We were taken into Europe with no vote being cast
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Point taken. Should have been more specific…common market.
Historical or hysterical:)
Charles and his love life , the death of Diana ,Andrew having inappropriate friends not to say young women.It’s less historical more tawdry soap opera
People don’t come to see the royal family because the royal family are not usually around for tourists .
The death of the Queen was an one off occasion .
Quite frankly I think people who came from overseas to come to the funeral want their heads seeing too but then there is nowt so queer as folk .
Our royals do not bring pleasure to people all over the world at all
Quite a few countries resent the royals especially if they are former British colonies .
How exactly did it benefit the U.K. for 4 billion people to watch the Queens funeral ?
it’s has cost us the taxpayers a vast amount to pay for that spectacle but as spectacles go it was brilliantly done
Still we dont need this sort of spectacle too often
You do realise this is a complete nonsense, don’t you? It is just nit picking.
You had a vote to join the Common Market in 1975 when nearly 70% voted to continue membership, then your elected representatives were part of creating what became the EU and it was you that elected them to act on your behalf.
You’d be better off complaining about the unelected mob of no hopers in your upper house than continuing the charade that there was no vote to join the EU.
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The baby boomers are the older generation. If you were born in 1946 you are now 76 and have had the ear of pollies since the 50s when the “Bulge” went through the school system. Baby boomers had the best of times - child allowance, dole, pensions etc it was all laid on just for us because of our power at the ballot box but now we are declining in numbers as we inevitably die off. I doubt an older generation will ever hold such sway again.
Millennials (aged 26 to 40) are now just starting to outnumber the baby boomers so you will see pollies starting to listen to their demands and cutting back on the promises directed at baby boomers. You can expect pensions and benefits for our age group to be gradually whittled away as we die out and our voting power decreases with more promises directed at the millennials age group.
Our days at the political feeding trough are numbered
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Excellent post Bruce .
But Trump was only in power for a few years fingers crossed ….the U.K. has Andrew and Harry for a lifetime!
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Barry I am surprised at this post and the use of evocative language .
Left wing haters / spite and envy .
Not all left wing people are haters full of spite and envy .
They may just be logical thinkers who hate if they hate injustice especially when it is done so flagrantly
The royals do not bring financial benefits to the country or at least any they do are far outweighed by the vast cost of maintains an outdated institution .
Versailles brings in millions more tourists than Buckingham palace sans royals .
Chester zoo brings in more tourist revenue .
Leading to the logical conclusion that if we had chimps in the palace we would have more revenue ?
While monarchists quote the supposed benefits and it only costs us 64 p a week ( or some such figure ) this is usually not true . It discounts the massive upkeep of numerous royal residences - why do they need so many ? And the staggering cost of the security.
And then there is the ridiculous oft quoted idea of Tony Blair as President . Why Tony Blair why not quote just about anyone else ? There are many good presidents in the world that cost modest sums to maintain .
Irelands for example . Costs around 4 million a year
The king is not representative of the British people .
How can he be ?
His has had a privileged upbringing at elite schools , never had to rely on the NHS or travel on public transport .
He doesn’t know what a mortgage is and doesn’t have to pay 40 % of the wealth inherited from his mother which will be in the hundreds of millions to the taxman as do all his poorer subjects whose modest estates have to do so over £325k
He won’t be troubled by fuel bills this winter and although he supports green views and environmental issues they are for other people ,he continues to travel in top of the range gaz guzzlers ,helicopters and private jets .
What exactly do the royals do for the British people ?
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Hello OGF
Hate to tell you this but as Bruce has pointed out we are the older generation .
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Apart from the obscene privilege …the lifestyle of a royal isn’t a mentally healthy one.
To many for different reasons go bonkers.
Andrew Harry Diana Margaret have all been affected to a greater or lesser degree.
They need to get proper jobs , less a life of so called service , cut the patronages ,spend more time with their young family’s instead of all the royal duties .
I blame the Queen for a lot of what has gone wrong …with her over developed sense of duty spending hardly anytime with her young family and the development of the so-called firm!
The Firm was a term invented by the Duke of Edinburgh to make it appear that they did something that was vaguely comparable to employment .
Exactly it came in with the Duke of Edinburgh aided an abetted by the Queens sense of duty that included escalation of Royal patronages/visits openings & tours.
I’d be interested to see your figures on monarchy costs @Muddy , these are some quite recent figures that I found…
What have the royals ever done for us?
Supporters of the royal family always have a firm answer to this question. They argue that the royal family brings in money to Britain more than it takes out, despite all of those pretty palaces.
In the year 2019/20, for instance, Britain’s royal residences had more visitors than ever before. A record number of 3,285,000 people visited the official royal residences, in the year before coronavirus struck. They include Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace (including the Royal Mews and The Queen’s Gallery), Clarence House, Frogmore House, the Palace of Holyroodhouse and The Queen’s Gallery within. As well as generating income from ticket sales, the palaces rack up cash from selling trinkets, hampers (their Christmas gift hamper made £32,000) and publishing.
There may still be some debate about where this money ends up, who should control it and what good it does for ordinary people. But there is no doubt the royal brand is very lucrative for the UK.
The Royal Collection
The Royal Collection Trust looks after the Royal Collection, one of the most important art collections in the world. It also manages the public opening of the official residences of the Queen.
According to its annual report of 2019/20, a record 3,285,000 people visited the official residences in 2019/20 - the highest number ever, generating £49,859,000.
Windsor Castle welcomed some 1,586,994 visitors.
From a retail perspective, think gift shop sales, the Royal Collection made £19,983,646 in a year.
In total, the Royal Collection Trust’s total income for the year was £71,526,000.
The Crown Estate
In 2018/19, the revenue from The Crown Estate came in at £343.5 million.
The Crown Estate may not be what you think.
It doesn’t include Windsor Castle - that’s managed through the Royal Household - but it does include tons of other properties, including the entirety of Regent Street in London, Windsor Great Park and Ascot Racecourse.
The Crown Estate also controls around 1,960,000 acres of agricultural land and forest and more than half of Britain’s foreshore.
How much money does the royal family bring in?
So - what do all of the visitors, land and property add up to?
All in all the House of Windsor, mainly through tourism, is estimated by Forbes to contribute £19 billion ($28 billion) to Britain’s economy pre-pandemic, the Daily Express reports.
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Reverse searching for this quote, I found this link.
Following the link in the article, this is an expanded version of how they derived the contribution of the Royals to the economy. The article mentions a Forbes article that derives the contribution number. The article doesn’t link the Forbes article, and I haven’t been able to find it yet.
These two statement don’t seem to match. One says that the Royal family contributes $28B while the other says that the House of Windsor is worth $28B and contributes hundreds of million of pounds into the economy. Very different statements.
Do you believe if monarchy was pruned the to include key members only or indeed ended …the nation would be poorer?
Tourism would end , the land and property owned by the crown would no longer be productive. royal history cease to be of interest .
I believe the obscene display of royal wealth/lives are no longer appropriate.
Good, about time and only fair. The older generation shouldn’t hold more political sway than the young, it’s very wrong and stagnates our society and has done our country a lot of harm
Can’t wait until those Millennials reverse Brexit, I hope I live long enough to see it 
Barry the Royal families finances are shady to say the least they are not open to public scrutiny as they should be as they are effectively paid for by the taxpayer .
The taxpayer pays millions of pounds per year for them and the 23 royal residences in security
Why exactly does one family need 23 residences ?
Why is King Charles exempt Inheritance tax which increasingly every poorer subject is obliged to pay ?
The royal portfolio has off shore investments and holding which again are not subject to British taxes .
I have explained the tourist myth it is a myth that has to be sustained .
Many people come to the U.K. each year they don’t come to see the king they come to see historic buildings which as we see in France that has far more tourists than us can do quite well without a royal family .
I ask again what does the royal family do for the average British person ?
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Of course it would not .
It would be better off as it would not have to contribute to the security and upkeep of one family already obscenely rich .
And that is why the Royal wills are sealed .( something denied to their subjects )
They cannot allow the British public to know how much money the RF makes from the taxpayer and passes on to their relatives
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Both statements are from rubbishy right wing tabloids in order to placate the gullible .
As a taxpayer I don’t contribute towards football which does however bring joy into the hearts of many .
I want to know what exactly does the Royal Family do for the ordinary British person .
Answers on a postage stamp will do .