Go for it Harry marry Meghan.
Nov 29th 2017, 10:01 am
#77
Lowering the tone
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Re: Go for it Harry marry Meghan.
I'm not a monarchist in the sense that I don't believe a monarchy is the best option - to have an hereditary ruler (even a symbolic one) seems archaic. However, I'm not a rabid republican - I don't strongly feel that we would be better as a country just by being a republic. What would change? Not much.
Likewise, I'm not a rabid abolitionist. I also accept that some odd people really quite like waving flags and curtseying and tugging their forelocks at their betters. I could quite comfortably live with knowing that the monarchy is there as long as someone has taken a very sharp red pen to both the numbers of "royals" and their privileges.
Likewise, I'm not a rabid abolitionist. I also accept that some odd people really quite like waving flags and curtseying and tugging their forelocks at their betters. I could quite comfortably live with knowing that the monarchy is there as long as someone has taken a very sharp red pen to both the numbers of "royals" and their privileges.
Nov 29th 2017, 10:12 am
#78
Yo
Joined: Nov 2012
Location: UK
Posts: 24,474
Re: Go for it Harry marry Meghan.
I think the red pen thing will happen post Elizabeth II. Particularly by the time we get to William. The mystique with current system goes back to the 50s and all that, but in due course even the monarchists will see public funding of a particular aristocracy as a bit bizarre, and we'll end up with a Continental style monarchy.
Nov 29th 2017, 2:33 pm
#79
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Re: Go for it Harry marry Meghan.
We'll have to agree to disagree on that one. The Queen may be a heck of a lot richer than I, have no money worries and have several homes to choose from.
But she's also still working in her 90's, has her every move scrutinised, can't ever be free to do what she actually want to do ('I think I'd like to be a teacher/hairdresser/road sweeper'.....oh, but I get no choice in my life), has to be 'public' all the time, has to spend hours making small talk with pointless people (over 16,000 public engagements in her lifetime
), etc. Even last year she had 332 royal engagements, so a grand total of 33 days off in a year at 90 years old? No thanks.
I guess it depends on whether you value financial security or happiness more, and I know which I'd choose. As I said above, I wouldn't swap places with them for anything. I'll take my life with my pathetic one house and money worries, but the freedom to do what I want thanks.
But she's also still working in her 90's, has her every move scrutinised, can't ever be free to do what she actually want to do ('I think I'd like to be a teacher/hairdresser/road sweeper'.....oh, but I get no choice in my life), has to be 'public' all the time, has to spend hours making small talk with pointless people (over 16,000 public engagements in her lifetime
), etc. Even last year she had 332 royal engagements, so a grand total of 33 days off in a year at 90 years old? No thanks. I guess it depends on whether you value financial security or happiness more, and I know which I'd choose. As I said above, I wouldn't swap places with them for anything. I'll take my life with my pathetic one house and money worries, but the freedom to do what I want thanks.
Very well put.
The Queen has devoted her entire life to fulfilling a strong sense of duty to the UK and the commonwealth, and hasn't put a foot wrong, some may say with the exception of how she dealt with Diana's death, however she was only following protocol, and addressed this a few days later......protocol cannot be relied on as much nowadays as it was, as the world is a constantly changing place, but she has evolved with it. I don't know many 91 year old women still working as she does.
On another note, mentioned by other posters, I believe only the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh receive money from the government via the tax payer. Prince Harry receives money from the Duchy of Cornwall along with Prince Charles and William which is basically income from land/property and other financial investments.
Nov 29th 2017, 2:42 pm
#80
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Re: Go for it Harry marry Meghan.
Nov 29th 2017, 2:48 pm
#81
Lowering the tone
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Re: Go for it Harry marry Meghan.
On another note, mentioned by other posters, I believe only the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh receive money from the government via the tax payer. Prince Harry receives money from the Duchy of Cornwall along with Prince Charles and William which is basically income from land/property and other financial investments.
Nov 29th 2017, 2:59 pm
#82
Yo
Joined: Nov 2012
Location: UK
Posts: 24,474
Re: Go for it Harry marry Meghan.
Didn't it belong to one of the families originally (admittedly granted by some royal whim in the mists of time) and therefore private?
Nov 29th 2017, 3:02 pm
#83
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Re: Go for it Harry marry Meghan.
Perhaps if there were to be a few poisonings or something to cull the numbers like in I CLAVDIVS or that other one whose name escapes me
Nov 29th 2017, 3:05 pm
#84
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Re: Go for it Harry marry Meghan.
So do you think this land should be taken from royal possession and divided out amongst all UK citizens?
Nov 29th 2017, 3:06 pm
#85
Lowering the tone
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Re: Go for it Harry marry Meghan.
Despite describing itself as a private estate, it pays no Corporation Tax as the governments considers it a crown asset. No matter how you spin it, the UK mug taxpayer funds the Windsor family one way or another.
Nov 29th 2017, 3:09 pm
#86
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Re: Go for it Harry marry Meghan.
Like the Queen, the Duchy of Cornwall is not obligated to pay tax but does so voluntarily.
Nov 29th 2017, 3:10 pm
#87
Lowering the tone
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Re: Go for it Harry marry Meghan.
No, I just want you to acknowledge that Charles and his family benefit from untaxed income from land that belongs to the nation. Hardly makes them independent of the taxpayer.
Nov 29th 2017, 3:17 pm
#88
Magnificently Withering
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Re: Go for it Harry marry Meghan.
I don't see how it's "our money" just because the landowner happens to be a Royal, instead of some other wealthy individual - unless you also begrudge the income various rock stars get from the tenant farmers on the country estates they bought from impoverished aristocrats...
Nov 29th 2017, 3:17 pm
#89
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Re: Go for it Harry marry Meghan.
Nov 29th 2017, 3:21 pm
#90
Lowering the tone
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Re: Go for it Harry marry Meghan.
But Prince Charles didn't buy it.