Oh no how unfortunate.
I hope so. No one should be above the law. Especially not parasites like this numpty. As a Brit I’m outraged that taxes I paid enabled this behavior.
I’m an american but as i understand it the royals are a net gain in monetary value since they give up the cash from Crown Estate and receive a stipend that is less than the value they give up. Is that not the sitch?
If that is the case then what taxes of yours supported this shithead?
Hey everybody! Let’s kick OP in the nuts for asking honest questions! Sometimes y’all disgust me.
There are studies that go both ways on their net gain/ net cost. the “net gain” crowed tend to suggest that no-one would visit the UK if it wasn’t for them.
I don’t buy it.
And if they’re such as net gain, why do they continue to claim money from the Royal List? Can’t they just AirBNB the palace? Or Windsor? They have a lot of properties and don’t really pay taxes either.
There’s no “they”. The King claims money from the government in the form of the Sovereign Grant. He then disburses that money among the working royals as he sees fit.
The Sovereign Grant is in return for the King signing over the entire income of the Crown Estate to the government. The Sovereign Grant is pegged nominally at 15% of the income of the Crown Estate (currently 25% to fund the restoration of Buckingham Palace which is in bery poor condition).
So it’s a net gain as the government currently keeps 75% of the income from the Crown Estate.
But what is the crown estate? Is it money the royals produce by their work that wouldn’t exist without them? Or is it capital gains and land ownership that could also just belong to the country directly meaning the goverment would get 100% and not have to pay the sovereign Grant?
The Civil List, if that’s what you mean, was abolished in 2011, but they claim grants instead now.
Allocating the cash from Crown Estate to the royals is itself controversial because it’s basically a special public corporation these days, unlike the private Royal Estates of Sandringham and Balmoral which the royals actually manage. Like, why exactly should the royal family be considered to own and exploit reclaimed land and the sea bed? It’s a strange throwback to the dark ages.
Also, “stipend” usually means only the Sovereign Grant, which funds only the monarch’s official duties and not all the other associated costs incurred by the royals. Some of the extra is paid for by the Duchies of Lancaster (for Charles III) and Cornwall (for William), but not all. Their police, armed services, various ceremonies and some visit costs (including road closures) are paid for from general taxation. I suspect that’s what this complaint is based on.
But in short, royal finances are a mess and almost like someone doesn’t want a simple easy-to-read budget allocated, but it’s almost certain some taxes paid for some of Andrew’s policing and pomp, and there have been recent reports he asked his police to work against his accuser, which does seem a bit like misconduct in public office.
I don’t expect this case to be allowed, unless Andrew has really really upset Charles III, but it’s not a completely ridiculous argument.
They put “Republic” in the headline as if we all just know what that refers to.
Per wikipedia:
Republic is a British republican pressure group advocating the replacement of the monarchy of the United Kingdom with a de jure parliamentary republic.[2] It is a member organisation of the Alliance of European Republican Movements and is the largest organisation solely campaigning for a republican constitution for Britain. Republic states that its mission is: “the replacement of hereditary monarchy with a democratic republican constitution”.[3] As of 2023, Carol Lever is the current chair of Republic, and Graham Smith is the chief executive.[4]
Well, that campaign group has been in the news off and on for over 40 years and was covered extensively around the last coronation due to the pre-crime arrest of its leader and incredible police claims that people carrying sellotape and luggage straps were “going equipped to lock on” and those with paper, ink and paint were “going equipped to commit criminal damage.”
Never heard of them, 52years of first hand experience as a homegrown Brit.
Have you considered following the news and learning about the country despite not being required to take a citizenship test? Yet! 😉
More seriously, do you often read the Morning Star? I suspect their readers will know who Republic are.
Not in the slightest. News occurs to me naturally via diverse sources, I don’t go looking for news about republic campaigning groups, and clearly succeeded in never finding any. Except this reference today. Which I’m emotionless about to be fair. Andrew is a disgrace though, I don’t disagree that he should be dragged through the same shit a commoner would if found noncing
