The Queen is in danger of running out of money by the time of her Diamond Jubilee unless she gets an increase in her Civil List payment, figures revealed today.
Last year she had to dip into her cash reserves to the tune of £6 million to top up the £7.9 million she receives from the public purse. That leaves £21 million in her reserve, money she put aside through careful housekeeping in the 1990s.
Buckingham Palace is lobbying for the first increase in the Civil List for two decades, arguing that it has already made substantial cuts in spending. With an anticipated £7 million due to be taken out of the reserve this year, the £21 million should run out by 2012 – just in time for the Jubilee.
Overall spending by the Queen rose to £41.5 million for the year ending 31 March 2009, a 1.5% increase in real terms on last year’s figure of £40 million. However over the last eight years it has gone down by 1.3% in real terms, according to the head of the Queen’s finances.
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Maybe it is time that the royal ramily cut back, get jobs or dissappear. The country is in ruins and they want more public money?
Are they union?
I have no sympathy for her. I hope they don’t come begging for money here. It time to shed the monarchy and stand on our own two feet.
Retire Liz and take Phil with you and the rest of the breed.
Do I smell another pole tax coming to poor old Merry England?
I hate to burst your bubbles, folks but if you took a moment to research the Civil List, you would find the Queen does not take tax-payer’s money.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_List
Honestly, people… If you’re going to criticize, try not to do so blindly. I expect such foolishness from Liberals but I thought better of the regulars here…
Sure Mac … the “government” pays it.
With that logic in mind, why were we mad about Obama’s social spending again?
Read the whole first line, did you, Cynapse?
If you’d bothered to read a bit lower in the article… “The Crown Estate is now a statutory corporation run on commercial lines by the Crown Estate Commissioners and generates revenue of around £190 million for HM Treasury every year, greatly exceeding the costs of the Civil List. For example, it owns much of Regent Street in London.”
Did you read this from the original article:
Last year she had to dip into her cash reserves to the tune of £6 million to top up the £7.9 million she receives from the public purse.
The criticism is founded.
Year, I read it… I’m still trying to figure how the Royal Trust, with assets in the billions, isn’t able to produce revenue (and profit) which is insufficient to sustain the monarchy. Are the Commissionaires inept, corrupt or simply acting on ordered from their political masters in an effort to alienate the people from the Monarchy?
Perhaps the Monarchy should assume direct control of the Royal Trust (give Prince Chuckles a chance to do something useful with his life) and cut the government out of the equation?
Oops… double-negative and Jack hasn’t given me the keys to the new template so I can’t fix it…
I don’t think that plugin is coming back. Nice as editing comments was for the users, it plays real havoc with the templates and database. Maybe there is a more friendly version of that plugin.
Not sure about the plugin but, for a while, Jack gave me user access and I was able to edit directly but when he moved to the new template, my access got bumped. I’ve been on the road more than at home which meant I wasn’t doing much more than just checking in so it wasn’t a priority to me.
I do not support giving the wealthy more money because of their lavish lifestyles. They should budget like the rest of us. Reminds me of my college roommate who asked for food stamps to pay for her expensive organic food and gourmet cooking. Just doesn’t work that way.
Many people are unhappy about the royal family’s request:
<a>http://www.newsy.com/videos/britain_s_royal_financial_dilemma</a>