Should the Royal Family have to declare gifts

[Polka83]

I would be interested in people thoughts. Should the royal family have to declare gifts made by other states?

There is a Guardian article which says royal family agreed to declare gifts received over the last 4 years but they have failed to do so.

I understand that the royals will receive gifts from friends which don’t need to be declared, but what about gifts from other heads of states? It is unlikely that these gifts would come to the royals if they were commoners.

There are strict rules in how the royals should handle these gifts and if they belong to the state rather than personally by individual royals. For example, the Duchess of Sussex got £500,000 earrings from Saudi Arabia. How can we check if these rules are being followed unless they declare them?

https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/oct/12/buckingham-palace-published-list-official-gifts-royal-family-king-charles

I'm not a fan of Meghan, but I doubt she has pieces of the royal collection with her over there. Anything still in her possession that belonged to the royal family would have been handed over before they left for the US. She will have her own jewellery which she legally owns. If she did take any extra stuff with her, it would be quick and easy for the royal family staff to demand it returned. She would be daft to refuse because that would technically be theft.

In the last four years, we have had covid, all the drama with Harry and Meghan, the death of Prince Phillip, the death of the Queen, King Charles' coronation, King Charles'cancer diagnosis, Kate's diagnosis. It is no wonder that they are four years behind.

All of those are nothing but excuses.

They have a vast amount of staff working for them. They have enough staff who are entirely unconnected to them to publish the gifts. They're obviously hiding things.

@Prescottdanni123 "In the last four years, we have had covid, all the drama with Harry and Meghan, the death of Prince Phillip, the death of the Queen, King Charles' coronation, King Charles'cancer diagnosis, Kate's diagnosis. It is no wonder that they are four years behind."

You do know they aren't writing it down themselves in a special Smythson diary? They do have staff!

Honestly? Yes.

That's nothing more than a sorry political stunt.

@CurlewKate

Staff who have no doubt been distracted with all of the aforementioned. With everything currently going on the world, I really can't get worked up over the fact that it has taken four years for someone to write on a spreadsheet about how Camilla got given a pair of gold hoop earrings etc etc.

Given the multiple scandals in the RF recently, I'm actually very bothered. It would be nice to see where they get the gifts and wealth from.

@CurlewKate Good for you. I personally couldn't be bothered.

You're @'ing the wrong person.

You might not care but that's an institution that is actively covering up who and what gifts them money.

So the 100s of patients (plus their families) who have benefited over the past 15 years or so would have had a worse service and less help at a very distressing time.

If he hadn't been so.open about wanting a knighthood should we have turned it down? He could have pretended that a family member or friend had this condition so he made the gift out of genuine concern. Would that be acceptable?

@itwasnevermine

It seems like too much of a coincidence that it stopped being updated in 2020, the year Covid happened and then all of the events that have followed. Like I said, I can't be bothered to jump on the conspiracy bandwagon with the anti-monarchists.

@Prescottdanni123 "Staff who have no doubt been distracted with all of the aforementioned."

I remember a thread years ago when a picture appeared of Princess of Wales with less than perfect hair. People were posting about how relatable it was-she had obviously been rushing that morning to get the children ready and we were lucky she didn't have Weetabix down her skirt! They have people whose whole job it is to manage stuff like registering gifts-they don't get taken off doing that to make the King some beef tea!

Not to mention it would be against charity law to turn down a donation that was made legally, unless it contradicted the objects of the charity. The trustees are obliged to act in the best interests of the charity, not make moral judgements about the motives of others.

@CurlewKate

And they just so happened to decide to stop updating the list the year that covid happened. Hmm.

Like I said, I'm not going to get wound up about this or jump on the antimonarchy bus.

@Prescottdanni123 would you apply the same leniency to politicians?

I'm not sure I really understand why the Royal family staff were particularly busy over COVID?

Arguably, given the pause in engagements, they should have been less busy

Is there anywhere you can look at the royal jewelry collection? I'd love to see what they have, saw the crown jewels recently. Very pretty, but I'm not a crown kind of a girl. I'd rather see and the tiaras, necklaces, rings and earrings.

@CurlewKate

I'd be pissed if the uk government put loads of energy into writing lists of gifts instead of fixing everything they have already screwed up

There are curated exhibitions from time to time, usually around a certain theme.

In the last four years, we have had covid, all the drama with Harry and Meghan, the death of Prince Phillip, the death of the Queen, King Charles' coronation, King Charles'cancer diagnosis, Kate's diagnosis. It is no wonder that they are four years behind.

They call themselve 'the Firm', they have a huge staff to do this sort of thing for them. I am not sure how an accountant working within the Palace would be involved in drama with Harry & Meghan! Imagine if an independent company or a national company, didn't release their accounts for 4 years because of covid, the MD was ill, the CFO was diagnosed with cancer. It's just excuses.

@Prescottdanni123 "I'd be pissed if the uk government put loads of energy into writing lists of gifts instead of fixing everything they have already screwed up"

Are you saying you don't want politicians to declare any gifts they receive???

@CurlewKate

No. I just wouldn't mind if it wasn't done automatically. You are not going to change me mind on this so how about we just agree to disagree eh?

@BustingBaoBun

I'm not the only person on this thread saying that. I do seem to be the only one every seems to have decided to dive on though.

@Hoolahoophop If you ever get the chance, go to the Kremlin Museum.....

They are not legally obliged to release any details though. So it’s not at all the same as a company not releasing their accounts which they are legally obliged to do. Don’t get
me wrong, in think it’s best for transparency reasons that the palace release their lists but I can understand why thing may have been let slide over the last four years

It's quite clear they have something to hide...

So you have already said. Like what? They have catalogued everything they just haven’t published the lists. What do you think they have sudden decided to hide for four years when they have previously published the lists? Or is it more likely that they have rubbish systems that need sorting and have got really behind due to circumstances? I agree they need to publish but I think it’s unlikely that there is any sinister reason for not doing so. The website is woefully out of date quite often. They don’t seem to have quite embraced the digital age. It’s possible that this is because the men in suits are not really ai fair with all things web or social media based. Poor I know but there we are