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.

the Sovereign grant will never go down (hopefully it will after the renovation costs are paid though!)

Will you join me chained to BP railings if it doesn't? I'll bring energy bars? 🤣

None of the current family like Buckingham Palace, and who can blame them, so I agree it should be opened more and the public shouldn't insist the King move in when renovations are done.

Hmm but still as @jumpingthehighjump said he doesnt have to take it all. What a PR hit that would be if we see the King returning billions or millions back and not using it all.

Probably be more effective to chain yourself to Downing Street, affect the decision makers directly.

Count me in! (A nice Twix would do though!)

Abdicate. All of them.

I have never heard a member of the royal family say they are just like us. That narrative comes from the press not the palace . I'm pretty sure they are aware they are not like us. That isn't too say they understand how all other people live, no one can claim that, but i do think that the current working royals do realise they have privilege.

I think they may well realise they have privilege and they absolutely love it! To be able to go on endless luxury holidays, have the best seats in the house for premieres, Cup Finals, Wimbledon finals, helicopter between their houses, no traffic jams or stuck on a smelly tube, so many staff at your beck and call, no washing up, laundry, cleaning... it is an unimaginable life except for a few Oligarchs and billionaires.
If it was that bad, they'd walk away. Yes it would cause a constitutional crisis but it could be overcome.

They don't directly say it, but all the 'Oh how hard it is homeschooling during Lockdown''We live in a 4 bedroom house with NO LIVE IN STAFF!!!', doing the school run, slaving over a hot stove to get the dinner on is all from them, and is ' just like you'. They are not. There is a world of difference between cosplaying 'ordinary housewife by cooking dinner and having to do the shopping, cooking, meal planning, budgeting by yourself and not being able to just call up a servant if you dont fancy it, and keeping the kids occupied and outdoors in your acres of private land, with tennis courts and swimming pools. We all know they have all of those things and more. Why pretend you have experience of ordinary life when you clearly don't? If they want to be, then they can stop accumulating houses and stop saying they are only going to do work term time only between 10 and 2 .

I expect them to actually work.

As in, 9-5, 5 days a week they are doing things that certifiably benefit the country. Not this wishy washy “well they sometimes have meetings we don’t know about” shit. Obviously, I’m not saying they should be publishing minutes of every meeting they ever have. But they’re patrons of charities and all these different things, so get working with them.

At least 250 engagements a year. It’s half a day at best, you turn up, shake some hands and say bye again.

Stop calling sport and the like official engagements. Go if you want but stop pretending it’s work.

If you want to cut back, your income is cut back as appropriate.

I agree. I have always said that one of them in the case of K&W should be doing the equivalent of a full time job. I said this well before Kate's health problems. It's always 'oh, but the children'
I'm sorry but you don't need the equivalent of two parents at home day in day out especially when they are all at school now!

Doing less than the bare minimum doesn't cut it for me.

I think the whole royal set up needs a complete overhaul. The trouble is, in my opinion, all the courtiers, aides etc are like the old boys network... doing it like it has always been done with no eye on the future and modernising.

Yes it’s a joke really isn’t it? Most of their “work” could be done from home

What do I expect or what do I want? I expect them to carry on as before- keeping their financial arrangements largely under wraps and managing their PR so that a “tipping point”percentage of people believe the myth that they are hard working, valuable and contribute more to than they take from the common good.

What I would like is them to cooperate in a gentle winding down so that this current King is the last, and they all live in comfortable obscurity on their personal wealth.

But they do live in a four bedroom house with no live in staff. That's just a fact. I haven't heard William or Catherine (who grew up in the same area to me and who went to schools I know), say that makes them just like me in my four bedroom house with no live in staff. There are facts, they had children learning at home during a pandemic, and there is interpretation of facts, by mentioning it they were saying their lives are exactly the same.

My life isn't the same as your life, no one's life is exactly the same as another person's life, they have financial advantages, I had the advantage of growing up privately with two parents who loved each other. Some people's lives are unremittingly awful, most people have good and bad in their life experience. I'm not going to attack William or Catherine for mentioning they are home schooling in a pandemic, they did it, I did it, it's a similar experience but not the same and I don't see where they are claiming it's the same.

I have lots of questions about finances and the way politicians in the past deferred when making decisions. I have questions about property that remains empty and could bring in revenue, I have lots of questions about how the monarchy runs in the 21st Century but I don't think any of those questions are improved by comparing my life to theirs. I find the focus on whether Catherine cooks every meal, puts the washing on, cleans the house etc etc to distract from more important questions. She is the Princess of Wales, not Mrs Leon Farrell, I wouldn't expect her life to be the same as mine and I would expect us both to have pressure and stress and problems that we won't each relate to.

I do expect her to represent my country appropriately, to draw attention to the great work being done by charities in this country, to be polite to people i wouldn't want to sit next to, to be non political.

But they do live in a four bedroom house with no live in staff. That's just a fact.

There's two staff cottages next door!

But they don’t live in the “cottage”, so they’re not live in 😉

Turn over Windsor, Buckingham Palace and Balmoral to the National Trust

@Playtoo I thought the National Trust view big houses as ‘the outdated mansion experience’ so presumably they wouldn’t want these elitist buildings.

I just don't think they do empathy in the same way as KC. They had children at home but they were not homeschooling. The tutors and nannies were doing that. I just think they are trying to pretend to be relatable when they are not. Why bother? I don't believe the press would try to sell that narrative if it wasn't being fed to them. Its like TLQ with her tupperware when she was squirreling away money in tax havens!

I expect nothing. I honestly don't care. I'm not sure they do anything that affects my life, so let them crack on. Ideally, I'd like no monarchy at all, but not enough to revolt over it, which I guess is the only point of constitutional monarchy.

A question for those who wish there to be no monarchy after Charles III

Does that mean you also wish the government to lose the use of the Crown estate? Given that the contract was the use of the estate in return for funding of the monarchy...

You are incorrect on that, see below

The UK Crown Estates are not the UK royal family's private property, and the royal family are not responsible for any amount of money the Estates bring into the treasury. The monarch is a position in the UK state that the UK owns the Crown Estates through, a position that would be abolished in a republic, leading to the Crown Estates being directly owned by the republican state.

The Crown Estates have always been public property and the revenue they raise is public revenue. When George III gave up his control over the Crown Estates in the 18th century, they were not his private property. The current royals are also equally not responsible for producing the profits, either.

I said it on the other thread but I think it’s because of the sheer celebrity that surrounded William and Harry for so long. When Diana died they were obviously the apple of the nation’s eye. People adored them, and they saw them as almost like anyone else’s sons.

Then William went to university and there were posters etc., he was an attractive young man and young women adored him. Harry was, again, loved at this time.

Then William left uni, eventually settled down with Katherine in Anglesey and they were, again loved then. Then between 2011&2019 we had the weddings and the babies. They haven’t really faced much of the backlash that other members of the royal family have faced.

It is quite clear that there is a cohort of people who have a fixed narrative that removing the monarchy will lead to an actual improvement in their lives.

There seems to be no notion that it is the MPs whom they have freely elected who are responsible for the current state of the UK. I cannot recall of any news article indicating the election that put Starmer in office was anything other than free and fair...certainly no-one has claimed that they were forced to vote at gunpoint!

Apparently, elected politicians Starmer, Reeves, Raynor, Lammy et al are not doing a fantastic job for the UK because KC3 is Head of State. According to some, W's leaving would mean that magically Rachel from accounts would improve her job performance. Somehow. Because it is a Republic.

Meanwhile, in the real world, Reeves' crying jag cost the UK millions in interest due to the movement in the gilt curve. W's meeting with Trump saved the UK billions in tariffs. But why let reality intrude on fantasy?

Do let the fairy tales of the Republic continue!

W's meeting with Trump saved the UK billions in tariffs.

What? I can promise you I am very up on Trump and US politics and the tariff situation but nowhere have I seen anything remotely suggesting this.

Can you link to me showing this? Because if I have missed this, I will be absolutely taken aback.
I know about Starmer and his meetings with Trump regarding the tariffs. But where and when has William had meetings with Trump and influenced the tariffs thereby saving us billions?

Calling Rachel Reeves our Chancellor 'Rachel from Accounts' is really rude and demeans all women and their careers.

Very poor.