What do you expect from our Royal Family

[Spectre8]

There were alot of good discussions and comments on my previous thread re. William missing the VJ day around the role and expectations of the Royal Family. I didn't want it to be a bashing thread to make personal attacks at William or Kate but well some comments were still made.

So its made me think there is still a very worthwhile discussion to be had about the future of the RF and their role. So lets try to keep it about that and not specifically about the person in that current role.

For me, if the next King wants a more private life, that his service and duty is not about the number of engagements he or the working royals do then its needs to be really articulated what their purpose is and 100% transparency of the sovereign grant, even a reduction of it since some of the money goes towards covering the cost of these engagments. I'd also like to see some of assets returned to us so we can monetise them to pay for their upkeep.

Yes. Sell off all the palaces, houses, jewellery and give it to the government to pay for national defence, education, NHS etc etc. Let them live like the rest of us, paying their way instead of leeching off the rest of us. Get proper jobs or live on their pensions.

It's not that simple. You can't sell it all off many items and property belong to individuals not the crown. It also isn't clear who owns some things. Whatever happens to the monarchy the family will still own lots of property and jewellery and art etc.

This is another thing that should have been done that hasn't. If they have been given gifts as part of their office, surely that gift belongs to the 'Crown' (the state) not them as individuals? Why is it so difficult to work out who owns what? How have they managed to amass such obscene amounts of personal wealth? Its almost as if its deliberately murky so as to make it too difficult to sort out. They should have clearly defined rules that are enforced by an outside body. Its not really good enough that they are still able to get away with 'Oh its too complicated/ Parliament should be talking about more important things than our secrecy, privilege and hoarding of wealth' etc.

I think there are lists but quite a lot is personal property, just like ant other aristocratic family. For example the earrings Catherine wrote at the BAFTAs are personal property.

There are lists of all gifts given.

So we should know what is being held by The Crown and what is personal property. it doesn't much matter as they aren't going anywhere. But the point remains that they need to be subject to far stricter rules and far more scrutiny. This 'Oh its so complicated and difficult' has allowed them to get away with far too much.

I remember it from the time of the children being given soft toys etc . https://www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/news/royal-family-gifts-list-elizabeth-b2761211.html

I think it’s interesting that for a while Charles talked about being “defender of the faiths” Not sure when he dropped that…

I also remember that and wondered why it had been quietly dropped by the time he was coronated.

And what is William going to say? It'd be a bit rich of him to suddenly profess himself to be deeply Xian and ready to head the C of E!

There are lists of all gifts given.

The lists hadn't been updated as late as 2024.

Gifts have been found to be historically ambiguous yet quietly absorbed into 'private' royal holdings.

Have they been updated in the last few years? If the Royals were packing tomorrow I can't see anyone standing there with a clipboard. I suspect it would resemble some Nazi train full of art/loot.
Sorry just seen what @CathyorClaire posted. Someone somewhere will have a list but that person will probably be a Royal Household employee

They could also become Prime Minister of the UK. Their chances of this happening are about the same.

I think someone explained politely that you can't be Head of a specific church and defender of all faiths. He does try to mark all religious festivals but he couldn't really change the title. I noticed that in the Proclamation he promised to protect the Church of Scotland as well.

Here you go - this is how it was worded to match with the 500 year old oath.

Decency, no criminal conduct, no money in brown envelopes, courtesy and professionalism to all, decent work ethic, no ‘entitled’ behaviour. Common sense. Due diligence in relation to the company they keep. Education in relation to the law and basic ethics. Some understanding of ‘how things look’.

Would also be good to see this from other public servants / representatives such as politicians.