A Republican’s Viewpoint: Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on the Monarchy

May 8, 2024 | Author and journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown recorded this video to be broadcast on the big screen at Republic Day.

Monarchy to Receive Extra £45m due to Soaring Profits | Charlotte Griffiths | Graham Smith

Jul 25, 2024 | "It's outrageous when we're being told we can't scrap the two-child benefit cap but we can give the Royals millions of pounds more."

Graham Smith from anti-monarchy organisation Republic debates the Mail on Sunday's Charlotte Griffiths on the news that the Royal Family is set to get a boost to their funding, to the tune of £45 million.


Considering that this country is on its beam ends, we really must ask ourselves one simple question: Can we really afford the luxury of having a horrendously expensive royal family?

When governments are asked for more money for the needy, they always plead poverty; however, when the royal family demands an increase, untold millions can be found. Is this 1789 or 2024? – © Mark Alexander

Related article here.

King to Receive Extra £45m of Public Money as Crown Estate Income Soars

THE GUARDIAN: Royal accounts show estate made £1.1bn profit, meaning sovereign grant will rise to £132m for 2025-26

Screenshot from this Guardian article | The king’s crown estate profits have more than doubled. The accounts also show that £600,000 of the sovereign grant was spent on the coronation and related events last year.Photograph: Benjamin Cremel/AFP/Getty Images
King Charles is set for a huge £45m pay rise with an increase of more than 50% in his official annual income, official accounts reveal.

Profits of £1.1bn from the crown estate – a percentage of which funds the monarchy – mean the sovereign grant, which supports the official duties of the royal family, will rise from £86m in 2024-25 to £132m in 2025-26.

The monarchy currently receives 12% of the crown estate profits to fund its work as well as to fund the 10-year, £369m renovation of Buckingham Palace. Royal aides said the increase will be used to complete the palace reservicing programme by 2027.

The sovereign grant will be reviewed in 2026-27 to reassess the amount handed over to the palace and ensure it is an “appropriate level”.

Royal accounts also show that the Prince of Wales received £23.6m income from the Duchy of Cornwall in his first full year after inheriting the land and property owning estate from his father. » | Caroline Davies and David Pegg | Wednesday, July 24, 2024

THE NEW YORK TIMES: U.K. Royal Family Gets Financial Boost From Offshore Wind and Palaces: Profits at the Crown Estate doubled thanks to offshore wind deals, while visitors to royal palaces are almost back to prepandemic levels. »

Head of king’s property portfolio given 20% pay rise to £1.9m: Crown estate reward for Dan Labbad comes amid doubling of profits on back of offshore wind developments »

St Kitts and Nevis Is Not Totally Free under King Charles III, Says PM – BBC News

May 8, 2023 | The prime minister of a Caribbean nation has said his country is "not totally free" as long as King Charles III remains head of state. Dr Terrance Drew said that a public consultation on whether St Kitts and Nevis should become a republic would begin during his leadership. He also said he would welcome an apology from the monarchy for its historic links to the slave trade. Buckingham Palace said the King takes slavery "profoundly seriously".

Australia: Is the British Monarchy Still Relevant? | 60 Minutes Australia

Msy 7, 2023

A Look at the British Monarchy's Popularity ahead of King Charles' Coronation

May 4, 2023 | The new king inherited the crown at a time when support for the monarchy was as low as it had ever been—a decline that has been accelerated in part by the downfall of Charles’s brother Prince Andrew over sexual assault allegations stemming from his friendship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as well as by the damaging revelations made in Prince Harry’s unsparing memoir, Spare.

I should like to remind my followers and visitors that I do not post articles, videos and documentaries because they reflect my personal views; rather, I post them because I find their content interesting and, in some way, relevant. I also try hard to be balanced. My own personal views can be deduced and concluded only from the comments I make or from something I myself write. – Mark

How the Crown Has More Power Than You Think

Dec 1, 2022 | The monarch's role in British politics is supposed to be neutral. In theory at least, she plays no role in government decision-making or the setting of policy. …

Quebec Moves to End Canadian Elected Officials’ Oath to King Charles

THE GUARDIAN: ‘It is a relic from the past’: strong opposition to oath from three political parties of French-speaking province

Quebec’s premier, François Legault, will propose legislation to end the oath to the British king.Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images
Quebec’s premier, François Legault, said that his government would introduce legislation next week to end elected officials’ required oath to Britain’s King Charles, as pressure mounts in the Canadian province to cut such ties with the monarchy.

Fresh legislation from the governing Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) follows a separate bill introduced on Thursday by the left-leaning Québec Solidaire party that would allow elected officials to just take an oath to the people of Quebec.

“It is, I think, a relic from the past,” Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, a co-spokesperson for Québec Solidaire, said about the oath to King Charles.

“I think there is strong support in Quebec to modernize our institutions, to make sure that the representatives of the people are not forced in 2022 to swear an oath to a foreign king.” » | Reuters in Montreal | Thursday, December 1, 2022

'Keep on keeping on'? King Charles III and the Future of the UK Monarchy • FRANCE 24 English

Sep 11, 2022 Charles III was officially proclaimed the UK's new monarch on Saturday, September 10, and crowds gathered outside St James's Palace to show their support for the new king. But with polls consistently showing he enjoys much less popularity than his mother, could this have an impact on the future of the monarchy?

Prince Andrew’s Behaviour Has Put the Very Future of the Monarchy in Doubt

THE GUARDIAN: The Queen has been a point of stability in a precarious world, but the prince’s misjudgments over Jeffrey Epstein have refocused scrutiny on the institution that produced him

The institution of the monarchy, said Boris Johnson, is beyond reproach. It was such an odd response to the scandal engulfing Prince Andrew – so stiff, so forelock-tugging, so initially lacking in sympathy towards the teenage girls abused by the prince’s late friend Jeffrey Epstein – that it stuck in the mind long after the televised leaders’ debate ended. Perhaps, I thought, he was simply afraid of offending the Queen any further after dragging her into a shabby, unlawful prorogation of parliament.

Yet now one wonders if Johnson had an inkling of what was coming, when he chose to defend not Prince Andrew personally but the institution from which the prince has essentially resigned. For it is the institution itself that is now in danger. » | Gaby Hinsliff | Thursday, November 21, 2019

The toxic prince: Andrew handed royal P45 after tipping point reached »

Peter Hitchens - Monarchy & Christianity

Prince Charles's Putin-Hitler Comparison Is Outrageous, Says Russia

Prince Charles and Camilla in Winnipeg on their official visit to Canada.

THE GUARDIAN: Foreign ministry says future monarch's use of media to spread propaganda against Russia is unacceptable and low

Russia has accused Prince Charles of making outrageous and low remarks in comparing Vladimir Putin with Adolf Hitler, as the fallout from the comments threatens to descend into a diplomatic row.

The delayed but furious response to the prince's comments came before a meeting with the Foreign Office which was demanded by the Russian embassy in London.

In a statement on Thursday, the embassy said: "The outrageous remarks made by Prince Charles in Canada will be among the questions raised. The embassy asked the FCO for official clarifications on that yesterday."

Russia's foreign ministry spokesman, Alexander Lukashevich, underlined the Kremlin's anger.

"If these words were truly spoken, then without doubt, they do not reflect well on the future British monarch," he told a news conference.

"We view the use of the western press by members of the British royal family to spread the propaganda campaign against Russia on a pressing issue – that is, the situation in Ukraine – as unacceptable, outrageous and low," he said. » | Matthew Weaver | Thursday, May 22, 2014

Fit to Rule: How Royal Illness Changed History
Bad Blood: Stuarts to Hanoverians
Lucy Worsley explores how the health of monarchs has shaped the nation. She looks at the medical histories of the later Stuarts and Hanoverians.
Watch the programme here

Viewpoint from the Left: Queen's Diamond Jubilee: A Vapid Family and a Mirage of Nationhood. What's to Celebrate?

THE GUARDIAN: If the very idea of monarchy diminishes us, the living reality is much more humiliating and damaging to our country

The mighty royal jubilee bells will toll their way down the Thames on Sunday on a floating belfry leading a thousand boats, echoed by pealing church bells all down the riverside. Who could miss the spectacle of a hundred tall ships serenaded with Handel's Water Music played by a floating orchestra?

The more outrageously glorious the performance, the more preposterous its purpose. There at the heart, in the dead centre of all this pomp and circumstance, is the great emptiness, the nothingness, the Wizard of Oz in emperor's clothes. The louder the bells, the more gaping the grand vacuity. What are we celebrating? A singularly undistinguished family's hold on the nation, a mirage of nationhood, a majestic delusion.

How close to religion it is, with all the same feudal imagery, God as Lord and sovereign, sovereign anointed by God, knelt before in a divine hierarchy of power ordained by laws too ineffable to explain. The tyranny of the monarchy lies not in its residual temporal power but in its spiritual power. It subjugates the national imagination, infantilising us with false imaginings and a bogus heritage of our island story. For as long as they rule over us, we are obedient servants, worshipping an ermine-wrapped fantasy of Englishness. (Despite the kilts, the monarchy was never really British.) Read on and comment » | Polly Toynbee | Thursday, May 31, 2012

Bahrain King's Invitation to Windsor Castle Stirs Controversy
During her almost 60 year reign - Queen Elizabeth II has hosted hundreds of lunches for foreign monarchs. Few in recent years have had such a controversial guest list. The King of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, is among those invited to dine at Windsor Castle at a time when Bahrain has come under international pressure over allegations of serious human rights violations. The crackdown against pro-reform demonstrators has drawn disgust and concern in equal measure from campaigners. Al Jazeera's Emma Hayward reports from London.

Related »

Human Rights Groups Criticise Queen's Historic Lunch of Monarchs

THE GUARDIAN: King of Bahrain, accused of brutally suppressing pro-democracy protests, among those included on controversial guest list

The king of Bahrain, whose regime has been accused of brutally suppressing pro-democracy demonstrations, has been revealed as one of the guests at a historic lunch of sovereign monarchs hosted by the Queen at Windsor Castle on Friday.

Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa appeared on a guest list released early on Friday ahead of the unprecedented gathering to celebrate the diamond jubilee.

Other guests include Swaziland's King Mswati III, as well as Sheikh Nasser Mohamed Aal Jaber Aal-Sabah of Kuwait and Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz Aal Saud of Saudi Arabia.

One definite no-show will be Queen Sofía of Spain, ordered by her government to turn down the invitation in response to a planned trip next month by the Earl of Wessex to Gibraltar, the UK overseas territory Spain wants returned to its sovereignty.

Human rights demonstrators are expected to stage a protest outside Bahrain's embassy in London later on Friday over the inclusion of the country's ruler.

The former Foreign Office minister Denis MacShane accused the FCO on Thursday of placing the Queen in an impossible position. The Labour MP said: "Many in Britain will regret that the foreign secretary, who approves all invitations sent in the Queen's name as head of state, has decided to include a representative of the Bahraini regime which has done such terrible things to its own people since the Arab awakening a year ago."

The Foreign Office said it had advised on "logistics", adding that the invitations would have been issued by the Queen in a private capacity.

It said that "all world sovereigns" were invited to the event, which was "organised by the royal household, with assistance and co-ordination by the FCO". The UK was a "long-standing friend and ally" of Bahrain, and the "strong relationship" allowed "full and frank discussion" on issues of concern, including human rights. » | Caroline Davies | Friday, May 18, 2012

BBC: Diamond Jubilee: The world's monarchs – Kings, queens, sheikhs and sultans are among those joining the Queen for lunch at Windsor Castle as part of her Diamond Jubilee celebrations. But which countries still have a monarchy and what is the role of the sovereign monarch? » | Friday, May 18, 2012

BBC: Queen's lunch for monarchs attracts controversy: The King of Bahrain and Swaziland's King Mswati III are among controversial monarchs expected at a Windsor Castle lunch being hosted by the Queen. » | Friday, May 18, 2012

FRANCE 24: Tensions over regal jubilee lunch of Queen Elizabeth II » | AFP | Friday, May 18, 2012

ABC NEWS: Tensions over Queen's regal jubilee lunch » | AFP | Friday, May 18, 2012

AFP: Bahrain king will attend Diamond Jubilee lunch: WINDSOR, United Kingdom — The king of Bahrain, whose regime has been accused of rights abuses, was among nearly 50 foreign royals at a lunch Friday to mark the diamond jubilee of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. ¶ King Hamad, whose Gulf island country is in a state of civil unrest following a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests, would attend the event at Windsor Castle, British officials confirmed. ¶ The invitations for the biggest gathering of foreign royalty in Britain since last year's wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton have thrown up several diplomatic headaches. » | AFP | Friday, May 18, 2012

THE PERISCOPE POST: Who’s coming to Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee Lunch for Monarchs? : The Queen’s hosting a Jubilee lunch for monarchs, reigning and not. But what will they talk about? Carl-Gustav’s sex scandals? Fish with the Emperor of Japan? Will they bring up human rights issues with the King of Bahrain? Or maybe they’ll just have a jolly good time saying “Off with their heads!” » | Periscope Writer | Friday, May 18, 2012 Related »

Queen Sofia to Snub Diamond Jubilee Lunch over Gibraltar Row

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Queen Sofia of Spain has been ordered to turn down an invitation from the Queen to a Diamond Jubilee lunch for the world's sovereign monarchs because of an escalating diplomatic row over Gibraltar.

Queen Sofia had earlier accepted the invite to Friday's celebration at Windsor Castle, but in a last minute snub by Spain's government she has been told not to attend because it would be "inappropriate in the current circumstances".

Last week Spain's foreign ministry issued a formal complaint to Britain's Ambassador in Madrid over the planned visit in June of The Earl and Countess of Wessex to the disputed territory of Gibraltar to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee year.

The Spanish government expressed its "upset and concern" over the visit by the Queen's youngest son and his wife to the territory, a tiny peninsula sitting at Spain's southwestern corner over which it still claims sovereignty. At the time however, it seemed unlikely to take the matter further.

In fact, when asked if Queen Sofia would still be attending the Windsor Castle event, Jose Garcia-Margallo, Spain's foreign minister confirmed she would be free to do so in a "private capacity".

However, in a sudden U-turn and with less than 48 hours until the lunch, Spain's royal household disclosed that the government had ordered Queen Sofia to reject the invitation to Windsor Castle, where kings and queens from around the world will convene to celebrate the Queen's 60 years on the throne. » | Fiona Govan, Madrid | Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Related »

Monarchs: The World’s Most Exclusive Club Gathers for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: As the Queen plays host to assorted royals this week, Harry Mount looks at the enduring – if anachronistic – appeal of monarchy.

If you happen to be in the Windsor area on Friday, it’s advisable to wear sunglasses. As part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, the Queen is hosting a lunch for sovereign monarchs, and the assorted tiaras, gems and diamonds the size of gulls’ eggs may cause major sun glare problems near Junction 6 of the M4.

It’s the biggest gathering of monarchs – outside royal weddings and funerals – for a decade. The last time there was such a big reunion was 2002: once for the funeral of the Queen Mother and, again that year, at the Queen’s Golden Jubilee dinner for European sovereign monarchs.

Those European monarchs – who are also Knights of the Garter – get together occasionally at Garter services but, still, never in such numbers as on Friday. The crowned heads of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Spain will be among those there, joined by Emperor Akihito of Japan, though the Palace does not publish guest lists in advance. And the full cast of our own Royal family will be on hand to greet them, from the Duchess of Cambridge to Princess Alexandra.

To those of us gawping from the outside world, it will appear a tremendously formal event, but for the participants, it will be strangely relaxing. The only person a monarch really feels comfortable with is another monarch – perhaps even more so than with a member of their own family. The order of precedence among the British Royal family is set in stone, so the Prince of Wales must bow to his mother. But the Queen is on even-stevens terms with her fellow monarchs; they share equal precedence, so there is no worrying about who curtseys to whom.

It helps, too, that while the European monarchs are on kissing terms, most of them are also kissing cousins. Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, for example, is the great-great granddaughter of Queen Victoria, making her our Queen’s third cousin, as well as the Duke of Edinburgh’s third cousin. The Duke is even third cousin to the Queen herself, which may be proof of the limited dating opportunities in royal circles. Read on and comment » | Harry Mount | Tuesday, May 15, 2012

BBC Accused of Peddling "Propaganda" for the Monarchy

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The BBC has been accused of peddling "propaganda" for the monarchy after the leak of emails from a documentary-maker which said no-one with a "bad word" to say about the Queen would be interviewed.

A producer for a BBC1 documentary called The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Song told a journalist in Australia that the country's prime minister, Julia Gillard, would not be suitable for interview because “she is pro-republican” and would not fit the film’s “positive angle”.

The producer added: “We are not interested in hearing a personal bad word against the Queen.”

The exchanges were contained in two emails leaked to the anti-monarchy group Republic, which accused the BBC of “censorship”.

The first of the emails was sent on Feb 16, in which the sender explained that the BBC was making a documentary about the singer Gary Barlow’s visits to Commonwealth countries to write and record a song for the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, commissioned by the Queen.

As well as filming Barlow’s meetings with musicians, the producer explained, “we are also hoping to speak with people…who have a respect for the Queen. » | Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter | Friday, February 24, 2012

Monarchy Still Broadly Relevant, Britons Say
THE GUARDIAN: Support for royals remains constant but royal wedding greeted by tolerant scepticism, Guardian/ICM poll finds

Britain is a nation made up of moderate monarchists and reluctant republicans, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published today.

More people are looking forward to an extra day off work than watching the royal wedding – but support for the monarchy has nonetheless climbed notably since the crisis following Princess Diana's death. The country is in no mood for a revolution.

The poll shows a large majority think the monarchy is still relevant to national life, makes Britain more respected around the world and is better than any alternative. But there seems to be tolerant scepticism rather than royalist hysteria around the wedding itself. » | Julian Glover | Sunday, April 24, 2011

THE OBSERVER: Royal Wedding: Enjoy the day - but the monarchy's out of date: As William and Kate wed, a liberal democracy has no need to treat dissent as tantamount to treason » | Editorial | Sunday, April 24, 2011