the finer details of how many crowd control barriers and G4S goons needed to be hired.

Perhaps we should abolish all bank holidays then, they clearly make us so unproductive. Abolish weekends too, you can have a half-day on Sundays and consider yourselves lucky. Then the economy will prosper. Never mind that life will be shit...

Seriously - where do you think the money goes in the end? Do you think all the people who worked on the funeral and got paid (the majority of the overall expenditure) just hide the money forever under their mattresses and it gets removed permanently from circulation?

So if you were working in one of those hotels that the funeral workers (and also tourists) stayed in, business would have been pretty good at your hotel, no? Local food and beverage suppliers would also have benefited.

I have a great suggestion for a statue to go outside a pizza express...

the man in the street who owns a restaurant that saw a boost in trade for the week surrounding the funeral? Nah, no benefit to him.

The man in the street who was contracted out for extra work to provide lighting for the celnrai? Nope...no benefit?

The local community that had a picnic on the green and fostered some community spirit...nah.

The local party entertainer's that got load to do shows for kids and this advertise their business? Received sweet fa...

The local business who sold themed cupcakes for a party that they might not have sold otherwise? Ridiculous that they didn't get any benefit.

The local store that sold bunting and party bits saw absolutely nothing... Tut tut.

The man who got double pay for working a bank holiday weekend, yeah he got fuck all out of it...

You've just taken those figures from the Republic! website and there's nothing tangible to support that at all.

Graham Smith said the coronation security would cost much more than £100m, it would be closer to £200m. But security for the queen, which was needed in Scotland as well as in London, over a much longer period of time than a few hours, and it had to cover all the foreign dignatories cost £73m. So no way would the coronation have cost anywhere near that amount. £100m, £200., these are all pie in the sky numbers. You have no idea what the RF security bill is. And a president would require FT security too.

If you have the costings for the Irish president, you break down how much he costs and how much he does. And then compare it to the king. I ont know the figures so I don't know how it would work out but it would be interesting to see.

Exactly well put

Could have but actually wouldn't have been. I mean it's unlikely to have been diverted from somewhere else. Equally they wouldn't take it out of their collective purse to spend on anything else.

Yabu

The Irish presidency is 2 and a half times cheaper. It stands to reason really. They aren't supporting a huge family with all the security which the royals get. Nor umpteen palaces and castles.

Apart from the cost it's democratic, you get to vote them out. Why should we just accept this one super rich family just because of the accident of birth. Its just wrong on ever level.

I've read that book. What an eye opener. The royal family are an absolute disgrace.

I am an English woman living in Scotland and am annoyed at all the people stating the Queen was Queen of England. She was the Queen of the United Kingdom and people need to remember this.

I believe her funeral was perfect for a woman who had been the public image of our country for 70 years. Most of the world knew who she was, and there are quotes saying over 4 billion people watched it.

She was unique, there will never be another Queen like her.

So the Irish presidency is 2½ times cheaper funded by a population 13 times smaller. So it actually costs more per head of population.

Say the Irish presidency cost £1m. And Ireland has a population 5m. Each person pays 20p.

At costing 2½ more the RF would cost £2.5m. The UK has a population of 67m. That's less than 4p a person.

So it would seem like the RF is a bargain.

We don't pay any wages to the RF. The king pays those out of his own money. They pay for the upkeep of their own homes. And as for Buck Palace, Clarence House, St James,Palace, etc, they'd still be paid for by the public. They're working govt offices. They won't just disappear.

Only the king and William, plus their wives and children get protection. That's not much more than a president would get for their family. For the rest of the family, protection is only provided if a family is on an official engagement.

Talking about voting. A national election costs over £100m. (About £110, I think.) So if a president seves a 5year term, the election alone costs £20m a year.

So it's clear from the figures you're giving me that the RFv is cheaper than your choice of president, ie Ireland's. Therefore I guess you're more concerned with democracy.

We don't seem to be great at choosing leaders in the UK. However, we have multiple tiers of democratically elected politicians in the UK. Parish councils, borough councils, county councils, mayor's, devolved govts, national govts. And still people constantly moan over who is chosen. And it's divisive because one side always gets someone they didn't choose. There are many advantages to having monarchs who build up knowledge and worldwide contacts over many years. Monarchies have proved to provide stable forms of goals in prosperous countries.

I know I won't persuade you to change your mind but it really isn't as simplistic as Republic! would have you think.

Was she fuck, frugal and understated!

She loved living the life of luxury! She seemed like a nice lady, but let's not rewrite history!

If it hadn't been spent on State ceremonial (which is what it was) it wouldn't have been spent at all.

I wouldn’t want the Irish presidency though? The UK is the 6th biggest economy in the world - nearly 8x Ireland. By that comparison we ARE getting it cheap! Why not compare like for like - like France? That’s about 100m-ish. And most costs for presidencies and royalty is spent on security which directly proportionate to the threat faced, which is itself proportionate to how much influence the country and its leaders have. The only way of getting it cheaper would be to withdraw from the world stage, and be neutral on issues like Ukraine and the Uyghurs. As for palaces and castles - that’s OUR history, not theirs, if our tax money doesn’t maintain it one way or another do you want our history sold to the highest bidder, or maybe bulldozed??