Frankly, it's a distraction. We're all being played by much larger forces than this one family.
As I get older I'm increasingly inclined to ask the question, can I do anything about it?
If yes, do it.
If no, either forget about it or wind myself up.
My bold. Well, I
do take an interest in all sorts of things I can't directly do anything about and, judging by the posts on here in HT, many others are in the same position.
Can you do anything about it ? No..I grant you that and me neither but others can and it needs exposing and brought to the attention of the public which this documentary has done. They'll be darned annoyed and not a little embarrassed as much of their wealth creation is secret. Chn4 got a surveyor into William's Duchy of Cornwall rented homes and there was poor thermal quality of the homes and issues of damp and black mould, The Energy Performance Certificate ratings were as bad as F or G.. When the surveyor was asked what kind of landlord would rent such a property he said.. paraphrasing.. "One that either wasn't aware of current legislation or didn't care" How damning. He said..twice..when told it was the Duchy of Cornwall..ie Prince William.."That surprises me"
You say it's all a distraction. Distraction is an announcement from the Palace that Charles & Co would not be averse to doing away with the MBE ands OBE and replacing them with medals of" Excellence"..or the like.I heard it on the radio this morning and it's the first time I've heard of that. On that subject. Why on earth should sportsmen and women be knighted ..why should anyone ? There's Sir Andy Murray,Dame Kelly Holmes , Seb Coe. was made Baron Coe of Ranmere .That was to go with his peerage..Lord Coe. Sir Tony McCoy (2016) for services to horse racing, for goodness sake. Give me a break. I don't even think Alan Bates, who, as you know, took the the Post Office to court, should have been knighted. He was the antithesis of the cancerous class-ridden system of patronage and privilege we have in this country giving access where others can't go and, in addition the impunity that bedevils so much of our society. He's chosen to be part of it. I think he should have been recognised in some way but not as part of our rotten, debilitating, class system.
Back to the Duchies. A farmer from Cornwall was on LBC this morning saying that the MOD write to her when they want to use her land to carry out exercises and would she let them know how much she wants. She said she's told them she doesn't want any payment as they are training to protect the country. Maybe the Royals should take a leaf out of her book. Charles and William get about £20 million a year from all these fees. Another nice little earner for William..since he took over the Duchy of Cornwall from Charles, is his £1.5 a year rent for Dartmoor prison as it's built on his land. I don't buy a Sunday paper..too little news and too much of anything but news especially pull-outs and large magazines ..but LBC and Five Live say many are running with this story . I thought it was a just Chn4 documentary but it was in conjunction with the Sunday Times. It will be very embarrassing for the Royals .One caller to LBC radio tried to distance Charles from it all by saying that he doesn't take part in the day to day running of his investments but another caller said he's right on top of it.. Even gifts from the Queen....houses and even horses were cited, that do not attract inheritance tax when passed to Charles who was next in line so when he dies the same will apply to William.
A plague on all their houses,I say. When I say
all their houses I should have added castles,too. The Palace of Versailles gets 15 million visitors a year and the last king to live there was Louis XVI who was guillotined on 21 January 1793. If the country doesn't want to abolish the institution of the Monarchy then it needs to be radically slimmed down. Far more than Charles has embarked on so far, with Andrew being the latest to relieved of funding ie income and security to the tune of millions a year .He'll have to downgrade from the 10-bedroom (30-room) Royal Lodge in Windsor to, it's suggested, the ten-roomed (includes five bedrooms) Frogmore Cottage,Windsor, which is not a cottage atall but a very large house. The Royals upkeep, overall, is costing us far more than any other European Royal family . In 2022 the UK taxpayer gave £86.3m-£127m towards the cost of the royal family. Of that, £34.5m was spent on refurbishing Buckingham Palace as part of a 10-year restoration programme. The cost to the taxpayer, for the royal household’s operating costs, travel and maintenance on other residences, was £51.8m. In addition ,as shown in the documentary, is income from the two Duchies on which ,as I mentioned, they pay no corporation nor capital gains tax.
Just to cite a few differences ..approximately.
Spain. £7.4m. Only after a corruption scandal involving King Juan Carlos who left the country in disgrace.
Netherlands. £44m. Exempt from income tax.
Belgium £12.5m Pay income tax.
Sweden. £11.5m
Norway. £24m.
Denmark .£14m
Luxenbourg. £17m.
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From the article: In a short trailer released earlier this week, Dispacthes said the royals' wealth is 'shrouded in secrecy' and their investigation will focus on how much it is costing 'to keep Charles and William rich'.
