RF covering for Andrew?

[flippantlydone]

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/dec/28/dubious-use-of-the-freedom-of-information-act-stopping-access-to-files-on-prince-andrew-researchers-say

I'd like to hear more about the Dusseldorf Invictus accounts, too.

I'm rolling my eyes though at the posters who can't stand the Murdoch owned press/news outlets, but who are happy to read the Times/Sunday Times. I suppose Rupert is a fellow republican, though, so they give him a pass when it suits them.)

I don’t like the influence Murdoch has. I don’t like his increasingly hard right news media. I don’t like that his news media is being allowed to dominate the news media of 3 different countries. I don’t like that he was there in the front row at Trump’a inauguration. I don’t like that The New York Times and Politico have just recently had to give up their very long term permanent desks in the press offices at the Pentagon so The New York Post can have a desk - see the political influence he’s exerted there. The list of things I don’t like about Murdoch’s business methods is long. But when one of his media outlets publish some good journalism I read it. I don’t throw the baby out with the bath water in other words. Your eyes can have a rest from rolling.

Hmmm. 40 year old man just does as Papa says 😶

Still doesn't explain the more recent example...

Are the RF all up to their eyes in debt to someone or what? Why the need for all this loot and the shenanigans surrounding the procurement of said loot.

Is the Sovereign Grant etc. not enough? I really would like to know how to contact some of these benefactors as I could do with a cash injection right now.

But I have no insider knowledge, influence or connections have I? That's a no then for me, but not for this lot it seems. I'm beginning to see why.

Not one of that family will rat on the other no matter what. Charles hasn't evicted him yet from RL, and I know the excusers will talk about leases and whatnot. He is the fkn KING fgs, he could if he wanted to. I'm getting sick of the lot of them. We haven't a bloody clue what they are up to at all either morally or financially.

I agree.

Andrew's clearly protected and the PR sabre rattling is now wearing very thin.

Harold IMO is almost certainly subsidised with the ever increasing royal funds diverted from the UK public purse. We only discover recently via assiduous and hard won journalistic process that said funds are being further swelled with skimming from national assets, national bodies and charities.

Nauseating.

I'd like to hear more about the Dusseldorf Invictus accounts, too.

Me too but I wouldn't limit my curiousity to those...

The RF have huge private wealth.

curiosity

Are the RF all up to their eyes in debt to someone or what? Why the need for all this loot and the shenanigans surrounding the procurement of said loot.

Fred's charity was up to its ears in debt having overpaid the multi-millionaire previous owner of Dumfries House and subsequently having the surrounding swamp land intended for development heavily reduced in value when he warmly welcomed the carrier bags of cash.

There's a related cash for honours/ cash for access scandal attached to the purchase too. Believe it involves the ever- faithful Fawcett The Fence from his days flogging unwanted gifts when PoW.

Yes, so why the need to hustle for more? It's either pure greed or something else they need loadsa dough for. I wonder what is so costly that they seem to need extra cash a lot.

Maybe it is just pure greed. One of the seven deadly sins - and who is the Head of the CofE again? I doubt any of them really feel their faith much apart from when they promenade up the avenue at Christmas. Live your faith and show good example if you are a believer. Shall I add hypocrisy to the list now?

They all seem to want more and more. None of them will willingly give up their positions and live like their Aristo mates in one stately home that they have to pay the bills for. I actually think Charles is someone who at least thinks about things and tries to do some good with his extreme privilege, for example the Princes Trust, but I don't get that feeling from William. I think he wants to be King and will do whatever vanity project he thinks will stop the plebs from complaining. He is next, and we'll have him for longer. He seems lazy and greedy. I dont think he will do any reforming of the Monarchy. Just put out some more PR to say how much like the Common people he is. Its all he's done as Duke of Cambridge and Prince of Wales after all. I don't see how that will change when he's King.

Pure greed could be right. After all it is the royal family and the British Monarch who was the symbolic head of an empire that ‘acquired’ riches from all over the world and brought them home.

Plus one of Trumps picks for his administration Patel, I think it is, has said he’s reopening the investigation into the Epstein/Maxwell stuff. He said this just very recently. So that’s gained some media coverage.

You've obviously never been involved in the running of a charity. It's a constant hustle for fund raising, it's relentless. People take advanced degrees in how to fundraise now.

So agree with this. They are just greedy and will take more and more whilst throwing a few morsels here and there.

I don't care what anyone says, William and Kate are lazy (and I thought this before her cancer)
They do the absolute minimum just a few vanity projects and some local visits here and there, but of course always managing the fun stuff like Wimbledon, football, concerts etc

They are in essence just rich aristocrats all of them

How does a family who have not done any work for centuries gain ' huge private wealth'? Queen Victoria put the begging bowl out to Parliament ( in the Victorian era, when children were starving) and then suddenly found the money to buy Sandringham and Balmoral which is now ' private wealth'. They have ' private wealth' from the Duchies, which is huge swathes of the country, the sea beds etc. How have they got that? How have they managed to make ownership so murky that no one knows what they are? The Late Queen had millions in offshore tax havens. They have all benefitted hugely from being the Royal Family. Then they do a few visits to charities a year and people fall over themselves to say how much harder they work than anyone else and how they will be ' working' until they are dead. Well I could work until I was dead if I had months of holidays a year and people to do everything for me!

They own land which was pretty valueless in Queen Victoria's time and is very valuable now

If they own it privately then they need to pay proper corporation tax, land tax and income tax. And be made to declare it. Re the charging charities, when it comes to that, they are obliged to charge commercial rents apparently ( but not maintain the properties ), so who has negotiated these contracts? I agree a lot of it is the government's fault for allowing them to get away with this, but the culture of deference in this country is a huge disadvantage to us. They should have made sure there was a maintenance clause in the contract. They could have ensured that it was possible to charge charities a lower rent ( just like they somehow can do to their own family) but instead they forelock tugged away and still make sure they don't talk about it openly in Parliament, then the majority of the press don't talk about it either. Have a Royal Family by all means but they need to be scrutinised just like the rest of us and the government needs to be made to justify concessions made to the Royals openly in public. They are meant to be acting in our best interests and holding the Monarchy to account. Not allowing them to get away with 'Heads, I win, Tails, you lose'. They are not God's chosen people.

I couldn’t agree more with this Tomatotater

We either have a purely symbolic monarchy

or

A monarchy who has special privileges and powers to evade the laws that everyone else has to follow, and is warned by Parliament in advance of any lobbying to change their tax status?

They can’t both at the same time be symbolic and yet not be subject to the laws of the land!

Edited to say: obviously I would rather an elected head of state whose finances are fully transparent and accountable.

Shall I add hypocrisy to the list now?

We already can.

Take for instance all that finger-wagging over the environment while taking choppers like buses. Treating themselves to a couple of new ones this year too.

And that reminds me - must check to see if the latest Earthshot accounts have been filed yet.

Last lot showed a £12m spend to dish out £5m in prizes...

@CathyorClaire Do let me know if you find anything on Earthshot. I was a bit taken aback at the huge spend by them. It seems to be somewhat celebrity driven with William having breakfast with Heidi Klum and star studded hosts and entertainers. It was good to see some activists and environmentalists being part of the last bash, but I hope it doesn't turn into an environmental oscars.

Income approx £23m. Expenditure nearly £22m.

Unsurprisingly plenty of smooth talk in the report but no actual breakdown of where and how that huge sum got spent when the prizes amount to £5m.

Simplified version here:

https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search/-/charity-details/5196866

Earthshot's own report with accompanying lack of detail here:

https://earthshotprize.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Trustees-Annual-Report-and-Accounts-2024.pdf

Still. Nice to see Willy doing his bit in a pre-loved jacket...

:

£22m expenditure? Blimey! The stories of the people who have actually invented things and who are doing practical things to combat climate change ( were they invited to the posh do this year?) are really positive and inspiring. But as you say, that is £5m given to those projects. How much is spent on flying celebs ( and William) to glitzy events? If it wasn't Williams thing, it would be scrutinised far more closely snd he would be questioned about where the money was going. Because if who he is, they will get away with little to no scrutiny.

Totally agree. Because it's William, the whole thing is immune to scrutiny.

I applaud those who enter from all over the world, such innovative ideas and worth every penny. In the past I went down a bit of a rabbit hole reading about some of the wonderful ideas that people have come up with, particularly from a couple of countries I have visited.

It's just the glossy star studded celeb bit that, to me, is somewhat at odds with the whole message of earthshot. And the expenditure figures show that.

I don't know why people get their knickers in a twist about things like this.

It has zero effect on my everyday life and I have too many personal issues to be concerned about to care.