£99.9mil cost per year for Royal Family. Worth it?

[TalkToTheHand123]

Unreasonable - time to scrap
Not unreasonable - worth the money

I’d like to see the stats on how much they bring in on tourism. If it’s higher, keep them. If not, bin. I don’t personally feel they are anything but a commodity these days.

Money aside, I just think it’s very odd that in this day and age we’re expected to hero worship some random family above all others, simply for existing.

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Wr are net contributors. I dont care reslly ine way or another, but i do care that they not humble, that they flaunt their priviledges, and that there are still classes in the UK and private squares and public parks, lease and lease holders, and all that ostentatious way of living.

Fine keep your aristocrats and kings and queens who have only been born into it through no work of their own, but why cant they more discreet like other royal families in the world? sweden, norway, bhoutan? To name a few

People would be justifiably outraged to be told that because they contribute in an essential but insufficiently rewarded way, they have no right to comment. Why is a carer, junior doctor, paramedic, police officer, teacher not permitted an opinion on the Royal family?

The Crown Estate is public money. It is not Windsor family money.

It was originally set up to fund the running of the state, so parliament, the defence, building, all of that. George III handed responsibility for all of that back to parliament, along with the money, with the proviso he'd get the Sovereign grant to fund royal family expenses.

So no, it is not in any sense 'theirs'. If they think they could withhold it, they'd have to go back to paying for the running of the country, which I expect they have zero desire to do

They’re basically Kardashians with castles.

Especially as they're all so very unremarkable as people.

I expect it worked back in the day, when you festoon an ordinary man/womam in jewels and crowns and velvet and the people looking on were conditioned to believe they were something special. And then if questioned, they could bust out the divine right of kings, appointed by god defence and people believed that.

Nowadays it's just odd. However I'm not sure how you'd go dismantling it.

Great line 😂

Why would people not spend money visiting palaces etc if the Royals weren’t there?

And releasing the tax figures without any wider context is just meaningless. Designed to keep the unquestioning happy ‘ooh, look, they paid all that tax! Aren’t they great?’ 🙄

Quite

In a way.

Which is to say that they happen to be born into a family with a lot of money and exposure, just like a great many other people who are born into families with a lot of wealth or exposure, or on the flip side, people are born into families with poverty and other real problems, without having done anything personally to deserve it.

The differernce is that with the royals the trade off is that there is an expectation that their lives are largely dedicated to the public good, and they are significantly constrained in terms of using their wealth for political influence.

Whereas the Kardashians, or even people like Gates or Bezos, can do what they like with their money, invest in any kind of scheme from arms to dodgy drugs, feed off the worst impulses of humans, and can use their money and influence to affect politics in any way they see fit.

The differernce is that with the royals the trade off is that there is an expectation that their lives are largely dedicated to the public good, and they are significantly constrained in terms of using their wealth for political influence.

Not sure Andrew got that memo

Interesting article on the BBC. The sovereign grant core amount (ie: not taking into account the money they have been given for the Buckingham Palace renovations) is going to almost double from £51.8m in 21/22 to £99.9m in 27/28. This is despite the Royal Family being "slimmed down".

Cost of the Royal Family

Whilst it is better that they are becoming more transparent by publishing their personal tax payments, there is no information to say upon what these figures are based. But to pay so much tax must mean that they are extraordinarily wealthy, and more than capable of paying for the renovations to Buck House themselves.

It works extremely well for Versailles

I think the money we make in tourism thing has been proven to be a nonsense - Paris make plenty in tourism and they chopped the heads off all theirs.

I went to the coronation, first time I'd been to anything like that, but dd wanted to go. We were surrounded with people from other countries - many of whom had come over especially for it.
We ended up sharing a couple of picnic blankets (and our various picnics) with 6 different nationalities and had a wonderful time.

loads of people in London are from other countries though. I was out for dinner with colleagues the other week, lots of different nationalities

@TheKeatingFiveexactly

Did they arrive by boat?

Yes. Absolutely fine. And all Heads of State cost money!

Very valid point.

C3 spent years hinting at his plans to slim things down and everyone assumed the costs would slim down in tandem. Instead we have a situation where while the numbers have indeed slimmed ( although not by deliberate design) the SG has ballooned to ridiculous levels.

Worth noting that the last time a Civil List payment set by parliament was paid in 2011 it was £13.7 m.

Also worth noting that the Buckingham Palace refurbishment costs were twice deemed to be absorbable within the existing Sovereign Grant remittances until they inexplicably ballooned to £369m and were waved through without question by an obsequious PM May leading to the ludicrous upticks we now see.

The Sovereign Grant is a disgrace.

Yes indeed! And we re delighted to be a republic

They don't have to cost anything like that amount of money though. The costs for the Irish President (similar ceremonial role) are a fraction of what the royals cost.

For example, Trump's enthusiasm for the royal family was instrumental is reducing the tariffs placed on the UK over the last three years. How much did that, on its own, save UK industry ?

@Meadowfinch
Yesterday he threatens 100% tariffs. How his enthusiasm for the RF waxes and wanes.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/trump-tariff-uk-digital-services-tax-b3003929.html