William on Graham Norton

[viques]

Poor Harry. As if his week hasn’t been bad enough he has now had to watch his brother appearing on the best talk show , holding his own, looking comfortable and relaxed, keeping up with the banter, making half decent jokes, telling stories against himself with humour.

Makes Harry’s attempt at tv chatting seem even more uncomfortable.

“Call me William” versus “I am a prince.”

I’m sorry @BemusedAmerican but what happens in the states is of no relevance at all to this .

I don’t think we can start interfering with private property rights, but we absolutely should be forcing the royal family to pay the same taxes as everyone else and we should publicly shame the duchies for what they are doing. The publicity itself ought to be sufficient to cause a change in strategy.

Sounds fair.

@BermudaRhombus

The duchies are not private property. I know the Windsors use that term - deliberately so in my opinion - but they do not own the Duchies in the sense that you or I own a property .
They are a unique legal fudge. When the monarchy goes the duchies will not go with them. They are linked to the role ( ie king / prince of wales ) not the person .

I disagree. Here in NYC, the city is on a massive push to build since allegedly there isn't enough housing. Voting has started for 5 ballot items that, as far as I can tell, will let the mayor green light building while ignoring building codes, neighborhood approval, etc. My own immediate neighborhood has had massive building in the past five years. You can now rent a luxury apartment for $1000 more a month than five years ago, but if you don't have rent control, you have to move.

So no, turning land over to the government doesn't solve the problem. BTW, looking at the Duchy of Cornwall issues through a NYC lens, it's as if rent controlled tenants found out their building was sold, or it was undergoing massive capital improvements which would have to be paid for by rent increases.

What people have pointed out over the years on here is that the trustees of the Duchy of Cornwall are requiring that it makes a profit. It's NOT a non-profit. That is important to remember.

Apparently no one really knows who owns the land in the UK as of 2023, but the Royal Family actually owns less than other groups:

https://www.neweconomybrief.net/the-digest/who-owns-land

This is really fascinating! But possibly solved by 2030.

How about those councils selling millions of acres to offshore interests?

And the major pheasant industry! https://whoownsengland.org/

It's different to the state taking my flat away from me, and from the state deciding to nationalise land and property that currently 'belongs' to the Royal Family. I bought my home with my wages. The Royal Family's property isn't theirs- it belongs to all of us, and should be put to use that benefits the whole nation, not one family.
For a radical like me, that would mean Buckingham Palace being split into a mix of social housing, very expensive hotel rooms for wealthy tourists to fund public services, decent single flats for non London MPs for Mon to Fri to cut all expense claims and a women's refuge and some asylum accommodation, and if needs must, a decent five room appartment for whoever is monarch.
It would also end the nonsense of the Duchy of Cornwall, whose tenants currently get a shit deal. I\d bring that into line with 2026 expectations.

This is off topic for the thread but since pps are on about it…

Im glad the D of Cornwall own the land they do. It means that you can only rent in some places, not own property. Without the DoC the Scilly Isles would be a billionaire enclave with huge vulgar mansions and heliports everywhere.

For a radical like me, that would mean Buckingham Palace being split into a mix of social housing, very expensive hotel rooms for wealthy tourists to fund public services, decent single flats for non London MPs for Mon to Fri to cut all expense claims and a women's refuge and some asylum accommodation, and if needs must, a decent five room appartment for whoever is monarch.

Given the reality of property prices in London, it's much more likely to be split into apartments to be sold to wealthy middle-eastern billionaires.

ETA The Duchies, of course, are in a different category to Buckingham Palace.

For a radical like me, that would mean Buckingham Palace being split into a mix of social housing, very expensive hotel rooms for wealthy tourists to fund public services, decent single flats for non London MPs for Mon to Fri to cut all expense claims and a women's refuge and some asylum accommodation, and if needs must, a decent five room appartment for whoever is monarch

The country’s debt is the highest it’s ever been. The land and property would likely be sold off to the highest bidder (eg Saudi billionaires).

The current government would like to seize your property if you happen to leave it empty for 6 months.

Look at what is happening in a publicly owned US park

https://www.npca.org/articles/11523-private-interests-threaten-more-parks

The Trump administration has been decimating protected wildlife and parks for years. For the benefit of the rich. I'm glad Albania has been protesting the Jared Kushner resort.

We also have the concept of eminant domain in the US. Do a Google on Robert Moses.

That's quite interesting, but it rather misses the point. William has been directly implicated in the eviction of multigenerational tenants from Duchy land, causing considerable hardship and mental distress. Graham Norton, though, is a good egg that much we know. Let's see if KP address this in any meaningful way.There’s the carefully manufactured public image and then there’s the reality.

The King is said to be dismayed by the sale of the Bradninch estate. “It’s absolutely not what the King would ever have done,” one friend of the monarch says. “The King adores William, he recognises that he must be the Prince of Wales that he wants to be but that doesn’t mean he’s not sad. The only hope is that William begins to see that this is not what his father has believed in for 50 years, which is that you’ve got to try and hold rural communities together because they are the backbone of Britain.”

I think there are many people who would say your flat belongs to all of us, too.

I am aware of this. So are you suggesting that William has no influence over their commercial strategies?

All the derailing in the world won't change reality. Earthshot has earned its stripes in the venture capital world and real companies are being created that deliver jobs and environmental benefits.

Earthshot Prize Winner Notpla Gets €4M EU Grant for Seaweed Coffee Cups

It is quite obvious by the determined derailing that there are some who are horrified that a Prince has provided billionaires and asset managers an investment option that has the side benefit of cleaner air and water.

But unfortunately for the derailers, William's Graham Norton appearance has gone viral across social media with a tsunami of positivity flooding his way.

Re the Duchy sale - the other thing to factor in to the discussion is that any sale of property worth >£500k has to be approved by the Treasury, under the terms of the Duchy of Cornwall Management Acts.
There is also provision in the Act that ensures that all transactions must be in the best long-term interest of the Duchy.

This isn't a case of William simply going rogue and carrying out transactions with no government input.

(I haven't read the article, so can't comment on any specifics.)

Some rationalisation of royal residences would certainly be in order. William and Kate seem to move into a new “forever home” every ten minutes. The royal family’s private property interests should be taxed in the same way as everyone else, including inheritance tax.

I think a single, modest home for all of us would hardly be an unreasonable ask and hopefully something my alter ego, Andy Burnham, is working towards. If Parliament had the appetite to challenge the status quo, this issue could be raised alongside the wider question of the Duchy's tax privileges and the public benefits it delivers in return. Instead, constitutional convention through Erskine-May seems to provide a convenient excuse for silence. If William wants to operate this way, he cannot simultaneously champion action on homelessness and mental health without facing questions about whether his own actions match his public statements.aka When did he know ?

The Duchy eviction issue has certainly taken some of the shine off W's cute and cuddly appearance on GN.

That was PR at its finest. Don't know if it's the same PR firm involved in the Duchy proposal.

Isn’t 15 pages about William’s appearance on Graham Norton quite enough? What more is there left to say? This was in the Observer today it's a thread about William after all. And this is about him.

‘Prince William will never know what it’s like to get to the end of the month without enough money to pay his bills. He’ll never know what it is not to have one or many roofs over his head’
Mary Ryan, Bradninch resident and former GP

Imagine if H&M had done anything vaguely similar in even a minor way this board would have gone nuts.

Here you go

In a modern and progressive society, everyone should have a safe and secure home, be treated with dignity and given the support they need.

https://www.royal.uk/news-and-activity/2023-06-26/the-prince-of-wales-on-the-launch-of-homewards

Isn’t this one of the reasons William is selling some of the duchy land? To provide a number of affordable homes and more jobs.

Getting a little political but whilst your name sake is working towards affordable housing for all (admirable) he is also trying to short change farmers with cheap land grabs.

But let’s all focus on big, bad William.

www.countryside-alliance.org/news-content-type/farmers-to-be-forced-to-sell-land-at-fraction-of-the-value