William the Quiet Disruptor - Future of the Monarchy

[PrettyFlyforaMaiTai]

I just read this Sky News article “My Week with Prince William: The Quiet Disruptor” and found it really interesting.

The article paints a picture of someone who’s trying to do things differently, more of a “quiet disruptor” than a traditional royal. He seems to want to modernise the monarchy, focusing less on ribbon-cutting and more on community projects and real social impact. It might not be flashy, but it feels more in touch with what people care about today. He wants to be seen as a trustworthy global leader who uses his influence for good in a time when there is a lot of distrust in leadership worldwide.

It talks about how, although some still label him “work-shy” because he schedules his engagements around his children, most of the people interviewed actually saw that as a positive. They praised him for putting his family first and being a present dad.

It acknowledges that not everyone will be happy with this new version of monarchy, and some people will criticise the change in ethos.

I suppose time will tell whether this new approach will change anything long term. Charles also said he wanted to modernise, so let’s see it sticks this time. But it’s an interesting read if you’re curious about how William’s trying to shape his role.

William the Quiet Disruptor

As others have said, they could pay more/pay it back, request the law is changed. Why do you keep repeating “the poor things are forced to be this wealthy have some compassion”!? 😂

Yes. The same Act of Parliament as it happens. The Board running the Trust have obligations, and they are not allowed to dispose of income in this way.

(Like any Trustees of any Trust as it happens - this is not an obligation specific to them).

Are people really so ignorant that they think no effort goes in behind the scenes on the various organisations which people - not just Royals - are involved with?

And look at the huffing and puffing going on because we're all going to have to work until at least 70 before getting our pensions. Members of the RF work until they drop pretty much! Give them a bit of credit.

I don’t think he’s a monster at all and take no interest whatsoever in his personal life - I just don’t want to fund his lavish lifestyle or accept he’s going to be the next head of state just because of an accident of birth. 🤷‍♀️

See my answer above. The Board that run the Duchies literally can’t pay it back.

Charles and William both receive the profits personally (again, that’s a requirement, they don’t have a discretion to pay the profits elsewhere) and Charles and William voluntarily pay tax on them. Given both have large charitable enterprises, they may well use some of the profits for charities too.

So they can do absolutely nothing to change the law? Really?

No. Never heard of a Constitutional Monarchy? Parliament makes the law, not the Royals.

Don't the Duchies fund the personal expenses of the incumbents?

Surely then nothing stopping them disposing of the dosh as they see fit once it's been forced on them by Parliament?

Any reason why they can’t donate a similar amount from their personal fortunes?

You don't know that they don't. Every time the rf has made a known donation, to disaster relief for example, they've been pilloried by some for performative charitable giving. Perhaps they give privately.

@CathyorClaire Yes, both Charles and William use it to find things like school fees, clothing and private costs. Therefore reducing the amount needed from the Sovereign Grant, which now mostly pays for maintenance to state building associated with the RF and travel and business costs.

So the Duchies are saving us money as well as paying tax.

Quite frankly there are always going to be people
who are born with more than me but I don’t let it eat away at my soul. I have much more of a problem with the likes of Bezos and Musk, who are actively exploiting people and bringing no good to the world than the British RF. I just think people find them an easier target to moan about rather than making the real change of boycotting Amazon and Tesla and other inconvenient things like that.

It’s easy to be an arm chair activist when you’re asking other people to give up things, isn’t it?

Fair enough. Personally, I find the idea of one of the world’s richest men (over 600m, isn’t it?) taking money from the RNLI deeply distasteful, particularly when he appears to have, despite some posters saying it’s impossible, redirected an unknown % of the huge profit he makes from off shore energy to “the public good”. You’d think he’d find a way to stop profiting from charities, wouldn’t you? Maybe he thinks it’s good for the public to collect milk bottle tops to buy inflatable lifeboats. Character forming.

It is not a choice. A person can do both. And I do.
I have been to two Tesla takedowns, another one planned for July, and I avoid Amazon.

As for the Monarch not handing back... of course he can. He did with the many billions made from the wind farms on crown estates, over 40 I understand. Charles made a pledge to hand back £1billion a year to the treasury for the 'wider public good'. Fantastic PR! Crown estates aren't monarchy private estates so of course he should be handing back for the wider public good, rather than going into the sovereign grant from which they take a %. He probably realised there would be an outcry.

It always makes me laugh when there is a thread about x, someone comments on x, then other posters come on to say “Why aren’t you posting about y and z?”

It took him 20 years to get round to giving some of the wind farm profits back though…..

Laziest and most entitled man in Britain. Married to the laziest woman in Britain.
His father is awful, petulant and entitled, but at least could not be accused of being lazy.
If we have have a monarch then it is a pity we didn’t get Anne.

Did you not notuce the five minute uproar when it was reported that the Queen had a secret deal to hold up any legislation that she wanted if it negatively affected the crown’s purse and holdings?

Are you seriously saying we should be grateful that the Monarchy is saving us money by using crown estate rents to pay their kids’ school fees? If I’m not misunderstanding, I’ve heard it all now!

Of all the ridiculous arguments! They belong to the Monarch. When did Charles become the Monarch? That would be October 2022.

And this established the point people were making up thread - we can establish that profits paid to the King do get redistributed by him to the public good.

Apologies. It took THEM 20 years…..

We’ve established, despite your protestations, that the monarch can redistribute profits from the crown estates. Still taking money from the RNLI, though….

I don’t think you’ve actually been reading my posts. To summarise:

The Duchies are required to charge a commercial rent for their land, no matter who the tenants are.
The Duchies are not permitted to act so as to diminish their profits.
The Duchies are required to pay their profits (all of them) to the Monarch and the Prince of Wales, respectively.
Once in the hands of the beneficiaries, the individuals can choose to do what they want with them. We know they choose to pay tax, for example, and it is likely they also use them to benefit charities.

With me so far?

(The offshore wind farm monies didn’t actually come to Charles from the Duchies, by the way. They came because in law, the foreshore and some of the seabed of the UK coastline belongs to the Crown Estate Which is in the public good, as it means it can’t be privately owned, unlike vast stretches of coastlines in other countries. The profits of the Crown Estate are split 75:25 between HMT and the Monarch, Charles gave up his 25% share of these monies so HMT got 100%)

And THEY weren’t sitting on the wind farm profits for 20 years either. The auction that realised them only happened in 2021. So they hadn’t existed before that.

Never let the facts get in the way of your narrative though, right…

And this established the point people were making up thread - we can establish that profits paid to the King do get redistributed by him to the public good.

I am not going to revere Charles for doing this. The amount we are talking about is billions. It goes without saying this should be happening to an eye wateringly beyond anyone's imagination wealthy family who are rewarded beyond recognition year on year. It was a simple PR exercise with Charles putting out a statement that he would be foregoing the extra billions.

It is not clear how much the Monarchy has made from wind farms in the past, or how much it plans to forego in the future. As usual, murkiness and opacity because he is only talking about the extra billion made because of half a dozen new windfarms on the sea bed he owns.

It's purely PR. He pre-empted an outcry. Clever.

It is not clear how much the Monarchy has made from wind farms in the past, or how much it plans to forego in the future.

If you could be bothered to google, it’s perfectly transparent, in fact.

Perhaps you would like to enlighten me as you seem to have all the facts at your fingertips?

Needless to say, my point that we should almost be grateful for him handing this dosh over is ridiculous when anyone who wasn't a diehard royalist would realise it is all for PR.

I don’t think so, I have too much fun pointing out when posters are simply making things up to support their arguments. 😀