Paying to go to parties

[ardcarp]

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but:

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/at-150-a-head-the-queen-s-90th-birthday-party-is-turning-into-a-right-royal-pr-disaster-a6814941.html

[Beef Oven!]

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but:

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/...-a6814941.html

Good value

[teamsaint]

Good value

Beefy, If you are going,dont forget to post a selfie for us.

[Beef Oven!]

Beefy, If you are going,dont forget to post a selfie for us.

Me and the Queen. Watch this space.

[ardcarp]

If there are 10,000 attendees paying £150 per head, that will amount to one and a half million pounds...a mere snip for one of the wealthiest people in the UK. Even though HM is unlikely to be mingling with the crowds in person, there will surely have to be massive security, being paid for by.....?

There is something 'wrong' about this.

If her loyal subjects want to organise their own street parties up and down the land, that's fine. But here, Royal Family is saying to people who have contributed by their hard work to charities, "Come to our street party...oh and by the way it'll cost you £150 (plus rail fares, hotel expenses, etc).

Furthermore (and one cannot always take what one reads in the press as Gospel) 40% of the invitees...and how will they know whether they fall into the 40% or not?...will be allowed to sell their tickets on the open market. One can only hope they will donate their not inconsiderable profits to charity.

[P. G. Tipps]

I first learned about my own Guest of Honour invitation in my free copy of The Daily Mail on Monday with the stunning headline ...

'Britain will celebrate the Queen’s 90th birthday this summer with Pimm’s and PG Tips .... '


Pity the DM journalists couldn't even spell my name correctly and who is this other guy, Pimm's, anyway?

[teamsaint]

If there are 10,000 attendees paying £150 per head, that will amount to one and a half million pounds...a mere snip for one of the wealthiest people in the UK. Even though HM is unlikely to be mingling with the crowds in person, there will surely have to be massive security, being paid for by.....?

There is something 'wrong' about this.

If her loyal subjects want to organise their own street parties up and down the land, that's fine. But here, Royal Family is saying to people who have contributed by their hard work to charities, "Come to our street party...oh and by the way it'll cost you £150 (plus rail fares, hotel expenses, etc).

Furthermore (and one cannot always take what one reads in the press as Gospel) 40% of the invitees...and how will they know whether they fall into the 40% or not?...will be allowed to sell their tickets on the open market. One can only hope they will donate their not inconsiderable profits to charity.

wrong, yes. But not surprising .
Business as usual, for " The Firm".

Long to reign over us. TM

[Beef Oven!]

There is something 'wrong' about this.

Nothing wrong about it, and it will be oversubscribed.

If her loyal subjects want to organise their own street parties up and down the land, that's fine.

It's not for you tell the Queen's loyal subjects how to celebrate her birthday.

One can only hope they will donate their not inconsiderable profits to charity.

I hope they buy Queenie a huge birthday present with the profits.

[MrGongGong]

Good value

What a wonderful idea which will hopefully have the effect of hastening the end of the whole Brown Windsor nonsense
maybe we could have a whip round to persuade the Chumba's to play the gig?

[Beef Oven!]

What a wonderful idea which will hopefully have the effect of hastening the end of the whole Brown Windsor nonsense

But that would only please a small minority of her subjects. Most people adore Queenie.

[ahinton]

Nothing wrong about it, and it will be oversubscribed.

Who's providing the music and how much will they be paid for doing so, though?

It's not for you tell the Queen's loyal subjects how to celebrate her birthday.

You wrote this in response to ardcarp's
"if her loyal subjects want to organise their own street parties up and down the land, that's fine";
I don't read that as telling anyone how, where or whether they should celebrate QEII's 90th birthday.

In response to his observation that
"one can only hope they will donate their not inconsiderable profits to charity", you wrote

I hope they buy Queenie a huge birthday present with the profits

That's more or less the same thing, surely, given the extent to which the Sovereign Grant, Privy Purse and the like are funded largely by the taxpayer? - by which I mean that, notwithstanding QEII's hardly inconsiderable personal wealth, she couldn't fund the entire shebang from that alone and survive. That said, she works a good deal harder than most people her age do and seems quite unwilling to give up any more of that than circumstances demand...

[ahinton]

But that would only please a small minority of her subjects. Most people adore Queenie.

I don't know about that (altough I'm not arguing otherwise because I don't know), but most committed republicans whom I know happen to take the view that the UK monarchy should not be terminated as long at the present Queen remains in office, however long that might be. As for "Brown Windsor nonsense", I wonder if MrGG takes a similar view of other European monarchies?

[MrGongGong]

But that would only please a small minority of her subjects. Most people adore Queenie.

Is that a survey you did in the pub?

What do "most" people think about Can, Xenakis, Bruckner, Messiaen etc etc and why should we care anyway?

(I'm not a "subject")

I wonder if MrGG takes a similar view of other European monarchies?

I've nothing personally against the Queen i'm sure she is very lovely if you went for a walk with her and her dogs.
I'm not compelled to pay for the rest of them so it's not really my business to comment.

[ahinton]

(I'm not a "subject")

Nor am I.

I've nothing personally against the Queen i'm sure she is very lovely if you went for a walk with her and her dogs.

Whilst I have no reason to argue with that, I have no wish to go walking with anyone's dogs!

I'm not compelled to pay for the rest of them so it's not really my business to comment.

But you can have an opinion, though, surely? - and I ask what it might be only to ascertain whether your gripe with the UK one arises from taxpayers having to fork out for it, which I (rightoly or wrongly) presume to be the case to greater or lesser degree with other European monarchies (but I don't have time right now to check).

For what it may or may not be worth, the British Monarchy website states that
"The Queen’s personal income, derived from her personal investment portfolio and private estates, is used to meet her private expenses.

The Queen owns the Balmoral and Sandringham Estates, which were both inherited from her father.

Estimates of The Queen’s wealth often mistakenly include items which are held by her as Sovereign on behalf of the nation and are not her private property. These include the official Royal residences, the majority of art treasures from the Royal Collection and the Crown Jewels. The Queen cannot sell these – they must pass to her successor as Sovereign."

The Queen used to be exempt from all taxes but some years ago elected to change this, as reported again on that website:
"In 1992, The Queen volunteered to pay income tax and capital gains tax, and since 1993 her personal income has been taxable as for any other taxpayer.

The Queen has always been subject to Value Added Tax and pays local rates on a voluntary basis."
She is still not liable to Inheritance Tax (and nor should nyone else be, in my view) and I have no idea what taxes for which she might be liable in other countries.

It will be interesting to find out what will happen to the ownership and jurisdiction over those items of which she is custodian on the nation's behalf if either the Union or the monarchy itself is dissolved at some future date when in the former case they might come to belong to a smaller nation and in the latter case there will be no successor to which they may be passed.

That said, we seem to have come quite a way from the topic of paying to go to parties...

[teamsaint]

I'd rather people were taxed on inheritance than earned income.

quite how other countries survive without a monarchy seems to be a mystery.

especially without all that help that our lot freely give on arms deals.....