Royal row between King Charles and Earl Spencer 3

[Viviennemary]

A new thread and book not even published till Tuesday. I checked on Amazon and its only 12th on the non fiction bestseller list. Doesn't show Earl Spencer in a very good light imho.

we do know the palace spends a fortune on bot farms .

We do? what's the source for that assertion?

All of this !

Great summary .

Re Lownie’s book on Andrew didnt he say that former employees ( I think security personnel I’m not sure) were contacted and reminded of their pensions ?

Sinister .

Any news on the theft of 4 copies of Spencer’s book ? Just a day or two before the extracts were published wasn’t it ?

Oh gosh, Jeff - I’ve been tittering about that! If the poll had gone the other way some pps would be triumphantly proclaiming it to be the word of God!

Some people can’t see their own bias and prejudice.

@CoffeeCantata

You can search .
I have never taken polls seriously and have always said so.
They can be easily infiltrated by bots and or manipulated re the wording .

Why not give each of us our say properly?
That would put an end to it for a generation.
Yet they don’t want that - despite insisting that the royals are popular .

Yes ….and we have not had a pie chart showing how much more expensive our royals are compared to other countries in awhile……with very dubious data…..but obviously that is different…..

How would we have our say without a poll…..?

Telepathy? All write a postcard th Andy Burnham? March on Parliament?

This is smoke and mirrors though and then you need to factor in extraordinary tax arrangements to boot. And folks look at what 100 years old get in Eire- a friend’s mum got to 100 she got that in money 2540 euros from the President and a handrwiten note that included details about her life. Not some bog standard card sent out from the King’s private office. Robopens I'm afraid soi the "so pleased" is essentially a lie. They don't bloody know !

If you mean the Irish President's Office / President's Establishment, the current figure is about €6.3 million a year from the Irish Government's 2026 allocation. The Oireachtas records the 2026 gross estimate at €6.3m, up about 14% from 2025. 
That figure includes considerably more than the President's personal expenses:
About €2.8m — salaries, wages and allowances for the staff at Áras an Uachtaráin.
About €1.7m — the Centenarians' Bounty, the €2,540 payment sent to people reaching 100.
€310,000 — presidential travel and subsistence.
€335,000 — digital/IT capital expenditure.
Other operating, communications, training and premises costs make up the remainder.
So if you're asking "what does it cost the Irish taxpayer to maintain the presidency each year?", the headline answer is roughly €6.3m gross per annum in 2026, or just over €6.1m net after expected receipts.

I'm sure if there was overwhelming demand for a referendum on monarchy there are politicians only too happy to oblige. Bear in mind, however, that it's not just the UK that would need to hold these - and that referenda don't always go the way wanted by the people demanding them.

As it stands, however, I can't see that there is a demand. No doubt if there was a referendum and the result was 'hands off our king,' that would be the fault of bots as well. Most things seem to be if the result doesn't come out as envisaged.

I’ve already answered that in a previous post

So another lie; the plot thickens

“My wife and I are so pleased to know that you are celebrating your one hundredth birthday…”

when it should say

"The Office of The King and Queen sends its warmest congratulations on the occasion of your 100th birthday…”

8,971 milestone birthday cards — covering 100th, 105th and every birthday thereafter.
38,999 wedding-anniversary cards — covering 60th, 65th, 70th and every anniversary thereafter.
Total: 47,970 cards in the year

So, a poll then?😂

"Those services are paid for via a percentage of the Crown Estate profits, so not from taxpayers' money."

Good point. The royal family costs the British tapayer pretty much nothing.

Denise welch? The former Loose woman and alcoholic who has written reams and reams about her significant mental health problems?

I just can't see she's anyone who would remember conversations clearly tbh.

Nice to 'do a Spencer' though and chuck some gossip into the mix. Maybe he'll give her tour of Althorp with a signed eulogy if she asks nicely.

The institution is not taxpayer-funded. Only the services that the royal family perform as part of state duties are state-funded. And I'm pretty sure that the value they add is far more than what a state-funded apolitical ceremonial president would add, so they bring in far more returns for the money spent on them as part of their state duties than a ceremonial president would.

And I have no idea how you can say that when you haven't got a clue how much, for instance, security costs. None of us know. It is kept from us for errrm security reasons. Course it is.
And there is no quantifiable figure of what the family add £ wise. Where is it proven but they bring in far more than is spent on them. It doesn't exist because it's not true

What?

They cost us nothing? You do know the sovereign grant has doubled to £99.9 million in the last year?
It covers their duties, their travel (look at all those helicopter trips costing hundreds of thousands), it pays all their staff salaries, very many of them, but they cost us nothing??

That was my initial reaction as well, but to be fair to her having had a look around she has actually been saying since at least 2019 she had an issue with him because of things he said about Diana shortly after her death

2019 - https://www.hellomagazine.com/royalty/2019090477321/loose-womens-denise-welch-bizarre-meeting-prince-andrew/

2020 - https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/tv/denise-welch-prince-andrew-row-18549996.amp

2022 - https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/prince-andrew-denise-welch-diana-loose-women-b1993413.html

The sovereign grant comes from the Crown Estate, not from the taxpayer. Do make an effort to know what you're talking about.

The Sovereign Grant comes from HM Treasury, funded by UK taxpayers through a percentage of the profits generated by the Crown Estate.

That would be going back into the coffers if not spent on the monarchy. So no they do not cost us nothing. And if the crown estate starts making less and less money, they will still receive the same amount and however many of them do work, even if it were just one, they would still receive the same amount.
Then of course there is the approx £25.million bung each to William and Charles from each of their duchies

I know exactly what I am talking about but I won't be rude to you like you have just been

If there was no monarch, the crown estate would be handed back to the British people.
It is not private property owned by the monarch as such

If you know what you are talking about then why much such a huge mistake as believing that the sovereign grant is paid for by the taxpayers when it isn't?

There is no poll and there are many polls?

Re the poll in this section and its “extreme royalist views” - someone already thought of that and posted the same poll in AIBU, still the majority believe KC3 I’m afraid.

No-one has said that The Crown Estate is privately owned by the monarch.

Neither is it owned by taxpayers.

Neither are the Crown Estate profits (from which the Sovereign Grant derives) taxes.

The Crown Estate FAQs

The polls came up in response to claims like “the public believe Spencer”. The majority of them don’t.

Because it comes from the Treasury. So taxpayers technically fund the SG as it would ALL be in the coffers of the Treasury if not paid out as a grant. All the profits from the crown estate go into the Treasury then a percentage is taken back out to fund the grant
It is not a huge mistake
I am fully aware and I don't like particularly conversing with rude people. So any further comments from you won't be answered