Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, has just celebrated 70 years on the throne. There are plenty of people who criticise the Royal Family and want to see it abolished. Their reasons because “they are a drain on the country’s finances”, “they don’t pay taxes” and “Anyone should be allowed to become Queen”. So, let’s go through the reasons against and for the monarchy.
(But before I begin, I would just like to point out the inspiration for this post that being from a Twitter user called Howard Beckett who, from what I gather from his Tweets, is an anti-Royalist. However, just like everyone else like him he is just interested in getting his points across rather than explaining both the “positives” and “negatives” of his argument – which is something you should always be doing so that it comes across as fair and just some spiteful, vendetta against the topic. So that’s what I shall be doing. I will try and give as much as fair and balanced argument on the pro’s and con’s of the Royal Family).
Money
Okay, so the government gives the Royal Family a budget from taxes but that’s how it always has been, going back to when the monarchy governed the country. But let’s look at the rest of the government. MP’s and PM take money out of the country illegally, but nobody is calling for abolishment of the government. Look at Boris Johnson using tax-payers money to decorate. What about government officials claiming expenses like Hancock and “Pizzagate”. The Royal Family just doesn’t get given money for themselves.
The Royal budget is used for the maintenance of the Royal Estate, wages for the staff/workers who are employed by the monarchy, security, travelling expenses, engagements as well as being their wages for their ambassadorial work they carry out. These so-called “Republicans” would be the first to say about not doing work for nothing, so why should that be any different for the Royal Family?
Yes, the monarchy receives tax-payers money but that budget is just £103m or £1.30 per UK citizen (2021-2022). When you take in the costs outlined above the net amount isn’t that much especially when compared to how much MP’s cost the taxpayer. For the 2020-21 tax year, MP’s spent £132.5m and that’s the “official” figure – just think of how much they took out that wasn’t declared/took out “unofficially”. The monarchy receives a grant of just £103m but throughout the year the monarchy contributes around £1.7b to the UK economy.
Okay, during these difficult times – rising living costs, people tend to get more jealous, frustrated and a little bit greedy when they hear talk about people spending millions/billions of pounds and, yes, possibly people with vast wealth should being doing more to those struggling. We talk about Victorian/Georgian industrialists building their fortunes during the industrial revolution, but they also looked after their workers with the building of worker villages – Port Sunlight and Bournville (for example) – would employers do the same today? Most likely not because most just want to profit as much as they can from their business and if that results in closing companies that’s okay – most don’t care if their workers lose their jobs. This is what needs to be changed. When you hear about Elon Musk wanting to buy a website for $44b when he could be using that money to help the unfortunate people in developing countries, protecting animals from poachers, helping with climate change (instead of contributing to it – space rockets and electric cars that get charged from using what form of power?) or helping to find disease vaccines/cures is wrong. It must be said not all wealthy individuals are greedy and some actually do some good but more needs to be done. We all contribute something to society and by giving/sharing some of your wealth it can contribute to helping the planet in lot of ways.
The Royal Family do use their funding to help communities through such schemes like The Princes trust and The Duke of Edinburgh Award. Could they do more, absolutely, but let’s not put the blame solely on The Royal Family when the core of the issues stem from the MP’s – they cost the UK a hell of a lot more than what the Royal’s do.
Now, for those “Republicans” out there who want a more presidential-like system then think about this. If we moved to a presidential system, like the US, then we would still need to pay out roughly the same amount – possible more. They get paid $400,000 just for getting elected, plus $150,000 (possibly more) in expenses, all the staff and security they have and the private jet – named after that Harrison Ford film [Just a bit of humour, relax] that apparently costs £200,000 an hour (Probably not true, but it will cost a lot to maintain and fuel each year). Again, you can argue that they bring in money as well but when you consider that one of the major arguments against the monarchy is how they aren’t elected and we must pay for them for life, you claim the same for US Presidents.
At least all of the Royal Family continue to carry out duties – not just The Queen – and even at ages most people wouldn’t even reach and if they have, they certainly wouldn’t be working. US Presidents once elected not only receive payments while in office, but once they leave office the taxpayer is still paying for them, including secret service life-time protection as well as over $200,000 a year pension – excluding $150,000 expenses for the first 3 years and then $96,000 thereafter (Not even UK Prime Ministers don’t get life-time expenses; they do, however, milk the country for everything they can whilst in office).
Okay, if the UK ever became a republic, it doesn’t mean we will adopt the same style as the US – in fact I am almost certain about that – but that doesn’t the costs will decrease. The costs would certainly stay the same or more likely increase with the extra costs that would incur. And if you think we would be saving money, getting rid of the Sovereign Grant would just mean extra money for the greedy MP’s to take.
As for the taxes point, the Royal Family do pay taxes. They pay a lot more taxes than most large businesses. This point just sums up the UK perfectly. Smaller/family businesses who are struggling financially may find it difficult to pay taxes on time, but they will eventually pay them – they just need extra time, yet HMRC will harass them demanding payments if, say a week or two late. However, HMRC seem to be okay with the larger, multi-national companies paying zero taxes – take Apple and Google. The companies that will contribute more to the UK finances are left alone yet those whose taxes are considerably much smaller are the ones who need to pay up.
As for the Royal Family, they do pay taxes – like above – do they pay a fair share in tax? Probably not but when you deduct the expenses from their budget it can’t be as bad as what people may assume – After all, there are tax bands for everyone. They earn more so they will be in a higher tax band then people on a lower income. We can’t just say they should be paying more tax just because they are rich. There are set amounts and as long as people are paying tax, there shouldn’t be problem. (Not having seen their annual accounts, I don’t how much costs they incur so I am only guessing they possibly could pay a bit more).
Politics
Right, you may think having a monarch who has no power in the day to day running of the country is pointless and I absolutely agree. The monarch should have some say in the governing of the country instead of appearing neutral. The monarchs before Queen Elizabeth sort of had their say, but The Queen has stayed politically neutral despite on some occasions she should have had some input.
The Queen would have made a great leader for Britain – especially when you think of all the useless Prime Ministers who have served during her 70-year reign. Some of the PM’s have ruined this country and yet The Queen must remain neutral. I am not proposing going back to an absolute monarchy but just rather giving the monarch more powers to dispose of PM’s/MP’s who have broken the law/ministerial code turning the country into a laughingstock – as what Boris Johnsons’ Premiership has done.
With The Queen, we have a respectable government, and the rest of the world may have a more reasonable view of Britain. We have truly missed out on a great leader with Queen Elizabeth II. Should this argument be presented for Charles, for when he becomes King – probably not. The Queen has proven her worthiness but Charles, I don’t think he should be given any more power than what the monarchy already has.
Birth Right
Moving on from the money side and let’s talk about being born for the role. I have read and heard people talk about “why should the Royal Family roles be a birth right and how “normal” people should be allowed the opportunity”. Well, look at this way. Unfortunately, there are certain roles in life most people will never achieve. Anyone can become Prime Minister, even though the majority aren’t qualified for such a role – including most PM’s for that matter – but at least we have that opportunity. However, from birth you will inherit your parents’ belongings – no matter how large or small they are – no other person(s) is likely to receive your family heirlooms.
Take a family business. Most of the time the children will take over the family business, regardless of how many years the next “VIP” has been working there.
In old days Kings and Queens could be decided by battles, however, since the Tudors we have taken a more civilised route and gone through a Royal bloodline to find relatives to take over the throne, so in that respect – yes anyone can theoretically become the King or Queen of Britain – just marry a royal. So yes, the “commoner” does have that opportunity.
With that argument now put to bed (rather quickly), I think it’s time to wind down this GraveTalk and move onto why we shouldn’t change and just keep the monarchy.
Let’s begin with the obvious and the most used reason – tourism. Now before you start saying about how the Royal Family doesn’t generate that much tourism and how more tourists visit the Palace of Versailles and the French don’t have a monarchy. Well, what was the purpose of the Palace? For the residence of the French monarch. So, without the monarchy there wouldn’t have been a Palace for tourists to visit. Yes, it’s a grand old building but historically it has a Royal purpose.
Buckingham Palace is only visited because of the Royal Family. The Mall and the gardens may be good but the actual palace itself (except the front) is rather dull. If Britain got rid of the monarchy, we would still be milking our Royal heritage for money, which is still using the Royal Family. There would still be costs to maintain the Royal Estate and cover wages for the workers. If we abolish the monarchy milking it would be hypercritical of the “republicans”. They don’t want the monarchy, but they are willing capitalise and make money from it.
Let’s look at the monarchy as a symbol of Britain. Having the monarchy adds a more old-school, high-class status to the country. Monarchies are becoming more and rare in the modern-day with just a handful of countries still using a monarchy. Spain, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden are some of the countries with a monarch, but Britain has THE Royal Family. When referring to Royal Families the British Royal Family is the one that comes to mind first. To be recognised above all others, across the world shows just how high a status The Royal Family has.
The monarchy adds something to the UK and The Commonwealth and this status heritage and historical value not just for the UK but for a quarter of the globe. The British monarchy has a history with most countries not just the UK and without the monarchy some countries may not have existed like they have done or may have taken a bit longer to develop.
The people asking for the monarchy to be removed, coincidently, are pretty much the same people who wanted to leave the EU. These are the people who listen to those with selfish, greedy motives. The people who want the monarchy removed need to take into account both sides of their arguments before making such judgments. Making remarks with a clear-biased view is dangerous and can lead to bigger problems throughout society.
Don’t listen to those people when you can quite easily make up your own mind with your own opinions. Don’t let these people choose your opinion for you. There are faults with the Royal Family but there are faults with most organisations as well as individuals. Money should never the driving force and deciding factor for anything.
I hope you enjoyed this rather controversial GraveTalk. I am a Royalist, but I have tried to give a non-biased view for both sides. Thanks for being patient with my posts. At the end of May my laptop had a hard drive issue. I was waiting for the recovery disc for a month and so I have spent July restoring it and catching up with my other work. Things are getting back to normal now, so I will be uploading a few more GraveTalks throughout the Summer.
Thanks for reading!
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