Poll: Royal Engagement

Do you care about the royal wedding?

  • Yes, it'll be a great national occasion

    Votes: 204 19.5%

  • Yes, but only for the bank holiday

    Votes: 218 20.9%

  • I'm indifferent

    Votes: 140 13.4%

  • I don't really care for it.

    Votes: 157 15.0%

  • What a waste of public money - sod them

    Votes: 205 19.6%

  • Pancake.

    Votes: 121 11.6%
  • Total voters
    1,045
Theophany said:
I've never seen any evidence, let alone convincing evidence, that supports your line of argument. The [net] cost of the royal family to the taxpayer is phenomenal
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Er... "I've never seen any evidence, let alone convincing evidence, that supports your line of argument."
 
MrMoonX said:
i agree **** the queen and the rest of the royals, time to end their leaching off the taxpayer.
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The royal family pays 100% tax on nearly all of their income, in addition to normal income tax on the rest of it. The extra 100% tax that only they pay was £210M last year. It's called the crown estate. Feel free to look it up, it's not a secret.

£500M was spent last year on admission prices to royalty-related tourism sites alone.

That does not include merchandising, nor does it include selling TV rights and suchlike.

In exchange, we give the royal family £7.9M a year, most of which they spend on employing people.

Security costs exist for any head of state, so you can't fairly cite those as a specific cost of the royal family.

The wedding costs are a very reasonable investment that might show a return within days and will certainly show a return in a relatively short period of time.

Anyone who claims that the royal family are leeching off the taxpayer is an ignorant fool. The taxpayer is leeching off the royal family.

You do want to throw away a position that is both politically useful and culturally important as part of our heritage simply because you don't like it for unstated reasons. Doing so would cost the country a great deal of money. You could at least be honest about what you're advocating.
 
In addition to what Angilion has posted above it's worth noting that the Queen does a considerable amount of work in terms of international diplomacy and is (I believe) regarded very highly by those who deal with her for her intelligence and political savvy. It's a position/facility that we'd almost certainly have to fill somehow and she does it very well.
 
meghatronic said:
"In 1992, The Queen volunteered to pay income tax and capital gains tax, and since 1993 her personal income has been taxable as for any other taxpayer.".
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Difference is, the rest of us actually earn our incomes. She draws income regardless, so paying tax on it is moot as it is tax churning.

meghatronic said:
Er... "I've never seen any evidence, let alone convincing evidence, that supports your line of argument."
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So you believe members of the royal family are not paid incomes by the government, pay for their own travel arrangements, royal ceremonies, security details and all the rest of it? My argument was axiomatic, yours is a deluded argument not borne of reality.

Angilion said:
The royal family pays 100% tax on nearly all of their income, in addition to normal income tax on the rest of it. The extra 100% tax that only they pay was £210M last year. It's called the crown estate. Feel free to look it up, it's not a secret.

£500M was spent last year on admission prices to royalty-related tourism sites alone.

That does not include merchandising, nor does it include selling TV rights and suchlike.

In exchange, we give the royal family £7.9M a year, most of which they spend on employing people.

Security costs exist for any head of state, so you can't fairly cite those as a specific cost of the royal family.

The wedding costs are a very reasonable investment that might show a return within days and will certainly show a return in a relatively short period of time.

Anyone who claims that the royal family are leeching off the taxpayer is an ignorant fool. The taxpayer is leeching off the royal family.

You do want to throw away a position that is both politically useful and culturally important as part of our heritage simply because you don't like it for unstated reasons. Doing so would cost the country a great deal of money. You could at least be honest about what you're advocating.
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Are you freaking kidding me?? Estimated cost of the royal family to the taxpayer, according to the BBC, is over £40m per annum, exclusive of costs incurred by security. This is over five times the cost of keeping the Spanish royal family, as a benchmark of comparison. So, forgive me for thinking your figure of £500m of revenue from royalty-related tourism is horse ****.

And this income you all blather on about is largely generated by tax churning. Example, the EU's Common Agricultural Policy's largest individual claimant is Prince Charles for land he owns but does not use for agriculture. This is income generated for doing nothing at all, churned through accounts as tax and then subsidy. There is no intrinsic benefit to anybody through this.

I'm not saying the Royal Family should be removed or not, but for ****'s sake, please base your arguments on reality rather than what happens in the dream worlds you're clearly living in.
 
how many of you gents will actually be watching the wedding live? I know some people will not be bothered and will just watch the replays that are shown on TV later on the day.
 
Theophany said:
Are you freaking kidding me?? Estimated cost of the royal family to the taxpayer, according to the BBC, is over £40m per annum, exclusive of costs incurred by security. This is over five times the cost of keeping the Spanish royal family, as a benchmark of comparison. So, forgive me for thinking your figure of £500m of revenue from royalty-related tourism is horse ****.
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Right - why not compare the British Royal Family to Spain - historically one of the 'cheapest'. The King doesn't do a 100th what ER2 does. Oh - and the King of Spain also doesn't have to account for how he spends any money - his or the states. He also doesn't have to account for his income (taxable) - for instance he started life a pauper (effectively) and now has almost 2 billion euro in the bank. Nod to Mark Rich, the Saudi King Fahd and Kuwaiti royals there ;) Nice to be untouchable, a?

So.....

If you look at the Royal Families in Europe costs, and what we get from our monarchy, considering we had an empire, I think it's a bargain (I calculated per person :)):

Britain €48.6m (£40.6m) - €0.79 per person
Netherlands €39.6m (£33.1m) - €2.38 per person
Norway €28m (£23.4m) - €5.77 per person
Belgium €13.7m euros (£11.5m) - €1.28 per person
Denmark €12.6m euros (£10.5m) - €2.30 per person
Sweden €12.2m euros (£10.2m) - €1.31 per person
Spain €8.9m euros (£7.43m) - €0.20 per person
Luxembourg €8.7m euros (£7.2m) - €17.7 per person
 
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meghatronic said:
Right - why not compare the British Royal Family to Spain - historically one of the 'cheapest'. The King doesn't do a 100th what ER2 does. Oh - and the King of Spain also doesn't have to account for how he spends any money - his or the states. He also doesn't have to account for his income (taxable) - for instance he started life a pauper (effectively) and now has almost 2 billion euro in the bank. Nod to Mark Rich, the Saudi King Fahd and Kuwaiti royals there ;) Nice to be untouchable, a?

So.....

If you look at the Royal Families in Europe costs, and what we get from our monarchy, considering we had an empire, I think it's a bargain (I calculated per person :)):

Britain €48.6m (£40.6m) - €0.79 per person
Netherlands €39.6m (£33.1m) - €2.38 per person
Norway €28m (£23.4m) - €5.77 per person
Belgium €13.7m euros (£11.5m) - €1.28 per person
Denmark €12.6m euros (£10.5m) - €2.30 per person
Sweden €12.2m euros (£10.2m) - €1.31 per person
Spain €8.9m euros (£7.43m) - €0.20 per person
Luxembourg €8.7m euros (£7.2m) - €17.7 per person
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It's only a bargain if you want it - a pair of Ed Hardy jeans might be 90% off in the sales, doesn't stop them being hideous :p

But I acknowledge your point; per capita the cost is less than other European nations, even if the net cost is the highest.

There looks to be some interesting comparisons to be made though, for example Luxembourg's cost is exceptionally high, but I imagine their average income is far higher than the UK's. Would be interesting (i.e. I can't be bothered at the moment ;)) to see how cost per person weighs up against average incomes.

From a purely personal point of view, I honestly couldn't care less about the royal family. Have them, don't have them, I'll continue to not read news stories involving them wherever possible.
 
Theophany said:
But I acknowledge your point; per capita the cost is less than other European nations, even if the net cost is the highest.

There looks to be some interesting comparisons to be made though, for example Luxembourg's cost is exceptionally high, but I imagine their average income is far higher than the UK's. Would be interesting (i.e. I can't be bothered at the moment ;)) to see how cost per person weighs up against average incomes.
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Crude, but:

Code: 
		cost	Rank	cost/c	rank	GDP/c	rank	Sum (r+r+r)	cost/c  by GDP/c
Spain		8.9	7	0.2	8	22356	8	23		8.95E-06
[B]Britain		48.6	1	0.79	7	25116	7	15		3.15E-05
[/B]Sweden		12.2	6	1.31	5	32499	5	16		4.03E-05
Belgium		13.7	4	1.28	6	30222	6	16		4.24E-05
Denmark		12.6	5	2.3	4	40020	3	12		5.75E-05
Netherlands	39.6	2	2.38	3	33327	4	9		7.14E-05
Norway		28	3	5.77	2	58305	2	7		9.90E-05
Luxembourg	8.7	8	17.7	1	73830	1	10		2.40E-04

cost = (€/millions)
c = per capita
 
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toon_mad said:
ahhh thats too technical for my little head :D
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tl;dr With respect to GDP, Britain has the 2nd cheapest Monarchy in Europe per capita. Slap bang in the middle with respect to GDP, cost per capita and overall cost.
So, it isn't very expensive at all - and only Spain bests us. Even though they have a totally different situation going on, cf. my earlier posts (the King of Spain is a very rich man from his 'income').
 
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