World News @lemmy.world dugmeup @lemmy.world 7 mo. ago

I thought I knew royal greed – but King Charles profiting from the assets of the dead is a disgusting new low | Norman Baker | The Guardian

www.theguardian.com I thought I knew royal greed – but King Charles profiting from the assets of the dead is a disgusting new low | Norman Baker

For decades, parliament has been far too lenient about the royal family’s finances. This avaricious practice needs to end, says the former Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker

32 comments

I don't understand why this writer is calling it "a new low".

The Guardian investigation he linked to seems to have established that it went on for at least a decade under QEII. Charles only inherited the right to do it when she died last year.
- People here in the UK like to pretend that the queen was a granny-saint and that the monarch is a completely benign "figurehead" (still chosen by god though🙄 and gets to sit on a gold throne in a gold room while millions need to decide if to heat or eat).
  
  Of course you're right, and she, and all those who came before her, were active oppressive exploiters, but her death and him taking the job is opening a very small crack where people are more comfortable criticising the institution, and honestly, as depressing as it is that even this is getting pushback from royalists, I'll take it if it means more people in this country start to realise that our overlords are nothing but inbred parasites.
  
  Yeah that's an interesting point. Here in NZ we outsource monarchy to the UK (I think it costs us about $1 per person per year) and it's often been said that this is likely to end during Charles' reign because he's way less popular than QEII.
- Yeah but Charles is suffering from a short reign penalty. He should really execute some prisoners; high dread means fewer factions.
  
  Source: I play a lot of Crusader Kings
  
  Have married off your son to his sister yet?
  
  Deus vult!
- Because everyone loved the old hag for reasons unknown. It's just the classic hypocrisy.
  
  Nostalgic inertia.
  
  old hag
  
  Have some decorum, Betty Two Sticks, please.
I don’t think this is lower than the royal pedophilia, to be fair
- I'm still amazed by how swiftly that was swept under the carpet.
Has this writer missed the past thousand years of the British monarchy?

Yeah, that’s one egregious thing, but it’s one of many, many things. Why do they think most rebellions happened? Because the peasantry didn’t get prime parking?

I keep seeing articles about this like the monarchy just suddenly started leeching the people’s money and I’m dumbfounded.
- If they just started doing bad things, they weren't doing them before. You don't count past sins in fake journalism. You see a hot story, copy, paste, then hope people forget.
But the problem it was being an European Union member, not the expensive useless monarchy
- expensive useless government
  
  FTFY
Even a king needs a hobby. Some people collect stamps. He collects immoral gains. Meh.
- I'll have you know that Queen Elizabeth and her father were both stamp collectors! Really, there's really a royal stamp collection and its considered (likely) the best (the wisest in breath) in the world.
Always has been, lookup Leopold the 2nd of Belgium.
Greed has no limits by definition.
This is the best summary I could come up with:

It is standard practice for the royals to seek to minimise their personal expenditure while maximising their income from other sources, normally the public purse.

Edward VIII found cash from those who died intestate in the boundaries of the duchy was sitting in an account in case claims arose against it.

George VI did very well out of the loyal servicemen who died serving their country in the second world war, who originated from within the confines of the duchy and had no will.

As disquiet about the practice of bona vacantia grew after the war, the royals announced that moneys collected would henceforth be given to charity – after processing costs had been deducted, of course.

Moneys we all thought were going to charity have instead been used to improve properties owned by the duchy, increasing the income stream that flows from them into Charles’s pockets.

Back in Queen Victoria’s reign, the government was told she was desperately short of cash to undertake her duties so a big uplift was provided.

The original article contains 759 words, the summary contains 172 words. Saved 77%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
color me shocked
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