[IoninnyHaro]

This is big news across all the networks.

Prince Harry arrives in New York today for a two-day rite of passage that will see him seek to dispel his playboy image and replace it with a patina of empathy in his mother's mould.
The trip, his first official engagement abroad, will take him to Ground Zero today for a meeting with families of some of the victims of 9/11, and to a memorial garden for the 67 Britons who lost their lives in the attacks. He will formally name the garden and plant a magnolia bush.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI0W254yPRk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guOlzoD7VrU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL6LI97V7bI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQpslzKB868

This was not such big news.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jan/11/monarchy-race

Its a Royal Craptacular.

If he is so enthusiastic about New York, perhaps he would consider abolishing the tradition of royal birthrights, and regard them rightly as something belonging in the 20th Century (and which died in the fires of Tokyo and Dresden, as those respective empires found out)

[Adimos]

All royalty and titles should be abolished/ignored. It is the 21st century. Enough with that BS.

[Ephedrine]

They are just the head of state, we could have a insignificant President like, say, Germany or we could have the Royal family who bring in millions in tourism and business every year. I know which I prefer.

[Qvqnubpj]

In his newspaper columns, Jimmy Breslin would refer to the British royals as "the world's most famous welfare family."

[dodsCooggipsehome]

I believe referring to the money from the public purse which goes to the Royal family? Again ignoring the fact that they bring in more than they cost many times over.

[vipluka]

Maybe it should be a job.

[adesseridopaw]

Could you expand on that?

[rouletteroulette]

Do the British Royals pay taxes on all that Real Estate they hold?

If so, how much per annum?

[Ufkkrxcq]

Their annums are taxed?

[Tij84ye]

As far as I know you only pay tax on a property if you buy it (stamp duty) or sell it (capitol gains, if it has increased in value) in this country, there is no 'real estate tax' as far as I know. I wouldnt know as I dont own any. The Queen only owns two properties privately that I know of, both of which she inherited.

[erepsysoulpfbs]

Crown Estate
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the United Kingdom, the Crown Estate is a property portfolio owned by the Crown. Historically the possession of monarchs, it is now not the private property of the reigning monarch and cannot be sold by him/her, nor do the revenues from it belong to the monarch personally. It is managed by an independent organisation and headed by the Crown Estate Commissioners. The surplus revenue from the Estate is paid each year to HM Treasury. The Crown Estate is formally accountable to parliament, to which it makes an annual report.
The Crown Estate is one of the largest property owners in the United Kingdom with a portfolio worth over £7.33 billion, with urban properties valued at £5.38 billion, and rural holdings valued at £903 million; and an annual profit of £211 million, thus yielding 2.88% as of July 2008. The majority of the estate by value is urban, including a large number of properties in central London, but the estate also owns 272,000 acres (110,000 ha) of agricultural land and forest, more than 55% of the UK's foreshore, and retains various other traditional holdings and rights, for example Ascot racecourse and Windsor Great Park.

[LSDDSL]

Could you expand on that?

Maybe the qualification shouldn't be which uterus happened to be your first home.

That's not much of a resume.

[Fosavoa]

Its a mostly ceremonial role therefore I dont see much point in electing someone for that position. As for a resume they have been in preparation for the role all their lives, as far as I know no-one I could elect would be able to say the same.

[casinobonbiner]

that I am aware of that gets elected is the Prom Queen (and King).

[ThzinChang]

Crown Estate

Cool deal for HRH and clan.

I guess they must pay rent for Use & Occupancy of all those big digs where they spend their time but do not own, eh?

[Queueftof]

As far as I know you only pay tax on a property if you buy it (stamp duty) or sell it (capitol gains, if it has increased in value) in this country, there is no 'real estate tax' as far as I know.

You might want to let HRH know that she's don't need to pay the bloody RE Tax ... seems she could use the cash (unless her loyal subjects have adjusted the laws to fit her trying circumstances).

A Salary Fit for a Queen

TIME Magazine
June 14, 1971

"They're very good value. What do they cost? A penny a month, a day . . . ? You won't even be able to pee for that when decimals come in."

—The Duke of Bedford
The Duke of Bedford has been proved right. Public toilets cost a new British penny (2.4¢), but maintaining the monarchy costs each of Britain's 55 million citizens less than that a year. Still, the value of the monarchy and how much it ought to cost was the hottest issue in Britain last week.

Regal Cheek. The controversy flared after an article by Richard Crossman, minister in the former Labor government and a member of the Queen's Privy Council, appeared in the New Statesman, a left-wing weekly. Headed THE ROYAL TAX AVOIDERS, the article with uncommon bile lashed out at Queen Elizabeth for requesting an increase in the $1,140,000 royal budget* while continuing to enjoy "a complex system of tax privileges and exemptions," many never fully disclosed, on her private fortune. "One has to admire her truly regal cheek," said the New Statesman article, questioning whether Britons ought to continue to maintain "the clutch of palaces, the powdered footmen, the racing stables and polo ponies, the fleets of luxury cars, the squadrons of aircraft and helicopters, the yachts, the elaborate apparatus of consumption at its most conspicuous level."

Crossman's lèse-majesté evoked a swift and stormy—but divided—response. The Daily Mirror polled its readers, then announced that they had given "a resounding 'no' to the Queen's pay claim." From Manchester a reader wrote: "If we can't afford free milk for our kiddies, we can't afford any increase to a very wealthy family." But Conservative M.P. Sir Stephen McAdden introduced a motion in the Commons deploring the New Statesman article. The Times editorially tut-tutted Grossman's "gratuitously offensive manner." The difficulty is that the royal budget, as presently constituted, is no longer able to support the Crown in the style to which it and its subjects have become accustomed. Of the overall $1,140,000 allotted annually, $444,000 goes for household salaries (319 full-time employees ranging from footmen to curators in the Royal Collections); $292,320 for household expenses (five royal palaces—Buckingham, Windsor, St. James's, Kensington and Holyrood-house—plus royal receptions and garden parties); $31,680 for the Royal Bounty, a fund from which the Queen contributes to charity; plus a $144,000 Privy Purse or salary from which she pays her personal expenses.

Wealthy Woman.

The Queen did not propose how much the increase should be, but she did offer to forgo her $144,000 Privy Purse in exchange for help on other royal expenses. The matter was discreetly referred to a 17-member Select Committee in the House of Commons. The Crossman article raised the question of just how rich the Queen of England is. Though Crossman "conservatively estimated" her fortune at $120 million, no one really knows, and many place it much higher. Surely she is the wealthiest woman in Britain, and in all likelihood one of the half-dozen wealthiest in the world.

A substantial chunk of her riches lies in the Duchy of Lancaster, a 50,000-acre, dairy-rich collection of commercial properties that has belonged to sovereigns since 1399. The Duchy, on which the Queen pays property taxes but not income tax, produced a net income in 1969 of more than $500,000. In addition, the Queen receives revenues from investments, inheritances and farming at Balmoral and Sandringham castles (the only two residences whose expenses the Queen meets from her private funds), and a string of race horses.

The Queen's pay increase is likely to come as much by farther lifting of expenses from her shoulders as by increasing her allowance. In recent years, the government has assumed the cost of royal tours, upkeep of the royal train, and the Queen's postal bills, as well as about $100,000 of the annual cost of state entertainment. Prince Philip, who receives a taxable annual stipend of $96,000, has recently induced the Treasury to pick up the laundry and cleaning bills he runs up on state business. He has not yet had to give up polo or move his family into smaller premises, as he jestingly threatened a couple of years ago on NBC's Meet the Press when he said that the family was "going into the red."

To judge from the outcry that followed the New Statesman's article, Britons will continue to insist on picking up the tab for their monarchy. Crossman himself said: "I am strongly pro-monarchy. The Queen is good at her job—she is better value for the money than the Church of England—and should get the rate for it." Better that, he went on, than "a Copenhagen monarchy cycling around the streets."

-The 1971 U.S. presidential budget, by comparison, is estimated at $11,344,000. This includes a taxable $200,000 for presidential salary, $50,000 (also taxable) for official expenses, $8,336,000 for salaries and expenses of some 500 White House staffers, $1,258,000 for operation of the White House and a special projects fund of $1,500,000.

Copyright © 2009 Time Inc. All rights reserved.

[mashabox]

The surplus revenue from the Estate is paid each year to HM Treasury.

The Crown Estate is one of the largest property owners in the United Kingdom with an annual profit of £211 million.

The 200+ million isnt good enough for you? Wouldnt want to rent from you.

Check out this link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_List

It basically explains that the income to HM Treasury from the Crown estate more than covers what the Queen costs the tax payer (Civil list)

[Hankie]

All of the financial issues aside, it's the very concept of "royalty" that's repulsive and creepy...the idea of "royal blood" in this modern age. I think it contradicts enlightened values and sends the wrong message, that some are born better than others- deserving of special honors and privileges merely by virtue of "lineage".

The brouhaha that ensued because Michele Obama dared to touch the old sea hag was just ridiculous.

[NeroASERCH]

The sea hag touched her first!

[masteryxisman]

it's the very concept of "royalty" that's repulsive and creepy...the idea of "royal blood" in this modern age. I think it contradicts enlightened values and sends the wrong message, that some are born better than others-

Besides G.Britain, Belgium, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Denmark are all Kingdoms. (Their actual names are "The Kingdom of Sweden", "the Kingdom of Belgium" etc.)

These are modern, enlightened, socially advanced countries ... and their "subjects" have a social-safety net that is guaranteed at birth.

"born better than others" indeed.

Ironic isn't it that "The Kingdom of Sweden" a constitutional monarchy, ranks first in the world in The Economist's Democracy Index.


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