8 million on portraits of the King

[AskMeMore]

As part 0of the Coronation the government are spending 8 million pounds on photographs of Charles to send out to institutions around the country. The idea is that organisations will display the portrait on their walls.
This is a ridiculous waste of taxpayers money. If a school or local authority want to display a photo of Charles, they can buy it themselves. Most would not though. This is totally unwanted.

@Lovingmynewbicycle

Do you shrug your shoulders at all wasteful expenditure or is it just when the money is wasted on 'royals' that you don't care ?

It would be funny if the uk wasn't in such a mess

I link it to the general propaganda that stops people questioning how the uk is run for the benefit of the rich .
Just like Mountbatten winsdor's unnecessary magic hat party - this image will be everywhere to remind the little people to keep their mouths shut .
Why ? Don't they spin the line that the Mountbatten winsdors have no power ?

Just to check is the money mostly going on reproductions etc? anyway as I’m not sure the artist specifically would have been paid a huge amount

If they were then happy days I suppose, better than asked to do it for very little for ‘exposure’

After writing that I googled to see if I could find out more. Beyond the usual papers outraged the art coverage actually said

‘Barford’s picture is not, incidentally, among the portraits on offer to town halls and libraries up and down the country.’

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/04/03/artist-paints-king-charless-first-official-portrait-in-breakneck-two-weeks

It looks like two things have been conflated for a good story. If this is correct it won’t be a reproduction of this painting.

Plus two weeks - too fast probably why it’s nearly at illustrative level

What's your source, OP?

The government is paying - so we are paying
Stuff the hospitals , schools , the disabled

And before another hard of thinking 'I'm can't get worked up about 12p" bollocks answer
Would your local school or hospital put £8000000 to better use ?

If an organisation is desperate for a portrait of Chuck - let them print it off !

Thiis is not really about money though - it's about brainwashing on behalf of the unelected

😂

Hands not visible to hide the sausage fingers. The lout, how dare he pretend he is a dictator who has his portrait on every wall for the citizens to revere or get their heads lopped off.

He is a disgrace, lock him in the tower!

It's a disgusting amount of money that could go towards vital public services.

It shows where our government's priorities are.

The artist did a great job.
They deserve to be paid for their work.

It is another nail in the coffin for me on Charles. He lied about slimming down. I was honestly prepared to give him a chance but he is just lying. Slimmed down... smaller coronation... now portraits

In all honesty Roussette, should we really have expected anything else?
It's not as if his need for attention/admiration isn't known and his taste for extravagance with other people's money is nothing new either

Thanks, though, for brightening my morning with the suggestion he might pay for it himself; that gave me quite a smile

The artist did a great job
They deserve to be paid for their work

So, no doubt, did any number of others who've carried out commissions for him, but his distaste for invoices is well documented ...

The artist will be paid an absolute pittance I can assure you!!

In terms of Government spending, £8 million is "back of the sofa" money so really not an issue. We have a monarchy, whether people like it or not, so it is entirely appropriate that Government & public buildings have photos of our new Sovereign on display.
We were in an Amsterdam hotel recently, where they displayed a photo of the Dutch King & Queen - it's lovely to have pride in our (non-political) head of state.

He’s hanging onto his wallet. Can’t trust these artist chappies, don’t y’a know?

In terms of Government spending, £8 million is "back of the sofa" money so really not an issue. We have a monarchy, whether people like it or not, so it is entirely appropriate that Government & public buildings have photos of our new Sovereign on display.
I don't care if it's back of the sofa money.
We have children in poverty who can't claim free school meals, mental health services on their knees, SEN assessments being rationed to those who are already in crisis and disgusting levels of poverty in our country.

Any government who can see that sort of suffering in their own country and decide some pictures are a government priority needs their head examining.

Hehe I know!

In all honestly, I was expecting hoping for a bit of a breath of fresh air with Charles. He's very eco and I wondered whether that view would really make him slim down everything, change the archaic ways, push forward into a new beginning. But I am deluded.

The only things I've seen... he opened Dumfries House one afternoon a week when the weather was cold for a free cup of tea, he wants to chuck Andrew out of the bloated Royal Lodge, and and and... I'll come back to you on that anything else!

Coronation still massive and costly. Portraits at 8 million squid. New thrones and gold carriages (I know the latter was donated but it still has to be shipped from NZ), more Sweet Caroline concerts, and all of that...

so it is entirely appropriate that Government & public buildings have photos of our new Sovereign on display

I'm sure some scrote of a burglar will bow his head when in the Police station catching sight of the new Charles portrait 😂

I was also hoping Charles would be a breath of fresh air and do what some other European monarchs have done by pulling back a lot of titles for those not in the direct line of succession.

From the Harry and Meghan drama it sounds like they were also concerned that Charles might have been moving towards a slimmed down monarchy, which I cynically suspect is why they started misrepresenting the terms on which their children would/wouldn't have prince/princess titles.

I hope he does slim the whole thing down though.

That portrait by Alastair Barford is not the picture that will be used, so everybody can stop crowing about how silly it will look. There will be an official PHOTOGRAPHIC portrait of the King to be released by the Palace in the coming weeks.

It’s a very flattering portrait - perhaps the painter was inspired by an Instagram filter. Charlie looks like he’s been overdoing the port for an extended period of time in real life. Can’t imagine anyone wanting a picture of that arrogant duffer hanging anywhere they’d have to look at it. £8 million, eh? Absolutely batshit.

I am interested in how many orders they receive and what proportion of Elizabeth portraits are replaced.

My local council have a photo of Princess Anne opening the offices which is understandable and reasonable.

This is a bullshit government attempt at trying to look patriotic. I'd rather my 12p goes towards a pothole or something - doesn't have to be a road I use either.

Very flattering - I wonder if Dominic West from The Crown was inspiration for the body.

The entitled scroungers never dip into their own pockets for their self-glorification do they. Isn't money and stamps and having to sing the national dirge not enough ? Should we crawl before their golden personages ?

Absolutely disgusting abuse of our money.

Absolutely disgraceful and an astonishing waste of money.

If it's so important so then it should be emailed around these organisations as a pdf for anyone who wishes to print and frame it. Job done.

It's quite cartoon-like, hardly high art. Any one of us could have done that in Photoshop