Sunday 17 October 2004 Can the Monarchy Afford Britain?
Well, the opening of the new Scottish Parliament
at Holyrood seems to have come off well, with the Queen of Scots doing a fine job as
always. She also seemed to have enjoyed
herself. I particularly enjoyed one picture
where she was leaning forward to see something in the street during the Riding of
Parliament, but seems to be trying to look up Jack McConnells kilt as he sits
beside her with knees primly together. It
brings to mind the story of how the late Duke of Gloucester would sometimes sit rather
carelessly at Balmoral, and Princess Alice would occasionally have to loudly chide,
Knees, Harry! In the course of one of the occasional excavations
of piles of paper in my study, I recently ran across an article I clipped after the Queen
Mothers death, concerning royal finances. It
concerned the fact that at the beginning of each reign since the 18th century
the King or Queen has signed over the income from the Crown Estate to the Government, in
return for an allowance to run the monarchy. The
resurrected article notes that in 2001 the Crown Estate earned approximately 148 million
GBP (Great Britain Pounds) after taxes, while the Civil List allotment to the senior
royals was a mere 6.6 million GBP. (Roughly
that would be a bit less than 300 million U.S. dollars, to about $13 million.) Now of
course there are other costs involved in the monarchy all those castles, the train,
etc. but the disparity between income and expense is still striking. All the rest of the money goes to the British
Government. I raise this to point out that despite the regular
assertions of politicians and press pundits that the monarchy is paid for by the British
taxpayers, the opposite is actually true. The
Crown Estate is providing a cash cow for the Government and, ultimately, for the British
taxpayer. Theoretically the act of each new
Sovereign in voluntarily signing over the Crown Estate to the Government means
that the Sovereign remains the ultimate private owner.
Should a future sovereign choose to do so; he or she could in theory refuse
to sign over the estate. It would of course be
a constitutional crisis and might well precipitate expropriation of the estate, if not the
end of the monarchy. (We always seem to try to
kill off the geese that lay the golden eggs.) But
it is a possibility. It has long been rumored that the Prince of Wales
is eager to cut a better deal vis a vis the Crown Estate when he comes to the throne. And at the very least the next accession will
provide an opportunity for reform of the confused status quo. The simplest and most rational course would be for
there to be a reorganization of the Crown Estate into a unified department, with all of
the costs of inhabited palaces, trains and transport, ceremonies, security and such paid
for by the new entity before any residue is passed on to the Government. The Prince of Wales success as a businessman
for charity, and the efficiency and economy of the Royal Household in recent years,
suggests that the British public might get even better value for money than at present. It would also make even clearer that royal
Firm is just that, and a pretty successful one to boot! Meanwhile, the - Ken Cuthbertson |
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