Let the taxpayer buy the Queen a new yacht says Tory

[StoneHappyMonday]

... and appoint Francesco Schettino as Captain.

Worth £60 million of anyone's money.

So let's use Michael Gove's.

Salary: £64,766

Shortly after being elected MP for Surrey Heath in 2005, Mr Gove furnished a house in north Kensington, west London, for which he claimed the Additional Costs Allowance.

Over a five-month period between December 2005, and April 2006, he spent more than £7,000 on the semi-detached house, which Mr Gove, 41, and his wife Sarah Vine, a journalist, bought for £430,000 in 2002. Around a third of the money was spent at Oka, an upmarket interior design company established by Lady Annabel Astor, Mr Cameron’s mother-in-law.

Mr Gove even claimed for a £34.99 foam cot mattress in Feb 2006 from Toys 'R’ Us – despite children’s equipment being banned under Commons rules.

Some months later, Mr Gove moved house and transferred his second home allowance from the west London home to a £395,000 new property near Guildford.

In October 2006 he submitted a £13,259 bill for the cost of the move, including his local authority searches, fees and stamp duty. In between the house moves, he stayed for a night at the Pennyhill Park Hotel and Spa, charging the taxpayer more than £500 for a single night’s stay.

In 2007-08 and 2006-07 Mr Gove claimed the maximum amount of money permitted under the additional costs allowance: £23,083 and £22,110 respectively.

He's very good at spending your money. And giving it to his bosses' mother-in-law.

 

[rickolasnice]

Why is there any allowance at the tax payers cost for politicians at all?

Cunts.

 

[koneko]

cunts.

qft

 

[Jabberwocky]

we're all in this together guys!

the guardians article on it was published on the anniversary of the murder of a revolutionary.

 

[Vader]

Why is there any allowance at the tax payers cost for politicians at all?

To compensate them for the expenses they incur whilst performing their duties?

 

[Danny Weed]

I cant believe it, it is the part where he says he wants to do it to show respect to her that kills me.

Fuck the queen, nobody should be showing respect to her it is 2012 not 1811.

 

[Myshkin]

Why is there any allowance at the tax payers cost for politicians at all?

Cunts.

The public funds politicians' expenses because any other way would encourage wholesale corruption, silly.

 

[jancrow]

@Danny Pretty much true. People who are pro monarchy seem to come up with the same handful of completely nonsensical justifications for their existence which don't stand up to reason and point to them just having some sort of emotional attachment to this bunch of embarrassing berks.

i) It's good for tourism. Look how much money we get because of tourists who come along to see Buck House etc.

> How much more money would we get if the palace was completely open to paying guests dropping £25 a time on tickets? How much could you sell the palace to some Chinese businessman for? If you need some kind of human lure for tourists then axe all of the royals apart from the monarch, whack the monarch on a salary commensurate with their actual duties and you've still got a queen for the Yanks and a whole lot more of those lovely paper rectangles with her mug on them for everyone else. If you're really looking to make some dough behead them in public and let the highest bidder wield the axe.

ii) They play a vital role in representing Britain's trade interests abroad

> They are shipped around the place to impress people who have lived similar lives of idle privilege and this may or may not induce certain people to do business with us. That utter penis Andrew does quite a lot of this sort of thing because he's matey with the Saudis. It is extremely hard to prove how much of a 'boost' this shithead provides for the UK economy but if we give this system the benefit of the doubt just imagine how much more impressed investors would be by the appearance of the monarch.

iii) Years of tradition etc

> See foxhunting, public executions and rape within marriage.

 

[maxalfie]

Just saw about the yacht on the lunchtime news.
What a bloody cheek,asking the tax payers to buy the queen a new yacht for her diamond jubilee.
At a time of rising unemployment and just the general economic state of the country do they really think that the great British public want to see their money wasted on something as pointless as a boat for the queen.
So many other things the cash could pay for that are actually needed.

 

[Mr Smokes Blunts.]

Erm the Royal Family get stealth taxed, so they contribute over £200 million per year to the economy via taxation on their various estates. Plus there is the tourism factor. Then there is the fact they are our head of state, and as far as i'm concerned they do a pretty good job of it. So we make a profit from them doing their job well? That's something you can't say for the majority of the state sector.

 

[jancrow]

Erm the Royal Family get stealth taxed, so they contribute over £200 million per year to the economy via taxation on their various estates

Admittedly these are estates which they've been given because they were lucky sperm.

Plus there is the tourism factor.

Point i) above. I might be OTT in suggesting they should be publicly executed but I believe much of the rest of that post is still valid. If they go they're not taking all the castles and palaces with them and I would suggest that they're a potential source of wealth for the nation.

Then there is the fact they are our head of state, and as far as i'm concerned they do a pretty good job of it.

The queen is our head of state and in that capacity has about eleven things to do. Most of what she has to do as head of state is purely ceremonial- she might be the only person technically capable of declaring war but all she does is sign things off. In any case I'd really prefer not to have an 85 year old making any sort of decisions which impact the nation.

How much do we spend on their upkeep and protection? I imagine that it's far more than £200 million a year. Andy probably spunks that on private jet hire alone.

EDIT: Ok, I was being facetious with £200 million as I hadn't had my lunch but Republic estimate the actual cost of keeping this bunch of lucky blighters in their gilded cages at around £188 million. And that's presumably on a year without a wedding.

 

[tambourine-man]

I'm happy to contribute to buying her a boat, providing that their holidays are restricted to Argentinian coastal waters.

 

[Mr Smokes Blunts.]

Admittedly these are estates which they've been given because they were lucky sperm.



Point i) above. I might be OTT in suggesting they should be publicly executed but I believe much of the rest of that post is still valid. If they go they're not taking all the castles and palaces with them and I would suggest that they're a potential source of wealth for the nation.



The queen is our head of state and in that capacity has about eleven things to do. Most of what she has to do as head of state is purely ceremonial- she might be the only person technically capable of declaring war but all she does is sign things off. In any case I'd really prefer not to have an 85 year old making any sort of decisions which impact the nation.

How much do we spend on their upkeep and protection? I imagine that it's far more than £200 million a year. Andy probably spunks that on private jet hire alone.

I would hazzard a guess that you and I are lucky sperm compared to the rest of the world too, just to a lesser extent than the Royal Family. If you think it is a possibility to not only depose the Royal Family, and then seize their estates which they own by law, then good luck with that.

In 2010, the monarchy cost us £38 million (http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...y-Briton-62p-last-year-down-7p-from-2008.html). So we made a nice little £160 million profit from them. The Queen makes very few decisions, she really just meets dignitaries in the capity that our president would do. And to put it into perspective it is miles cheaper than any presidents like Sarkozy.

 

[jancrow]

Estimated value of art 'held in trust by the Queen for the nation': £10 billion
% actually viewable by the nation: 2

 

[Jabberwocky]

I would hazzard a guess that you and I are lucky sperm compared to the rest of the world too, just to a lesser extent than the Royal Family.

tis true. have never got over the game in my 'geography museum in a book' where you get to spin to see if you're born in to privilege or poverty. i never won. good job i won for the extended 3d version of said game.

its conspicuous consumption at times when most of us are choosing between heating and pasta all week (or food at all for some....) thats disgusting.

tbh, i would hate her job and think its a horrible way to have to spend a life, you couldn't compensate me enough for having that forced on me. have been to an honours ceremony and even though it was really really exciting in some ways for me, it was also seriously boring once my honoured person had been up. she does approx 100 of those a year. either way, this is an aside. whether we should have the monarchy or let someone else do the boring shite they do isn't the point, why should she get a yacht when we have to have pasta a-fucking gain?

 

[Mr Smokes Blunts.]

tis true. have never got over the game in my 'geography museum in a book' where you get to spin to see if you're born in to privilege or poverty. i never won. good job i won for the extended 3d version of said game.

its conspicuous consumption at times when most of us are choosing between heating and pasta all week (or food at all for some....) thats disgusting.

tbh, i would hate her job and think its a horrible way to have to spend a life, you couldn't compensate me enough for having that forced on me. have been to an honours ceremony and even though it was really really exciting in some ways for me, it was also seriously boring once my honoured person had been up. she does approx 100 of those a year. either way, this is an aside. whether we should have the monarchy or let someone else do the boring shite they do isn't the point, why should she get a yacht when we have to have pasta a-fucking gain?

I agree, it is an uneviable job, and I wouldn't want to do it either. If anything she is public property. Why should she get a yacht in this time of pain for a lot of people? It does stink a bit, but she has given us as a country 60 years of service without a break, brought in billions of pounds worth of tax and also gotten a shit load of business for the country too. I mean how many other countries have an establishment as good as the Queen? Somebody who almost everyone is proud to meet, no matter what country they are from.

 

[Mr Smokes Blunts.]

Estimated value of art 'held in trust by the Queen for the nation': £10 billion
% actually viewable by the nation: 2

I don't see your point really. She would pretty much get to keep her whole estate if she was dethroned. I have outlined to you that the Queen is in fact in profit from our perpective, which is more than any other country on the planet can say. So, whilst you contend that those who want her to stay do it to feel fuzzy and warm, I would suggest it is more of an illogical hatred of being born into wealth and comfort on your part.

 

[Myshkin]

I agree, it is an uneviable job, and I wouldn't want to do it either.

Makes diamond mining seem like a breeze, doesn't it?

 

[jancrow]

I would hazzard a guess that you and I are lucky sperm compared to the rest of the world too, just to a lesser extent than the Royal Family. If you think it is a possibility to not only depose the Royal Family, and then seize their estates which they own by law, then good luck with that.

Yes, of course I'm a lucky sperm in many senses when compared to most people on this earth. It doesn't mean I'm not entitled to gripe about the royals, though.

I think it's absolutely possible for Britain to make the transition to a republic, or even to hang onto a monarch for whatever reasons if we really do need one to keep the tourists happy. I'm not suggesting a mob with pitchforks approach is the way forward.

That figure of £38 million is seriously wide of the mark, by the way. It's the palace's own and makes no allowance for basics like the cost of protection.

 

[Mr Smokes Blunts.]

Makes diamond mining seem like a breeze, doesn't it?

Yeah, all those diamond miners we have in the UK