Britain’s Welfare Queen
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/15/opinion/sunday/malik-britains-welfare-queen.htmlBritains Welfare Queen
Kenan Malik
LONDON The British queen is down to her last pennies. Well, actually, her last millions of pennies.
Last month, the Public Accounts Committee Parliaments watchdog on public spending published a damning survey of the state of the royal finances. The queen had spent down her reserve fund, a savings account built up by years of surplus public subsidy, to a historically low level of only £1 million ($1.6 million), from £35.3 million in 2001.
Trying to make sense of the royal finances is like trying to eat spaghetti with a spoon. Heres the puzzle: Queen Elizabeth II is often described, by some measures, as one of the richest people in the world. Among her private property is Balmoral Castle, her residence in the Scottish Highlands, which was purchased, together with a 50,000-acre estate, by Prince Albert for Queen Victoria in 1848. Queen Elizabeth also owns stud farms, personal art and fine jewelry. According to Forbes magazine, her personal worth is $500 million.
If the queen is so wealthy, how can she be strapped for cash? In 2010, it emerged that the queen had even privately applied to a government fund normally reserved for low-income families to help with Buckingham Palaces heating bills. Turning the request down, a government official commented, I also feel a bit uneasy about the probable adverse press coverage if the palace were given a grant at the expense of, say, a hospital. Why is the queen reduced to acting as if she lived in public housing?
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Never felt being English royalty is as great a gig as it's made out to be. I'd never volunteer to be entertainment for the fickle public.
Lifetime imprisonment and schedules with fancy quarters and too many people traipsing about in your house. Truly no privacy, the world has designs on what one is to do from the time one wakes up until one goes to sleep.
There's a difference between owning land and cash flow. One is a long term investment with slow return or none, just holding on to it. The other is the way to survive daily.
JHMO.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)is that c. 70% of the UK population wouldn't have it otherwise.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)The article and issue in general also fails to account for the income to the UK from tourism as a direct result of the Royal Family.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)The royal palace in London isn't managed anything close to what most think of as private, with all those visitors.
I'll bet they don't pay to visit, nor do guests pay for their dinners. The cost of staff to make their appearances work must be a huge expense.
I doubt they charge rent if Obama or some other head of state spends the night.
All seems rather nebulous in terms of funding. All those ceremonial shows don't seem to amount to any income. Just good will or whatever.
Unless it's all coming out of a slush fund somewhere. I'm not putting down the mystical aspects of royalty, but don't see the profit there.
P.S. Never worked in government, military or a bank, so that's why this is odd to me.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)Pick and chose what you want from it. http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/07/is-the-british-royal-family-worth-the-money/278052/
mulsh
(2,959 posts)and be sure to pick up a nice plushie Corgi with a palace medallion on your way out through the palace shop. All major credit cards, money orders accepted.
[link:http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/visit/the-state-rooms-buckingham-palace|
MisterP
(23,730 posts)DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)- They never do, especially when you live in a castle.
fasttense
(17,301 posts)while claiming it is a democratic institution.
Like slavery, feudalism is a failed economic system. You would think having a queen around would rub salt in the wound. But the truth is the dictatorial style of feudalism works best with capitalism. Just check out the most common management styles of corporations.
IrishAyes
(6,151 posts)greedy, grasping, heartless imperialism. Poster child for the oligarchs. I'll stand up and cheer the day Northern Ireland finally kicks her to the curb with the rest of the British 'empire' and reunites in peace with its counterpart to the south. Maybe someday Scotland will wake up too, but Wales already has started to rumble. Eventually the old witch will pay the piper.
If Charles has an iota of sense, he'll cut the unwilling portions of the 'United' Kingdom loose while he has a chance to do so and survive. Or does anyone else remember the time in London when English crowds attacked his limo? I still have pictures of that. If that bunch of vipers and parasites winds up having to live a little lower on the hog, boo hoo. Down with imperialism everywhere, I say. Tyrants have to expect trouble when they rob the masses blind.