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?

Wolfgirrl - They do pay tax.

Personally I was referring to the security costs overall rather than just for one event, Clavinova, and since they appear nowhere in "what the RF costs us" that makes an immediate nonsense of the claims

Interesting to see the cost of the Irish presidency though. Even if someone's been at the figures and it's 10 times more, that's still one hell of a bargain in comparision ... and of course he can be removed

William did the RAF 4 year course in less than 4 months (specially designed for him)! news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7339475.stm

He did some RAF work in the in between period

He also did a course for the commercial flying, he then worked for the air ambulance 2015-2017 (when he became a full time royal), averaging 20 hours a week.
So not a whole lot of things until 2017 (I know there's some forces career restrictions due to his being a royal).

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

Shocking isn’t it Wolfgirl, and one of the main differences being he doesn’t carry all the baggage the queen does. If he has kids, no one knows, no one cares, just how it should be.

@puzzledandpissedoff (your username basically summarises my feelings towards this!)

Exactly. Here is a cheaper, more efficient alternative, with no downsides other than he wont sell copies of Closer magazine and high heels. He will however save the public purse enough money to hire 2700 new nurses, more important, dont ya think?

Regarding security at the Olympics, it is a public event for public enjoyment. And has been held three times here in history. Whereas security for the Royals is a yearly ~100million bill for just one family. See the difference?

The Irish presidency link is misleading - it's just a reader's letter;

"Sir,–In the context of the ongoing commentary on the cost to the exchequer of the office of the president (€3.6 million)"

In addition to this figure;
"On top of the direct funding, the presidency is also supported by spending from government departments and state agencies.Funding from these “allied services” was €4.4 million in 2012 and €5 million in 2017."

Pensions for former presidents need to be included of course.

How much revenue does the Irish president generate? I haven't got a Michael D.Higgins tea towel.

www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/%C3%A1ras-publishes-details-of-spending-by-higgins-during-first-term-1.3730342

Buckingham palace should be opened up as either a makeshift hospital or to keep the homeless safe. They can lock certain rooms or floors I’m sure and use the rest.

It sickens me that we have the royals anyway. The country is falling apart, people are starving and some people can not afford to heat their homes.

Wolfgirrl - Royal weddings are for public enjoyment as well, you only have to look at the vast crowds that turn out to watch them. The royal family are still very popular.

"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

Have you got a link to those figures, as far as tourism goes, it can’t be proved. But the cost of security and the loss to the economy whenever there’s a royal wedding is huge. I know one thing, the man in the street gain fuck all from any of it.

Not my original source but the same figures are here;

brandfinance.com/news/press-releases/royal-wedding-to-boost-british-economy-by-1-billion/

@Mamamia456

Yawn.

A maximum of 100,000 turned up to watch Harry and Meghans wedding. That's 0.1% of our population. Less when you consider a proportion of those people were not from the UK.

'But what about TV??' You cry. Well firstly watching the wedding doesnt make a viewer an ardent Monarchist who is clutching their flag at home and crying with joy. For most it's a mild curiosity thing, like people who dont really care about football watching the World Cup final. And secondly we gain nothing from people watching it on TV.

The Irish presidency link is misleading - it's just a reader's letter

That's why I took a gamble and worked on 10 times as much - as Wolfgirl suggested it would still be a hell of a bargain, and who cares if nobody's heard of our head of state? After all most have heard of Charles and that's hardly what I'd call a recommendation for us

Also quite interesting that you chose to emphasise that Ireland's presidency involves spending from "government departments and state agencies" but left that out for the RF ...

@puzzledandpissedoff

I was once staying with a French family, the topic of the royals came up and they all laughed themselves senseless while making some unflattering jokes about them so in this case I'm not convinced their worldwide notoriety is a good thing.

who cares if nobody's heard of our head of state?

How many engagements did the Irish head of state carry out last year?

we gain nothing from people watching it on TV
Nonsense -

"The wedding would also be worth about 100 million pounds in free advertising for Britain around the world."

@clinics

Again how's this calculated? Advertising what?

Brand consultancy in bigging up unverifiable branding figures shocker.

I was once staying with a French family, the topic of the royals came up and they all laughed

Did they laugh at the cost of rebuilding Notre-Dame while 12,000 people in France are sleeping rough?

Logging off now anyway.

All I can say is....how can ANY right minded person think a hereditary monarchy is acceptable. It’s wrong on every single level.

One day in the future children will read about how we once had an unelected head of state in their history lessons with shock and bewilderment.

@Clavinova

Even by your standards that comparison is rubbish

How many engagements did the Irish head of state carry out last year?

I've not counted them up for the whole year, but his diary's here if anyone wants to bother: president.ie/en/diary/past-engagements

He seems a busy little beaver, though much of it appears the usual fluff, handshaking and vaguely "being there". For all I know that may suit the Irish just fine, but if he's done anything which doesn't suit, at least they've had a say in his election

"The wedding would also be worth about 100 million pounds in free advertising for Britain around the world"

Not much of an advertisement for us now are they?

Yeah 8000 rough sleepers just in England is sooooooo much better.

In fact 28000 rough sleepers according to the beeb.

Had to smile about the French family, Wolfgirrl ... my own foreign connections are mainly American, but I couldn't repeat some of their comments about the RF on here for fear of being banned

The Irish presidency link is misleading - it's just a reader's letter;

That’s why I put a more informative one up after that. It doesn’t really matter does it, it isn’t a state secret how much the Irish presidency costs is it. Suffice to say a hell of a lot cheaper than what we’ve got. Much much better value for money, democratically voted in too. There’s nothing not to like.

How many engagements did the Irish head of state carry out last year?

Probably nowhere near as many because they’re an unnessessary burden on the taxpayer with all the security etc. Just what do you think these “engagements” that the royals do achieve. Most of them are done purely to give them some kind of role. Makes them look relevant.