h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yes but, the issue is partly whether she should have all those sources of revenue in the first place...

*dusts off bust of Oliver Cromwell*

sprout

The question was whether Hoo's "not inconsiderable" taxes pay for the Queen (or "freeloading old bag", as he prefers to call her). The answer was, they don't: in fact, the Queen's far more "not inconsiderable" taxes subsidise Hoo's (and everyone else's) public services, as provided by the Government of the day.



RF

Ah, but those £130 million or whatever it was aren't *taxes*, there some kind of income from the fact that she owns half the country (I'm not exactly clear what "Crown Estate" means, but seemingly it means stuff that's technically the Queen's but in practice the Government's).

And Brother Maynard's 60p is also on that first link I pasted:
Alan Reid, Keeper of the Privy Purse, said:

"For the last couple of years, we have indicated that the annual cost per person in the Country, in funding the Head of State, was equivalent to the cost of a loaf of bread. With the passage of time, the loaf of bread has become stale and this year's expenditure per person, per annum, amounts to 61 pence or less than the price of two pints of milk."

Note that *he* most definitely thinks of it as a "cost" to each "person in the Country" - and he should know, right?

I think in the end, you can only define the cost of having a Royal Family by estimating the various fundamental differences that *not* having one would make to the government's finances. I don't know anywhere near enough to make such an estimate, but it seems to me likely that if the Crown was abolished, the Crown Estate would become the property of the government anyway (I just looked at http://www.thecrownestate.co.uk/02_about_us_04_02_17.htm and it says that it's "neither the property of the Government nor for the personal gain of the Sovereign, being part of the hereditary possessions of the Sovereign "in right of the Crown""; whatever that means)

Is there anything similar in any republican countries - I mean, does the US have "Federal Estate" or something? The White House, for instance...

Basically, it may not come out of the taxes per se, but if that money could be used for things other than the Royal Family, the taxes might be able to go down - which kind of comes to the same thing in the end...

[IMSoP]

In terms of taxation coming down, £36m doesn't really amount to a hill of beans.

In terms of lost revenue to the UK as a whole, the abolition of the monarchy would cost an awful lot more to the tourism industry. A lot of that taxation from the income of the Crown Estate is due to the fact that it *is* Royal. I can't see thousands of tourists flocking here each year to see President Blair. If we had a president instead of a monarch, the costs would be about the same, but the income would fall. So while it may look like a cost, the Royal Family is a net contributor both to the Exchequer and to the UK economy as a whole.

RF

Yes, but the amount the royal family spends isn't relative to their pulling power, we could have a cheaper version, which would cost less per tourist sucked in.

Also, I question how much of the tourist pulling power is linked to the actual presence of the royal family. Lots of people go to Versailles, despite the decapitated status of the French royal family.

sprout

You get what you pay for...if you cheapen the Royal Family, ultimately you will cheapen the Royal Family.

The French have no Colour to Troop, no Guard to Change, etc.

RF

Hmmm

Some might argue that the Scandinavian royalties are a little more dignified than the UK version, despite their 'bicycling monarchy' status.

And the absence of a monarchy is no barrier to having a multitude of ceremonies of various kinds - the more tinpot a dictator, the more parades, flags and medals they have, on the whole...

sprout

Tell you what, Hoo: I'll contribute £1.20 of my taxes to royalty if you pay my contribution to the upkeep of the UK nuclear arsenal...

Surely the queen could just ask you to open the till and then say "All that money is mine. Look, it has my name and picture on it."

what would you do?

I'd let her. As may have been said already, she's bound to have some beefy security for walkabouts.
Random thread revival, eh?

yep im getting sick of poor threads left to die in the gutter *looks towards camera, which then pans over a field full of dying threads* please pledge two pounds a month to help save the dying threads campain so we can make a new adver to get another couple of hundreds thousand pounds to create another advert so we can get another.....


i deviate

what if you had a shotgun and that new one sided bulletproof glass?

Shoot the queen for a chocolate bar? I doubt it. But then again...

welll?

Nintendo, obviously.

F

it would hot cakes are supercool

'Selling like hot cakes' is a British expression. It's applied to anything that is very popular at the time. For example DVD players are selling (or going) like hot cakes at the moment.

F

when people say the best thing since sliced bread have they been living in a cage or summit all their life i mean of all the great life saving inventions like antisceptics and the such and they thing the best thing since sliced bread WEIRDOS

What was the best thing before sliced bread was invented?

RF

sliced bread isnt exactly an old invention i mean must have only came about in the 50's or summit so i suppose before sliced bread it was....baked beans or summit equally non essential