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# some of us don't have state funding to afford one
(I helped save b3ta! HappyToast Groat froth, Mon 28 May 2012, 15:34, archived)
# I meant her, not you.
I will be celebrating in my own way*

*by doing nothing out of the ordinary, though possibly a bit of Minecraft if it's raining. Got a nice tower and some farmland, looking to build a railway to connect my various estates.
(I helped save b3ta! Smallbrainfield, Mon 28 May 2012, 15:40, archived)
# I thought the crown no longer got state funding, and is now surviving off the proceeds made from managing the land it owns?
Which is about 3x more than what the Government was giving them in the first place.
(I helped save b3ta! Mu Dinofiddler, Mon 28 May 2012, 15:41, archived)
# There's still the civil list
www.royal.gov.uk/TheRoyalHousehold/Royalfinances/Sourcesoffunding/TheCivilList.aspx
(I helped save b3ta! Smallbrainfield, Mon 28 May 2012, 15:46, archived)
#
For example, the Crown Estate produced £200 million for the Treasury in the financial year 2007–8, whereas reported parliamentary funding for the monarch was £40 million during the same period,[102] and republicans estimate that the real cost of the monarchy including security is between £134 and 184 million a year.
(I helped save b3ta! Mu Dinofiddler, Mon 28 May 2012, 15:48, archived)
# I suppose it's like any big business
they get grants and tax breaks. It's not like they can go and be royal anywhere else though, is it? Not like the good old days.
(I helped save b3ta! Smallbrainfield, Mon 28 May 2012, 15:56, archived)
# I just find it odd people complain about us paying for the Monarchy.
The Crown Estate covers that and does a hell of a lot more paying for us.
(I helped save b3ta! Mu Dinofiddler, Mon 28 May 2012, 16:00, archived)
# I'm not complaining about the cost (as long as it can be proved they aren't a drain)
I assume tourism alone makes them worthwhile.
I just have a problem about them being where/who they are because they were "chosen by god"
(I helped save b3ta! HappyToast Groat froth, Mon 28 May 2012, 16:03, archived)
# For 'chosen by God'
read 'ancestors best at swords'.
(I helped save b3ta! Smallbrainfield, Mon 28 May 2012, 16:19, archived)
# ^ This
But not quite right. "Ancestors being in the right place when other people were being really good with swords" is probably more accurate.
(I helped save b3ta! Doctor When May your wife shat and chipper, Mon 28 May 2012, 16:40, archived)
# That
sounds about right.
(I helped save b3ta! Smallbrainfield, Mon 28 May 2012, 16:52, archived)
# ^this
(I helped save b3ta! FeralCatMan Unusual disease collector., Mon 28 May 2012, 17:03, archived)
# Although I take your point,
rather them than me. Whatever money they get, you would have to give me more to live their lifestyle. Imagine beng told what, where and when you eat, sleep, live, travel, drive, say, date, marry and believe from the day you are born to the day you die. And no posting drfivel on B3ta either.
They can keep the money.
(I helped save b3ta! TheSundaeLunch I'm a fucking shrub, alright?, Mon 28 May 2012, 16:23, archived)
# My thoughts exactly, what price freedom.
(I helped save b3ta! FeralCatMan Unusual disease collector., Mon 28 May 2012, 17:19, archived)
# you just need to go a bit mental and they let you do whatever the fuck you want
see prince andrew, edward, etc etc etc
(I helped save b3ta! HappyToast Groat froth, Mon 28 May 2012, 17:35, archived)
# This is why I'm posting here...
(I helped save b3ta! FeralCatMan Unusual disease collector., Mon 28 May 2012, 17:40, archived)
# The fact that they are apolitical makes them much more endearing to other nations
I think tourism is the tip of the iceberg in terms of benefit. It's the fact that -- from other nations' perspective, not from our cynical selves -- they impart our failing little country a perceived air of decency and status which we don't deserve.

We can all see that we don't make anything any more, our streets are full of chundering hags and fighting charvers of a Saturday night -- yet if you walk into a Chinese business (as I have done), you will be immediately taken for a decent gentleman if you are British. You get an advantage. I believe that "branding" (horrid word) is due to many subtle factors, and the Royal Family is almost certainly one of them.

When the royal marriage happened last year, newsstands across the globe, from Japan to Alaska, were emblazoned with simple, innocent images of love, tradition and decency (which people do latch on to), from a couple who were not fighting for re-election of hiding an agenda. You just can't put a price on the power of that positive message! My friend Kirby, a Filipino programmer living in Malaysia, says his wife's village held a party and got a big TV out to watch the event, and adorned it with British flags. My colleagues in Singapore -- a city state developing 100 times faster than ours -- all expressed an envy of all things British. Do you think they would they have done that for the wedding of a German statesman or even the US president? I personally doubt it.

I used to be very cynical about the Royal Family, but the more I travel, the more I see how it affects the way the way the world interacts with and regards our failing nation. I believe they bring us value and status it's simply not possible to measure.

If they were't there, we'd have an elected nobody who'd change every four years after politicking his way around the world -- who no-one would give a shite about -- and we would gradually begin a descent until we found our true place in the world's pecking order -- right down at the arse end of it.
(Super Jet Shoes, Wed 30 May 2012, 0:26, archived)
# Yeah, they get 15%, the rest goes to the government.
(I helped save b3ta! Mu Dinofiddler, Mon 28 May 2012, 15:59, archived)