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

@smilesy the source of these gifts? If they were all above board they wouldn't be taking four years to declare them?

I agree with this.

Plus, not too put more ammunition out there but, if I received a pair of diamond earrings that would be a big deal and a massive increase in my net wealth. For the Queen a pair of diamond earrings is less of a big deal (more oh look now I have a pair with square diamonds rather than just ovals). I think the degree to which gifts affect individuals is probably exaggerated.

I can't understand at all why it should slide. There was a 'policy' drawn up in 1995 regarding declaration of gifts, and the policy was updated in 2003 (after the Paul Burrell debacle). It's not law but a set of guidelines as to how the family should behave.

The Palace publishes yearly the list of official gifts. Or at least it should do. And hasn't for over 4 years. Incidentally, as it declares 'new' gifts it deletes old records. And there is no detail about items before the RF 'policy' was drawn up. There was obviously a huge amount of gifts from Heads of State when QE2 married, her coronation, state visits etc... They are state gifts, not private gifts, and none of them are catalogued.

As I said before, it is a very grey area and unenforceable, if the RF choose to never declare any official gifts again, I suppose they can do that....

The website is woefully out of date quite often.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

I honestly think it is deliberate. This is the sort of excuse to get by providing the minimum of detail. The Palace have employed Digital media Experts, Social media experts, a head of Digital engagements etc. Why can't they get to grips with this. Feeble.

But why only over the last four years? It cannot be that every gift they have received is dodgy

@MrsLeonFarrell it doesn't spare them from the fact that the British taxpayer funds their lifestyle and we have no idea who is buying the good graces of the royals.

@smilesy given the increased scrutiny on other public figures and the gifts they receive, it may well be that the royals are embarrassed

I’m not sure what you mean 🤔 Do you mean they have suddenly become embarrassed now? If so, why? They have catalogued and have said they are going to publish the catalogue. Why has it taken them four years to be embarrassed when they never have been before?

eta. There have been plenty of scandals which heave led to increased scrutiny in the past. The current situation is nothing new

It's nice when the royals like you but I think their influence is rather limited. Much better to bribe a politician if you want to sell or buy arms.

Maybe the people giving them gifts are much less favourable than they used to be.

Why else would they hide it?

@BustingBaoBun "I can't understand at all why it should slide."

Because they are all too busy making beef tea for the King and looking after the Wales children. Quite understandable.....

That can't be right, I thought William was "juggling" childcare and putting the spag bol on

Maybe the people giving them gifts are much less favourable than they used to be.

What does that mean, please🤔

Well they must get like a billion a day - it would be an administration nightmare. It’s all about advertising anyway, not about gift-giving.

Per ASA guidelines that should be declared.

@smilesy it's not hard to work out is it?

I don’t know. I think we’re at a point now where this has been practiced for so many years it’s kind of obvious when something is a gift. Take influencers, when every single blonde haired bimbo is banging on about how great Hello Fresh is you’d have to be a dumbass to not realise it’s an ad. Members of the royal family probably don’t use the vast majority of them anyway either.

I wouldn’t have asked if I knew what you meant. “The people giving them gifts are less favourable” doesn’t make sense in any way. What are they less favourable about?

@smilesy perhaps the people giving the gifts are those Saudi princes who have that lovely human rights record.

@ByTealShaker so it's okay when it's Catherine and her multiple gifted dresses and the gifted children's clothing

Oh right. So you don’t mean “favourable” then. You meant something like “less acceptable”? No, I’m pretty sure that the Saudis have given gifts before four years ago

It gets a bit circular at a certain point, doesn't it?

It's hard to say what they are hiding when they are... Hiding it

This is what that Guardian article hoped would be provoked - wild speculation about nefarious doings.

There’s no reason to believe that the royal household has stopped actually cataloging the gifts - they have to keep good records so that they can write the thank you letters and sometimes find the gift in later years to show the giver they are using it. Or to work out what to give in return based on the history of gifts that came before.

I agree they need to start publishing these again.

They are quite amusing reading and also have to wonder how they manage to keep a straight face when receiving some of these gifts - every now and then there’s a 24 caret gold trinket but there’s also things like ‘picture of a swimming pig’. And so many photos of themselves given to them in frames.

https://www.royal.uk/sites/default/files/media/her_majesty_the_queen_official_gift_list_2019.pdf

Here’s the late Queen’s 2019 list - it’s vaguely interesting but I don’t imagine the following years have changed much or that there would be anything specifically to hide recently.

I don’t really think about it. They’re among the most famous and well known people in the world. I’m sure it loses its appeal. Like I said before, I don’t think it’s realistic to keep up with ASA declarations when they probably get gifted thousands of items per week.

@ByTealShaker ", I don’t think it’s realistic to keep up with ASA declarations when they probably get gifted thousands of items per week"

Be sure to let Starmer know-it will be a great relief to him!

@wordler
"This is what that Guardian article hoped would be provoked - wild speculation about nefarious doings."

That's exactly what every single one of these Guardian "articles" are planted to do. As a decades long reader of the Guardian it's beyond obvious now. It's all about the implication to stir up gossip. Keeps the republicans happy I suppose, but it does get boring seeing them dredge up the same stories over and over.

I feel a bit sorry for the republicans who were convinced that once the Queen died that everyone would hate Charles as King and flock to the cause.

They don’t get that they are dealing with the two huge obstacles to abolishing the current system - apathy and sentimentality.

And Charles also played a blinder by morphing into Grandpa mode ahead of his accession - much harder to hate than the acerbic old Prince of Wales.