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.

In the real world where things aren’t black and white and purely logical, they have a discernible effect on the diplomacy they’re involved with and in promoting and supporting people and organisations in the UK.

i get that you don’t like the RF, but not everyone takes the same view.

Not short sighted. Just realistic

It's not about not liking them per se. It's the Institution... it needs an overhaul because it's not going anywhere.

I’m not saying you’re wrong, of course-but how is the effect they have on diplomacy discernible?

It’s hard to answer with an entirely serious face, but…

Those foreign HoS - they LOVE it! it’s sad to admit but it’s a fact that the Princess of Wales being slim, attractive and well-dressed does impress visitors such as the Macrons. It was obvious he’d taken a shine to her. Yes, that’s a tacky observation but it was clear for all to see. And I think the French in particular relate more to elegance and style. Aaarrrgghh….this sounds so naff and shallow, but cliches are cliches for a reason.

And the orange monster - he can’t resist a bit of royal adjacency, which might mean they have to grit their teeth, but that’s their function and what they’re for.

We may disagree on many things but we can agree on your last point! I think nearly every pp would agree an overhaul is needed.

Well they were an example but Princess Madeleine and her family moved back to Sweden and live in a Royal apartment in Stockholm these days.

Yes totally. But I am so cynical about them now that I imagine we will just lumber on in the same old way because I imagined Charles was going to make changes and he didn't. And I think William ... well, let's not go there!

They should pay tax like everyone else, and actually work full time. Although my first choice would be for them to disappear!

They go to Wimbledon? Surely that's fantastic value for our money?

the King could probably reclaim the Crown Estate and its revenues, leaving us the taxpayers to find the shortfall.

Given the CE was handed over to the Treasury to administer when the sovereign of the time got sick of both funding and overseeing the machinery of government any monarch thinking of reclaiming it might be wise to be careful what he/she wished for.

I don't think this is an argument for keeping them.

Foreign dignitaries can and routinely do glad- hand both each other and whichever HoS is put in front of them in the interests of diplomacy.

There's no reason to think meeting with an elected UK HoS would be considered a lesser honour than meeting with a top dog who holds the position purely by birth.

Ownership of the Crown Estate was never ceded to either the Government or the people - only the management of it. And that was because George III was fed up of forking out (of his own pocket) for his Government. Even today, the Government is considered to be His Majesty's Government and the Crown Estate is how the King, like many of his ancestors, pays towards it. It is not ours, it never was ours and its management and revenues we given to the Government in return for an annual payment - the Civil List in the past, the Sovereign Grant now. Think of it as rent.

If the Royal Family only had the Sovereign Grant to live on, they would not be so wealthy now. It pays for a great many things that do not benefit them personally - Buckingham Palace, for one. It suits the State to retain it. It is symbolic, but not owned by the King. If press reports are to be believed, none of them like the place, which is effectively an office block with residential accommodation and State rooms, useful for entertaining Heads of State. The late Queen and Duke hated living there and spent as much time as possible in either Windsor or Sandringham. I cannot see the current King and Queen giving up Clarence House to move in.

Yes, the Duchies are tax exempt, as are inheritances passed from one a monarch to another. We also have no idea of the value placed on inherited goods and chattels nor who inherits, because the important wills are sealed. Trust funds are kept secret too.That is why I said that there should be more transparency regarding royal finances.

I don't expect you to change your views, you are entitled to them. Just bear in mind though that all the county's millionaires are living the high life because of the tax breaks they get. They do not pay their fair share. The royal family is no different in that respect.

If the Royal Family only had the Sovereign Grant to live on, they would not be so wealthy now

The golden-ratcheted SG is a gold plated soft landing for the royals. Covid related losses to CE revenue didn't touch their income.

C3 is set to personally pocket some £45m from the sale of wind farm licences on national foreshores annexed in the 60's by his Mummy.

The SG is a royal wallet buster.

So how do we measure the benefits to Britain the RF bring?

Again, for those at the back - the revenue from the sale of windfarm licences goes to the Crown Estate, the profits of which is paid to HM Treasury. That puts 12% of those profits into the Sovereign Grant and 88% to Government expenditure. The King is not personally profiting - it's the Government and the millionaires that they subsidise.

And for those sitting alongside the back seat dunces this still represents an uplift of £45m to be spent on who knows what in an institution now featuring a workforce heavily diminished by flouncing and scandal.

Only because Charles made a gesture 'for greater public good' redirecting billions from wind farms. He had to didn't he?

Where does the figure 12% come from?

Under the taxpayer-funded sovereign grant, which is now £86.3m a year, the king receives 25% of the crown estate’s annual surplus, which includes an extra 10% for the refurbishment of Buckingham Palace.

Oh and the SG is shortly increasing by 53%

Yes I know, what’s your point?

Why post if you choose to ignore the point made?

What point were you making? My point is that they don't earn their keep and they should do more for their extremely privileged lives. If you are happy with the contract we have with them, that's absolutely fine, but I am most definitely not.

did I see right and Kate has gone blonde? or did I dream it.

You didn’t dream it..

What is this about the yacht still? I thought they weren't on their 6th holiday of the year on a yacht but the DM are still doubling down?

Well... exactly. And some posters were totally shouted down for daring to suggest they were on a yacht in Greece.
Of course they were!