Fly the Flag!

Re 51

j_jza80

Thanks for that admission. Spending cuts for the Monarchy is fine by me and I believe a wide swathe of the nation. The remaining problem is that the cuts do not go far enough.

It’s not just the Monarchy. I will not widen the debate but monumental fiscal waste is endemic in this country. Good housekeeping is a concept that is hardly understood. As a nation we need to get back to “watching the pennies while the pounds look after themselves” and this should begin with the Monarchy.

John Green

So you’ve got an 86 year-old woman whose elderly husband of over sixty years is ill in hospital yet she keeps on working.

Not some tale of poverty and deprivation, just The Queen doing what she has done for so long. She never had a choice of career.

I don’t really care what you think of the institution, particularly as the alternative appears to be a choice of politicians or billionaires (or both)

But you have to admire the woman.

Moggy

Re 44 & 48

Twin Otter23

I don’t take issue with any of your facts re tourism. In fact I thought that it was our third largest source of national revenue and not fifth. But, it is not and never has been Royal family dependant. Tourists come here because we are seen internationally as a rather large Disneyland theme park.

j_jza80

Yes, you are right. I am conscious that money does indeed matter. The Nation is broke. I accept that to many of my countrymen and women the Monarchy is important. The question is one of scale. We do not need a Monarchy which enjoys such an expensively unrestricted lifestyle. Police protection units for minor Royals – whatever next ? We’re no longer the No.! power in the world, we are much reduced and so should be the Monarchy.

John Green

The state of the country’s economy is nothing to do with the Monarchy though, the decline of our country and it’s current state is purely the work of elected politicians.

If you want to find a justifiable way to reduce public spending, I would first look to the NHS. It no longer function, and is haemorrhaging money at every seam.

The excess of the monarchy is an important part of it, the pomp and ceremony being a part (however minor) of what keeps our monarchy the focus of the world. Don’t be under the impression that the Royals haven’t also had spending cuts. A couple of examples are the loss of the Royal Yacht, and the scale of the RAF flypasts during the Diamond Jubilee (even 10 years ago they were much larger)

Without our Monarchy, we would just be another insignificant republic. They probably cost us in the region of £5 each per year (adjusted for tax payers only and the addition of security) and IMO that’s £5 well spent. How much do you pay to have your bins collected and your local roads serviced every month?

IMO the Queen is a national treasure and a bargain, she also has executive powers that stop some crackpot dictator coming to power.

She represents our national identity and does a damn good job of doing so in my opinion.

Re 44 & 48

Twin Otter23

I don’t take issue with any of your facts re tourism. In fact I thought that it was our third largest source of national revenue and not fifth. But, it is not and never has been Royal family dependant. Tourists come here because we are seen internationally as a rather large Disneyland theme park.

In 2010 five out of the top 20 paid tourist destinations had ‘Royal’ connections!

As for your last statement – words fail me! :rolleyes:

Re 44 & 48

Twin Otter23

I don’t take issue with any of your facts re tourism. In fact I thought that it was our third largest source of national revenue and not fifth. But, it is not and never has been Royal family dependant. Tourists come here because we are seen internationally as a rather large Disneyland theme park.

j_jza80

Yes, you are right. I am conscious that money does indeed matter. The Nation is broke. I accept that to many of my countrymen and women the Monarchy is important. The question is one of scale. We do not need a Monarchy which enjoys such an expensively unrestricted lifestyle. Police protection units for minor Royals – whatever next ? We’re no longer the No.! power in the world, we are much reduced and so should be the Monarchy.

John Green

Re 29

Avgas

It’s amazing isn’t it? The Irish Republic – to mention a country near at hand – seem to manage very well with the excellent and dignified Mary MacAleese – not sure whether I’ve correctly spelt her name or indeed if she is still the Irish Head of State.

Given the much diminshed state of our economy and our military assets we are no longer – regrettably – the Power in the world we once were that is, in my living memory.

Nevertheless, the Royals march on, living ‘high on the hog’ in palatial splendour and totally without any visible reduction in their standard of living unlike the rest of us. Are we quite mad ?

Apart from the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh who need only one house to live in – not four or five – let the rest of the Royals get proper jobs not made up ones, opening bridges and other construction projects and heading up charities, then, perhaps, they will merit our proper respect.

John Green

Perhaps if money wasn’t the driving force in your life, you’d understand why our monarchy is so important to us.

The Royal family costs us less than the price of constructing 1 mile of motorway every year. Over this weekend, the monarchy has united and lifted the spirits of a huge number of people, in a way that no other(s) could.

We are not a Republic, and for that I’m hugely thankful. How can an elected (and corruptable) politician compare to someone who is honed from birth for the task of leading our country? No other head of state compares to ours.

Long live the Queen 🙂

At least the Royals haven’t moved elsewhere for tax breaks…unlike pop stars, F1 drivers and other modern “royalty”. 😀

@John Green
I haven’t seen Robbie Williams walking into the concert with every fan, so I presume they were just there to look at the stadium building? The UK gets a lot of tourism from it’s Royal Family, the only thing that is non-sense is the idea that this aspect of tourism would continue if the Royal Family was axed.

I must confess to having ignored the entire saga of the Jubilee. The power switch on my TV has been set to the OFF position for days, with sole exception of the BBC4 programme last night on the Antikythera mechanism. Around my dinner table this evening, I had a Swede, a republican, and a Jacobite, and the conversation drifted around such topics as Greek cuisine, the wines of Provence, and the joys of working in Paris.

Why Tourism Matters! 😉

Quotation from the link “Tourism is Britain’s 5th largest industry, our 3rd largest export earner and worth c£115 billion a year. It employs c2.6 million people and supports over 200,000 SME’s. Overseas visitors contribute £3 billion to the Treasury every year.”

TwinOtter23

The statement by PPP was that the Queen makes a profit for our country. Its nonsense to infer that the tourists arrive attracted by the presence of the Queen. I haven’t noticed the Queen standing at Arrivals, Heathrow or Gatwick, meeting and greeting !

Tourists would still visit the so-called Royal Palaces. They’d still spend on tourist bric-a-brac, holiday cards of famous London tourist sights to send home etc.

If Britain Ltd. wasn’t awash with Disney type castles, legends of Robin Hood, Guy Fawkes, Lancelot and Guinevere, Knights of the Round Table, Alfred and the cakes, Nessie, blah, blah, blah the tourists simply wouldn’t come and then we wouldn’t be able to afford a decent set of Armed Forces. Hang on a sec ! We can’t anyway.

John Green

I would abolish the Civil list overnight.

…..I don’t know how you can calculate that the Queen makes a profit for this country ? Try as I might I can’t arrive at a method of calculation. If you are factoring in the millions of tourists who clutter our facilities and services every year, they surely come to see the country and its neverending stream of museums and picturesque habits and traditions with which this country is over endowed. As for ever seeing the Queen much less sharing supper with her, I don’t know many that have done that. Tourism continues even when the Queen is abroad or indisposed.
…..

Lots of methods please take your pick! 😉

Simplest being direct and indirect spend from visits to the Royal Palaces.

Some excellent revenue streams from tourism!!

Guys, I know you all have very clear views on the subject, but there’s no need to get personal here.

Re 37

If we follow your example we could state that tourists flock to Germany not to sample the delights of the Black Forest plus gateau and the Munich Beer Festival and the sights and sounds of the remnants of the second World War but to see and hear the delectable Angela Merkel crying into her Euro soup.

I won’t go down that route.

I think we can all have a smile at that 🙂

Re 37

PPP

I don’t know how you can calculate that the Queen makes a profit for this country ? Try as I might I can’t arrive at a method of calculation. If you are factoring in the millions of tourists who clutter our facilities and services every year, they surely come to see the country and its neverending stream of museums and picturesque habits and traditions with which this country is over endowed. As for ever seeing the Queen much less sharing supper with her, I don’t know many that have done that. Tourism continues even when the Queen is abroad or indisposed.

If we follow your example we could state that tourists flock to Germany not to sample the delights of the Black Forest plus gateau and the Munich Beer Festival and the sights and sounds of the remnants of the second World War but to see and hear the delectable Angela Merkel crying into her Euro soup.

I won’t go down that route.

Well, I think we can all agree that the numbers speak for themselves, with over 80% of the population in favour of the monarchy.

For those so opposed to it, there are plenty of republics you can go and live in. Britain was a republic once, and that hardly worked out…

@John Green
But Queen actually generates a profit for the country. Will a President? Nope! On the basis we should keep her. The US President lives in similar levels of luxury it seems anyway. Of course the best option would be to have a referendum on the issue, alongside an in/out referendum on the EU!

Guys, I know you all have very clear views on the subject, but there’s no need to get personal here.

Re 33

Edgar Brooks.

I do not loathe the Royals. Don’t know from where you get that. What I do loathe is excessive privilege, ostentation – in any form, and a parasitical existence that is an affront to the many millions of individuals who, whilst not exactly destitute, struggle to pay their bills.

As for Royals allegedly exposed to danger on the front line as opposed to token appearances – do not underestimate the potency of the Royalist media machine.

John Green

On the other hand it is good to have a (albeit figurehead) head of state with continuity, apolitical rather than an elected or even non -elected President with some hand in running the country.

We think this at the moment because we have a good monarch. Wait, though, until we get a poor one. The monarchy won’t last five minutes and we’ll be a republic in no time.

While I have great respect for HM herself, I have none for the institution of the monarchy. To have a hereditary Head of State rather than an elected and accountable one in this day and age is ridiculous.