How does the monarchy need to change after Andrew?

[mids2019]

I was reading about Prince William's conversation of mental health in men with others and it struck me how open (relatively) about struggles he may have had with emotion. Such openness in my mind would be inconceivable 50 years ago so are we going to see a RF that is more open and much more willing to be presented as human with greater insights into family life?

Maybe it's a case of the RF having to show the public they have nothing to hide in future with increasing scrutiny of the institution. Certainly the concept of majesty on imho has drained somewhat and there is a need for the RF to rebuild its reputation.

For me as the King is elderly and has been ill it will be William who will have the job of revitalizing the monarchy and looking to how it can presented to a newer possibly less deferential generation. The RF are going to need some good PR.

I forgot about redactions! Yep let's go with that.

Williams bleating on about mental health is another distraction tactic for the stupid UK masses.

He can work on his mental health another time.

We need rid of the Royals.

Agree. Again, the culture of deference needs to go. This is down to the way the RF works though. If you are brought up with adults bowing and walking out of rooms backwards, and every time you meet your family you are reminded just where you are in the pecking order with the ridiculous curtseying in order and walking in and out of places in order of course you are going to have a skewed idea of your own importance and actually probably just how intelligent you actually are. This all needs to go. Its ridiculous nonsense, and if TLQ has been less worried about who was curtseying at what time and what colour nail varnish people were wearing and more time taking notice of the behaviour of her son, maybe this whole situation would not have got as bad as it has

So agree with this. Because of Andrew's arrest there has been a lot of footage of Royals at memorial services/funerals. To plug the gaps when there was no new news!
One lot of footage had the main Royals and a lot of other people stood on steps and I imagine C&C arrived. The whole lot of them were bobbing up and down like a game of whack a mole!
I thought what the actual f*... it is 2026 and this is what we have.

Andrew used to take tea with his Mama and apparently always kissed her hand when entering or leaving a room. He knew which side his bread was buttered! And look where we are now

Great list @MrsLeonFarrell

I would add something about the number of properties at their disposal.

I don't think there is any use arguing about whether or not places like Sandringham are truly owned by them because Victoria used money she demanded from the state to pay for these places. That ship sailed long ago.

However, all the various London residences need to be looked at. No one appears to like Buckingham Palace so the staff there can move to Windsor, and BP be completely opened up as a tourist destination.

Windsor can then be the official residence of the monarch, it has plenty of space to host state dinners and all that kind of thing.

Every other asset not owned by them outright can be assessed and either added to the historic royal palaces portfolio, sold, or operated as accommodation by anyone who wants to pay full market rents. That would include anyone outside the monarch and their direct family, and the heir and their direct family.

Why are the monarchy exempt from having their wills published, when every other person has to?

Because back in 1911 Prince Francis was having a torrid affair with a Countess and in his will left some family jewels to her, and his Mother had a head fit because she wanted those jewels to go to his sister.
To avoid scandal, the Will was sealed so the public couldn't find out and Wills have been sealed ever since!

Incidentally Prince Francis's Will was unsealed in 2021 which is why we know about this now!

The problem is though that I think the arguments, or at least a discussion, will need to be had about who owns what to sort out the properties. Not here and in an official way but they do need to go through everything. Silly example, the monarch used to pay for the armed forces and passed that over to the government in exchange for giving them some property. It always sounds straight forward but it is deals and agreements going back centuries.

I'm really glad I don't need to untangle it.

I think a cut off date can be put in place. Your example happened centuries ago, I don't see any point in dragging it up now. Same as my example with Sandringham.

We need to accept they've been advantaged by various deals and demands and keep to what's happening now.

I would like to suggest to begin with that anything they don't pay full corporation or capital gains taxes on as private enterprises must therefore be state owned. That's quite simple...

It really isn't simple. For a start, who made the rules about what capital gains tax is paid on? It wasn't the monarch because they don't have that power. The Sovereign Grant was created by Cameron's government IIRC, the amount and the fact it can't go down is strange but not a decision the monarch made. If they didn't make the decision an argument can be made that it is unfair to penalise them for that decision. The Duchies are used to provide an income because of a constitutional position. If they get removed who is going to pay and how and what for?

It's all really complicated and needs untangling and reformed but a one sentence solution won't sort it out.

as I’ve said before if you want to end the monarchy that’s for parliament and ultimately the people to decide not the current royal family. Campaign by all means get a party to make it their election ticket thats the only way to go.

a one sentence solution won't sort it out

Who has said it would?

They need to go. Their assets should be returned to the people of the UK. Their land should be made into public parks for everyone to visit. Buckingham Palace should be like Versailles, a money making tourist attraction.

I don't see why the Duchies cant be rolled into the Crown Estates, and the Monarch still get a percentage of that. I cant believe the Sovereign Grant was not somehow instigated by the Monarchy. It is so advantageous to them, and means they have even less scrutiny. Yes, Cameron and Osborne need to be held to account for that, but the RF have got away with a huge amount based on contracts made to their advantage by supine governments. It all needs to be looked at again. If they want to carry on as normal then they need to run the gauntlet of public scrutiny. The institutions that protected them need to be held to account and to be forced to hold the Monarchy to account.

I agree that it’s all complicated, but the Sovereign Grant only funds official duties /expenses as Head of State such as royal visits, travel, staff salaries and maintenance of palaces. It’s not personal income for the Royals. They get that from the Duchies.

I would rather have what's left of the Monarchy, than have a President voted in by the thick people of the UK

The Sovereign Grant replaced the Civil List which, IIRC paid out to even more people. It doesn't maintain the Heir or the monarch's personal expenses either

It was reviewed and discussed in Parliament though, every year, and was paid to people for doing Royal duties. So now there are fewer of them it would have cost less. What we have now is a percentage of money going to one person no matter how many others are doing the work or how much they are doing. They could all just sit around doing nothing and still get the same amount. Its again the scrutiny that is lacking.

There are often posts which offer one sentence solutions, have a Republic, get rid of most of the property, make them not charge the NHS tax etc without any apparent recognition that changing anything that has evolved over time is immensely complicated.

Yes! 👏

Course it is!

Which is why I say they aren't going anywhere.

I read a really interesting article years ago, and it was said that it would take at least 10, and more like 15 years to unravel getting rid of a Monarchy.

Seems like a realistic timescale. That would mean it would be entirely do able in one reign of say William.

There needs to be an inquiry as to who knew what and when regarding Andrews behaviour over the years. Its been a poorly kept secret that over the years he has been at best an entitled unpleasant cunt to all and sundury and at worst a serial shagging sex pest and a wholly inappropriate person to hold any of the positions he did. In fact plenty of people advised very strongly against him becoming a trade envoy mainly due to him being a thick fucker who has no judgement and required an army of people to clean up after him. There needs to be full transparency on quite how he carried on the way he did without censure or reprimand. The queen is going come out of this looking very bad indeed. Maybe, just maybe a reduced role royal family can carry on but the old guard need to be put out to pasture.

That’s depressing as I would love for the gang to all be gone tomorrow.

Why would you want another shitshow like Brexit? Far better a slow and managed end to the uk becoming a republic, far better for the country.

I’m a constitutional monarchist, but I don’t think in 20/30 Years, there will be a monarchy. If people don’t want a properly thought out move to a republic, than imo, they don’t want the good of the country.

If I had my way, Cameron, Johnson, and farage would all be up for treason charges. They all did irreparable harm to the Uk and got bloody rewarded.

I agree.

I like the suggestion that over ten to fifteen years everything gets wound down.

William as a private citizen can then apply to be president if he wants. I'm sure lots would vote for him.

If he got in we'd sort of have both for another decade. So plenty of adjustment time.

George, Charlotte and Louis could then do whatever the heck they wanted to.