Eugenie and Beatrice

The sovereign grant costs U.K. taxpayers £1.29 per person.

What else can you get for £1.29, a loaf in Aldi’s a couple of tins of beans…

GrannyGravy13

The sovereign grant costs U.K. taxpayers £1.29 per person.

What else can you get for £1.29, a loaf in Aldi’s a couple of tins of beans…

A loaf and a couple of tins of beans might be more useful to some.

GrannyGravy13

The sovereign grant costs U.K. taxpayers £1.29 per person.

What else can you get for £1.29, a loaf in Aldi’s a couple of tins of beans…

You do realise don’t you that not everything is covered by the sovereign grant? For example security comes out of Met budget. You do realise that when royals make visits the local councils have to meet the costs? You do also realise how much income is lost to the treasury in income tax and IHT that certain royals are exempt from? You go realise that the duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall steal money legally from us when residents die intestate?

Luckily they have both made good mariages. They don't deserve the fall out from their parents. Hopefully they will still be part of the royal family. None of this is there fault

GardenofEngland

Luckily they have both made good mariages. They don't deserve the fall out from their parents. Hopefully they will still be part of the royal family. None of this is there fault

Well what did they do to deserve their titles, state funded weddings and limitless privilege?

And - what a strange view of young women “they made good marriages “. Why not good careers ?

Good marriages like the one their mother made ?

I’m not criticising these two for their parents. I’d admire them if they’d established good careers rather than this notion being kept by wealthy men is somehow a career choice

Both Beatrice and Eugenie work full time in the private sector. Beatrice is dyslexic and supports dyslexia charity work and Eugenie had spinal surgery and supports scoliosis charity work. Beatrice was able to laugh with the critics about her (pretzel) hat, and sold it at auction for £81,000 for Unicef and Child Crisis. The girls were born into a privileged family and it's all they've ever known. If we are to continue with a Royal Family there's nothing we can do about it. Personally, I've always loved the Royals, but my interest has waned since The Queen died and all the upset involving Prince Harry and Meghan (can't stand her.) My favourites are Prince William and the beautiful Princess Catherine plus their three adorable children, we are lucky to have them. The Royals make us stand out in the world, bring in millions from tourism, and bring a magical air of pomp and circumstance to an otherwise dreary and down-at-heel Britain (less of the Great.)

The sovereign grant costs U.K. taxpayers £1.29 per person

That old chestnut again. You would have to be gullible to believe that is all the royals cost us. Being close to someone who had to organise a royal visit years ago, the cost to the local authority, police and the amount of other far more important things put on hold was devastating. The royals are all independently wealthy millionaires, yet we are expected to keep funding their extravagances. They are exempt from inheritance tax despite being amongst the biggest landowners in the country. They have secured enormous unjustifiable privileges to keep themselves free from scrutiny - and that is why Andrew and Fergie have been able to operate as they have.
It's too little too late to hear Charles and William say they are concerned about the victims - they have known for years what Andrew has been doing - the palace security knew, the met police knew and nobody spoke up the. Or took action to stop it. They just hoped it would not come out in public!
The way the 'firm' as they laughingly refer to themselves tore into Meghan Markle and Harry is incredible when contrasted how they shielded Andrew! The £12 million the late queen paid to try and dispose of the scandal spoke volumes at the time.

Both Beatrice and Eugenie work full time in the private sector. Beatrice is dyslexic and supports dyslexia charity work and Eugenie had spinal surgery and supports scoliosis charity work. Beatrice was able to laugh with the critics about her (pretzel) hat, and sold it at auction for £81,000 for Unicef and Child Crisis

Oh please - they do not work 'full time'. They do charity work - so do thousands of people and don't get much recognition for it, nor do they expect huge privilege because of it.
As for auctioning a wedding hat - hardly a vast feat - she handed over a ludicrously expensive hat and others auctioned it. No effort from her involved at all.

You're not a fan then! 😂

The Royals make us stand out in the world, bring in millions from tourism, and bring a magical air of pomp and circumstance to an otherwise dreary and down-at-heel Britain

The tourists will come to the UK to see palaces, countryside, lakes, castles and historic houses whether there is a royal family or not. Just as tourists go to France, the USA and other Republics. The pomp and ceremony can still go on - just as the Edinburgh Tattoo does without a royal in site. The very idea that tourism would drop if we had no royal family is simply ludicrous.

Worth a read - an article by Mhairi Black

AS we pore through the millions of documents that have been released so far from the Epstein Files, all I can think is how much worse the stuff they have held back must be.

It’s no secret that I don’t rate either Keir Starmer or Kemi Badenoch, but there was no doubt that Badenoch absolutely skelped the Prime Minister at PMQs this week. Not because of her talent, but because the onslaught of information coming to light is so damning.

I would gladly have gone the rest of my life without having seen the images of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor crouched on all fours or Peter Mandelson in his pants.

It is tempting to be distracted by the more salacious and embarrassing aspects of this scandal, but two central problems lie at the heart of it that are much more terrifying than those images.

The first is the systematic abuse and trafficking of women and children, and the second is that there is a network of billionaires manipulating society with the goal of further enriching themselves and increasing their power to the detriment of everyone else. And it’s working.

As far back as 2006, US police and the FBI knew Epstein was abusing and prostituting minors. In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to procuring a girl below the age of 18 for prostitution, after he secured an incredibly generous plea bargain.

Most convicted sex offenders in Florida are sent to state prison. Epstein was instead housed in a private jail wing and, according to the sheriff’s office, was allowed to leave on “work release” for up to 12 hours a day, six days

He was allowed to come and go outside specified release hours, his cell door was left unlocked and he was allowed to use his own driver.

He served almost 13 months of his measly 18-month sentence and was swiftly back to abusing more people.

For 20 years, Epstein’s victims have not only had to deal with the consequences of the abuse they endured, but they have also been forced to watch as some of the most powerful people in the world supported Epstein with open arms, and minimised or denied that the abuse even took place.

Despite the many denials and claims of fabrication, an email from Ghislaine Maxwell appears to confirm a photograph of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor with his arm around Virginia Giuffre, who accused him of sexual abuse – which he has always denied – is real. Sadly, Giuffre did not live to see her story proven true. Instead, she suffered years of being labelled a liar by people who should have known better.

Epstein clearly received preferential treatment from those in positions of power. Powerful and influential people from across the political spectrum are known to have had personal ties with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell – Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Woody Allen, Kevin Spacey, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Steve Bannon, Noam Chomsky and of course Peter Mandelson.

From the emails released so far, we can not only see how casual and normalised this abuse was, but also how insidiously deeply Epstein had burrowed himself in a position of influence on global decision-making. The average person already knows the rich and powerful have a much greater sway over governments than they should, but for the UK at least, we now have confirmation in black and white.

In December 2009, as Britain was desperately trying to claw its way out from the weight of the 2008 financial crash, then-chancellor Alistair Darling announced a 50% “super tax” on

Epstein contacted his pal Mandelson, urging him to change the decision. Mandelson replied that he was “trying hard to amend” it.

While ordinary people were losing their jobs and their homes, Mandelson, who was by then in the House of Lords and had been appointed secretary of state for business, innovation and skills, was acting in the best interests of a paedophile billionaire rather than the public he was supposed to serve.

We cannot even comfort ourselves by believing this was a one-off because it appears that privileged inside government knowledge flowed to Epstein more than once. Mandelson appears to have given him advance notice of a €500 billion EU bank bailout in 2010 before it was even approved, giving Epstein a huge advantage in the financial market.

Perhaps the most pathetic aspect of the emails that have been released is how powerful and wealthy people grovelled and fawned over Epstein, even after his conviction, not just because of Epstein’s extraordinary wealth, but because he was at the centre of an elite global network. He was a fixer, a connector, a key junction where the ultra-wealthy could make their plans.

A 2016 email to Peter Thiel discussed how a “return to tribalism” would let them collapse the economy and buy everything up again at a bargain price, saying Brexit was “just the beginning”.

In emails to Epstein, Donald Trump’s former White House strategist Steve Bannon boasted that he was advising far-right, populist movements across Europe with the intention of having the power to “shut down any crypto legislation or anything else we want”.

Epstein was organising dinners for Bannon with key figures across Europe and was providing accommodation on his island for him. At the same time, Bannon was bragging about working with Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson, and Jacob Rees-Mogg to help shape Brexit.

Bannon makes no attempt to hide his desire to destabilise democratic systems across the West. Nigel Farage openly discussed fronting an international alliance of populist right-wing movements with him.

This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how the UK political system has been corrupted. These files show that it is not trans people or immigrants causing chaos for ordinary people, but well-connected billionaires and those in power who enable them.

So, the next time Farage comes along claiming there is a grassroots right-wing movement to make Britain great again, remember who that movement is being fuelled, shaped, and strategically guided by.

People like Farage have built their careers by preaching that shadowy elites are manipulating the system – he just leaves out that he is working with them.

GrannyGravy13

The sovereign grant costs U.K. taxpayers £1.29 per person.

What else can you get for £1.29, a loaf in Aldi’s a couple of tins of beans…

£1.29 each totals £86.3 million and surely would be better spent on those who live below the breadline rather than those rolling in dough.

OldFrill

£1.29 each totals £86.3 million and surely would be better spent on those who live below the breadline rather than those rolling in dough.
Good idea, but can you guarantee it would be?
A large proportion would be spent on administration staff, offices, expenses etc.

Mollygo

OldFrill

£1.29 each totals £86.3 million and surely would be better spent on those who live below the breadline rather than those rolling in dough.
Good idea, but can you guarantee it would be?
A large proportion would be spent on administration staff, offices, expenses etc.

Add it to an existing budget, the admin, offices etc would already be in situ.

Peppercorn rent, no doubt! Casdon

Tuliptree

GardenofEngland

Luckily they have both made good mariages. They don't deserve the fall out from their parents. Hopefully they will still be part of the royal family. None of this is there fault

Well what did they do to deserve their titles, state funded weddings and limitless privilege?

State-funded weddings?
Neither Beatrice nor Eugenie had a state-funded wedding although security had to be paid for at Eugenie's wedding, not Beatrice's.
The reason for the high security is not their fault and is needed and is obvious, as even a wedding could be disrupted or even a security risk, sadly, just because they happened to be the Monarch's granddaughters.

The same security would probably be needed for a President's family too.
There are always people around with ill intent.

OldFrill

GrannyGravy13

The sovereign grant costs U.K. taxpayers £1.29 per person.

What else can you get for £1.29, a loaf in Aldi’s a couple of tins of beans…

£1.29 each totals £86.3 million and surely would be better spent on those who live below the breadline rather than those rolling in dough.

So you suggest having no Head of State at all?

No expense whatsoever.

If people think a Presidential system with elections would be cheaper, they might be mistaken.

eg spectator.com/article/macrons-lavish-spending-is-jeopardising-french-finances/

Cost of 2024 General Election UK: approximately £94 million.

Allira

OldFrill

GrannyGravy13

The sovereign grant costs U.K. taxpayers £1.29 per person.

What else can you get for £1.29, a loaf in Aldi’s a couple of tins of beans…

£1.29 each totals £86.3 million and surely would be better spent on those who live below the breadline rather than those rolling in dough.

So you suggest having no Head of State at all?

No expense whatsoever.

If people think a Presidential system with elections would be cheaper, they might be mistaken.

eg spectator.com/article/macrons-lavish-spending-is-jeopardising-french-finances/

Cost of 2024 General Election UK: approximately £94 million.

I'm not being baited to de-rail the thread further as I don't think my views on Head of State are relevant to this thread.

I object to people using the £1.29 as an argument for subsidising these extremely wealthy parasites. They make enough from the Duchies, their extensive but dubious investment portfolios, trust arrangements and incredibly favourable inheritance and other tax allowances that l see no need to give them anything more.

If we fund the security for a wedding, then it’s a state funded wedding. There is absolutely not one reason why the Monarch shouldn’t pay all the costs of royal weddings. They could use the money that they in effect steal from those residents who die intestate in the duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster. Or how about the rents they take from charities and public bodies like the NHS and prisons? They could fund a jolly or two.

Neither Beatrice nor Eugenie had a state-funded wedding although security had to be paid for at Eugenie's wedding, not Beatrice's.
The reason for the high security is not their fault and is needed and is obvious, as even a wedding could be disrupted or even a security risk, sadly, just because they happened to be the Monarch's granddaughters

If you recall, the security at Eugenie’s wedding was excessive because Andrew insisted his daughter should have ‘a drive round’ Windsor that was deemed unnecessary by ‘the palace’. The homeless were removed from the street for the spectacle. The press had a field day about the lavish expense and the way the homeless were treated. Eugenie would have had to had her head in a bucket to be unaware of that. In the event there were no crowds to warrant the extravagance at the publics expense.

OldFrill
Add it to an existing budget, the admin, offices etc would already be in situ.

Not going to happen!

Sorting it out would mean creating a new department with a management structure.

It would be more “jobs for the boys” while they sorted it out. By which time there’d not be much left.

I thought the homeless, eight people I believe , were removed from the streets of Windsor for the wedding of H & M, but perhaps it was done for Eugenie as well.

What an unpleasant thread this has become. These two women cannot be held responsible for the criminal greed of their parents, and seem to be living independent lives away from the dominance of their mother at last.

I agree. Those poor girls.

I agree eazybee. I cannot believe the vitriol being aimed at these two women, but then again they have long been seen as fair game by the press and public just because of who their parents are.

I think it’s pretty clear that they have had pretty appalling parenting by a couple of grifters with no morals, and in particular a mother who constantly gave out the message that she was a wonderful mother who would do anything for ‘her girls’. How were they to know, as children, that their parents were so corrupt? The kind of emotionally abusive and manipulative parenting they received is not something people magically recover from when they become adults. It’s not a great stretch to accept that they might still be working through the realisation of their own experiences, and all in the public eye. I cannot see that they have done anything wrong in their private lives and yes, they do have careers.

I think we should reserve all the anger and vitriol for the real monsters here.