richest woman in world demands handout. god save the queen.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

the Queen of England, who lives royally due to british tax dollars, and whose personal wealth makes her one of the richest persons in the world, demanded that Parliament cough up $65,000,000 more, so she can redecorate the Royal Palace and replace the electrical system. (the oldest parts of the system was installed in the late 50s). Apparently, she has also gotten tired of all the antiques, and wants to modernize the place.

I wonder how much longer the Brits will appreciate paying for a powerless monarch who claims she is too poor to do her own house maintenance.

[madaboutharry]

1. Who owns the Royal Palace?

If it is owned by the Windsor family, then screw them.

[Terran]

11. If the palace in question is Buckingham

then I believe that is owned by the government of the UK, not the Windsor family, and thus it should be the nation's responsibility to maintain it (at least if they want to continue to have the monarchy). The Windsors do own several of their own estates, like Balmoral Castle in Scotland where they "summer".

$65 million is probably not a lot of money, considering the site; they could spend billions on it.

[madaboutharry]

16. If it is owned by the government, then her

request is entirely reasonable.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

28. thought it was owned by 'the Crown'

different from the government?

[Posteritatis]

33. The office isn't the individual

I'm not sure how it works in Britain, but in Canada "the Crown" and "the government" are often used interchangeably. A Crown corporation is a state-owned corporation, Crown land is government land, etc. It doesn't mean it's Elizabeth's demesne.

[Cleita]

30. Yes, but does she pay rent?

Probably not. I'd say the old bird should cough up the repairs as a bequest to her country. After all, she never paid taxes until recently.

[SmileyRose]

24. Wonder if she's still fixing all this

http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/content_objectid=13652625_method=full_siteid=106694_headline=-GROUND-FARCE-1-name_page.html

Queen's fury as Bush goons wreck garden
Exclusive By Terry O'Hanlon 23/11/2003

The Queen is furious with President George W. Bush after his state visit caused thousands of pounds of damage to her gardens at Buckingham Palace.

[NanceGreggs]

2. If her taste in decorating ...

... is anything like her taste in clothes, God help the poor palace.

[tridim]

3. It's not really my call, but I'd say move the royal family out..

And open the palace to the public as a museum.

[DearAbby]

4. Would you expect a President

to renovate the whitehouse? During Truman's administration, the entire inside of the white house was gutted to make the building structurely sound. It was in such a shape, they even talked about tearing it down to rebuild it. The plan was scrapped...

The Whitehouse is an American symbol, just as I am sure, the Palace is for the Brits. It is a part of their heritage.

[lumberjack_jeff]

5. Would you expect the President to bequeath the WH to his kid?

Oh, right.

[Captain Hilts]

15. Eleanor R's last words to the Trumans before leaving the White House were...

we, uh, er, ah, have a rat problem...

[whistle]

6. The Brits and also the commonwealth community pay the Royal's bills

[Cassandra]

7. Actually, in exchange for those tax dollars...

she turns over the income from her Crown Estates, which are considerably larger. You can argue whether she in entitled to own land by inheritance from a time of less democracy, but she probably put the request through the proper channels and specified why she wants it. If it's for Buckingham Palace, most of that is office space and rooms for tourists to see, and an electrical upgrade is probably needed (they didn't have computers in the 50s). The redecorating? Eh.

[LiberalFighter]

9. I'm not a fan of the Queen or other royalty. But would agree the citizens should pay.

And as you stated the fact that the income from her estates are turned over to Parliament they should be responsible for maintenance.

[Canuckistanian]

21. AND she pays taxes on income now

Ever since the mid-90's, as I recall...

[Apollo11]

8. Divided by the population of the UK, that's like $1 per person

I was in London recently. There is nothing there you can buy for $1 (50p) - except maybe a tabloid newspaper full of dumb stories about TV actors and members of the Royal Family ...

The Queen is cheaper than invading Iraq, and restoring her palace will create jobs.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. A 'tabloid tax' would make a lot of sense

Since they fill up the pages with those dumb stories. 1p per royal story per copy, and they'd pay for the monarchy several times over.

[KatyMan]

13. I think the papers here said last week

or the week before that the royal family costs each British taxpayer 66 pence per year, so it's not a lot. Still, I wouldn't mind 60 million people giving me 66 pence each. Heck, I'll take 50!

[Captain Hilts]

10. Well, the joint was built in 1805 and got hit by a few bombs in the Blitz...

It's STILL less expensive to keep Liz going than W.

[Benhurst]

14. Quick! Write her out a check before she goes on television again complaining about her

horrible bum.

:silly:

[ForrestGump]

22. Her horrible bum?

What's Phillip getting up to now?

[Benhurst]

26. Following the fire at Windsor Castle, Queen Elizabeth in her

Christmas address called 1992 her annus horribilis, Latin for horrible year.
One of the tabloids pretended to believe she had said she had a horrible bum and so headlined her speech.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

17. I haven't got a problem with that.

An electrical fire started in Buckingham Palace a few years ago and destroy priceless historical works of art.

These places are like museums.

[bumblebee1]

20. The 1992 fire was at Windsor Castle, not Buckingham Palace. n/t

[XOKCowboy]

18. As an American under the current administration...

I'm a little hesitant to criticize the British on how they run their government.

[Captain Hilts]

19. It sounds like the Buck House is due for some rennovation. nt

[rucky]

23. The Queen needs some GFI conduit and monster cable...

to run her bitchin Wii and home theater setup.

[Canuckistanian]

25. "... it's a fascist regime..."

I always think about that line at our local Royalist meetings.

[Xithras]

27. It's interesting. I've met dozens of Brits over the years. Only 1 argued against the monarchy.

The rest were either blase about it, or supported keeping them around for one reason or another. They don't have any real power at this point, so they're seen as more of a fixture of society or something. At least, that's my take on it.

Besides, I had it explained to me once that she's not REALLY the richest woman in the world. While she "owns" lots of things on paper, she couldn't actually sell the crown jewels even if she wanted to. Or Buckingham Palace. Her "wealth" is based on the theoretical value of property that she is largely powerless to liquidate (an attempt to sell the crown jewels would result in the government seizing them as a treasure of antiquity...she would lose the jewels and probably receive little comparative compensation for them...it would also be a PR nightmare from hell).

As I understand it, they contribute more to the national economy than they withdraw, so most of the government is content to continue their yearly allowance.

[Mz Pip]

29. It's up to the Brits

If they want to fund this then it's their choice. Maybe the Queen can hold a garage sale to get rid of some of those antiques she's no longer fond of to cover the cost of new drapes.

[Strelnikov_]

31. "She ain't no human being"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6X1fVmneWs

[JimmyJubes]

32. The monarchy

invented welfare for the rich long before Bush made it popular.

[anonymous171]

34. lol Glad we chucked the monarchs.