The Royals jumping ship...

[Wolfgirrl]

A virus pandemic breaks out in the UK. Everyone is essentially on house arrest bar a few essential occasions. Businesses and workers facing going bust. People dying every day. Hospitals overwhelmed. Surely this would be a great moment for a morale boosting message from our beloved royals, who we pay to keep in the lap of luxury? Oh wait, a little recorded message has been deemed a health risk to the Queen (allegedly).

Oh well, they can always volunteer Buckingham Palace as a makeshift hospital or hub for supplies, etc, as I'm sure they want to do what they can for their beloved citizens, especially now theyve legged it out of London. Oh wait.

Seriously what are these people for and why do we pay for them again?

Those trips ... more like a 1st class holiday. They’re hardly working all day

Oh but they are yesterday; they must be, as there's rarely been a significant royal visit without us being told how "gruelling" and "sapping" it all is

All that handshaking, brief reading, banquet eating, bouquet collecting, plaque unveiling and posing for photos, and all of it without any accountability to anyone ... well, you can see how it must be exhausting

I do 'get it' -

Royal wedding:

"What did the Royal wedding cost?"
•£30million on security measures.
•£10 million on the dress, cake, flowers, glass marquee, food and drinks etc.

"The taxpayers have footed that whopping security bill. But" …

"How much did the Royal wedding generate?"
•Tourism £300 million
•PR Value £300 million
•Retail and Restaurants £250 million
•Fashion £150 million
•Merchandise £50 million

"That’s a sweet total of £1.05 billion."

Duchy Organics -
"2018 Rob Collins, Managing Director, Waitrose said: ‘Duchy has had another extremely successful year at Waitrose. Duchy has not only generated £3.2m for charitable causes but also surpassed £200m sales for the first time.We are honoured to be custodians of the brand and the charitable amount revealed today is a proud achievement."

"In 2009 a groundbreaking partnership was agreed between the organic brand and Waitrose" ... "so far, over £20 million has been donated to charitable causes" ...

"Having a 92 year old pampered old lady as head of state is an embarrassment in the 21st century."

Goodness knows why they bother with David Attenborough - he's 93.

Ireland's head of state is 78 by the way.

If we had a presidency run like Ireland’s it would actually be two and a half times cheaper.

What figure have you got for the Irish presidency?

@clavinova

Whose wedding was that?

How could anyone possibly know how much the wedding generated in the way if tourism? Take restaurants - did someone go round every restaurant in london, asking the guests if they were there because they had come to see the royal wedding?

They tend to be held on bank holidays/Saturdays anyway so coincides with meals out, weekends away etc. There is actually no way of telling what the impact really was.

Whose wedding was that?
Last one - Harry's.

Although -
"Kate Middleton's fashion-icon status contributed an estimated $205 million to the economy in 2015."

oh, so if something is generating money, it's ok then. doesn't matter what it is. Cool .

www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/royal-wedding-family-how-much-uk-economy-benefits-cost-meghan-markle-expense-a8345436.html?amp

Excellent article addressing tourism myths, royal wedding revenue etc.

Kate Middleton's fashion-icon status contributed an estimated $205 million to the economy in 2015.

so? what is your point?

It's not a case of 'somebody has to do it'. Their roles are utterly irrelevant. We could just not have them, or anyone else

This

@Clavinova

It shows how your famous £1.24 doesnt include their greatest expense which is security, so it is a misleading figure; how the royals using their estate profits for 'duties' means they dont have to pay any tax; and how little their contribution to 'tourism' is in the scheme of all tourism in the UK.

David Attenborough - he's 93.

Ireland's head of state is 78 by the way.

David Attenborough is a natural historian and extremely good broadcaster., absolutely no comparison to the queen, Irelands head of state is a long standing politician who didn’t get to that position just because of his birth. He had to work his way up to that position. You can’t compare anyone who’s successful through their own endeavours to the queen, who literally got it handed on a plate.

Kate Middleton's fashion-icon status contributed an estimated $205 million to the economy in 2015.

Another myth.

I have no doubt sales for clothes KM wears go up after she wears something in the public eye, but the same is said for celebrities, models, social media 'influencers' etc. People will always need clothes, it is not a struggling industry and a lot of the time the clothes they wear are from luxury brands that dont need the promotion.

What figure have you got for the Irish presidency

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/cost-of-the-presidency-1.3648000

"Prince Louis is expected to generate somewhere between $70 million to $125 million within the first few weeks of his life, according to estimates from two different United Kingdom-based consumer trends research firms."

"The Centre for Retail Research, which provided MONEY with the higher estimate, anticipates more than $39 million in memorabilia and more than $28 million in infant goods.Brand Finance, which provided the more conservative estimate, said $25 million of the impact will come from memorabilia and souvenirs, among other items related to the new baby."

money.com/royal-baby-economy/

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_Ireland

What an absolute bargain.

@clavinova

I think the key word there is anticipates

Meaningless unless proved. Care to answer my points about not paying tax, security being excluded from the sovereign grant and tourism?

I have no doubt sales for clothes KM wears go up after she wears something in the public eye, but the same is said for celebrities, models, social media 'influencers' etc.

Exactly;
"Kylie Jenner is paid around $1.2 million (£960,000) for a single post on Instagram, according to a new report."

Clav Do you think you personally will benefit from that. I highly doubt it.

@yesterdayhasgone

So he carries out all the ceremonial duties for 200k a year? And we pay 60 million a year?!

Exactly;
"Kylie Jenner is paid around $1.2 million (£960,000) for a single post on Instagram, according to a new report."

Great so we dont need to pay the royals to do it then. We can leave it with Kylie Jenner.

security being excluded

Perhaps the security bill was for all those celebrity guests at the wedding?

Perhaps the security bill was for all those celebrity guests at the wedding?

Why should we have to pay for the security of celebrities, what with cuts to policing and all?

We can leave it with Kylie Jenner.

She's American.

Why should we have to pay for the security of celebrities, what with cuts to policing and all?

Why did we bother with the Olympics?