Many think of the modern Royal Family as powerless figureheads who exist solely to attract tourist money. A new Royal exposé, however, has laid bare the “grubby & secretive earnings of the Royal Family” – secretive earnings which see them bleeding public services across the country:
🔺EXCLUSIVE: King Charles and his eldest son make millions from feudal levies on schools, hospitals, homeowners and the very charities they represent, a joint investigation by The Sunday Times and @C4Dispatches reveals today https://t.co/Vno5Q348mG
— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) November 2, 2024
Royal exposé: grubby inbreds bleeding the country dry
This latest exposé comes courtesy of the Times and Channel 4 News. As the Times reported:
We used the royal addresses to uncover how the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall are making millions of pounds by charging government departments, councils, businesses and the general public via a series of rents and feudal levies on land largely seized by medieval monarchs pic.twitter.com/PJQrkgTeeV
— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) November 2, 2024
Two sentences stand out in this: “land largely seized by medieval monarchs” and “even parliament has been denied access”. This shatters the notion that Royal privilege is a thing of the past. In very real ways, the Royal Family is still living in the Medieval Ages, and we’re all paying the price.
In the investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches and the Sunday Times, external, it is reported that the private estates of King Charles and Prince William have received millions of pounds of income from contracts with public bodies and charities.
Over the past year these deals with the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall have been worth almost £50 million, it has been claimed.
It adds:
The Duchy of Lancaster, established in 1399, and Prince William’s Duchy of Cornwall, established in 1337, both hold large amounts of land and commercial property in England and Wales.
And also:
The two private estates are separate to the Crown Estate.
Profits of the Crown Estate – a property business owned by the monarch but run independently – go to the Treasury. The level of profit made by the Crown Estate is used as a benchmark to calculate the funding given by the government to the Royal Family in the form of the Sovereign Grant.
The taxpayer-funded Sovereign Grant will rise to £132m next year, after profits from the Crown Estate increased to £1.1 billion.
That’s right, we’re paying these vultures three times through a series of on-the-record and off-the-record estates. This means we’re going to pay them billions over the next few decades on top of the billions they seem set to earn themselves (‘earn’ in the figurative sense; it’s clear they aren’t doing anything to literally deserve it):
They earn revenue from toll bridges, ferries, sewage pipes, churches, village halls, pubs, distilleries, gas pipelines, boat moorings, opencast and underground mines, car parks, rental homes and wind turbines pic.twitter.com/bwxgKPCVNA
— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) November 2, 2024
Turn the heating on? King Charles takes a cut.
Pay the rent? King Charles takes a cut.
Bury a loved one? King Charles takes a cut.
This is not the Britain most people think they live in, and it’s no wonder they had to keep this secret:
The King has a deal with Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Trust in London that will charge the NHS more than £11 million over 15 years for the right to park ambulances in one of its warehouses https://t.co/6yZgtr1LJO
— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) November 2, 2024
Even children aren’t spared.
As reported by pbctoday, the National Audit Office reported in 2021 that “around 700,000 pupils are in danger due to poor school conditions in England“. How many of these pupils attend schools which are being bled dry by the Royals?
Charles and the family don’t want us to know, but the information is out there now, and over the coming weeks we’re going to develop a very precise idea of where battered services are being set up to fail by our greedy, unchecked monarch:
The Royal Navy pays the Duchy of Cornwall more than a million pounds to moor boats at the naval academy in Dartmouth and refuel warships at Devonport royal dockyard, Plymouth, the UK’s biggest naval base.
The Ministry of Justice pays £1.5 million a year to use Dartmoor prison pic.twitter.com/4lIUQcJ2UC
— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) November 2, 2024
complies with all relevant UK legislation and regulatory standards applicable to its range of business activities
Yes, clearly this is all very above board, which is why they had to hide it from the public – had to hide it from the government.
“The very charities they represent”
Perhaps the biggest slap in the face is that the Royals are DRAINING MONEY FROM CHARITIES.
Now, we don’t know about you, but whenever we donate to a charity we don’t do so thinking ‘hopefully this money makes its way to those who need it the least‘.
As you might expect, this is the element of the sordid affair which is drawing the harshest criticism:
SHOCKING
Sunday @thetimes & #Dispatches investigation into the grubby & secretive earnings of the Royal FamilyIncl charging huge rents to Marie Curie & Macmillan charities WHICH THEY'RE PATRONS OF & which WE donate to. They get the money!
The list is long
Follow @JCalvertST https://t.co/BqXkuhcLHa— Carol Vorderman (@carolvorders) November 3, 2024
I thought the royal family deserves £500 million a year because they do so much for charity. Turns out they actually make some of those charities pay them rent. https://t.co/7haScYx4dm
— Alexis is sowing discord in the West (@ArchewellBaby) November 2, 2024
Read the full story of the 5410 properties owned by the monarch and the prince in @thetimes – and their cost to you, the taxpayer. pic.twitter.com/wgK47VjXUo
— Jonathan Calvert (@JCalvertST) November 2, 2024
There was also plenty more criticism to go around:
The Royal Family embodies everything that's rotten about our society: class privilege, snobbery, deference, stasis, self-delusion. They are the keystone in a vast edifice of class privilege. Until we #abolishthemonarchy we will struggle to be a normal, decent society. #dispatches pic.twitter.com/ziPtijYbZK
— paulusthewoodgnome 🇺🇦💙 (@woodgnomology) November 2, 2024
Whatever your views on the Royal Family, we can surely all agree that they shouldn’t be profiting from our NHS. https://t.co/78dfH9Urir
— NHS Million (@NHSMillion) November 2, 2024
I only just caught up with this explosive expose of royal finances. I’m shocked beyond belief. What utter parasites the Royal Family are. Leaches. Profiteers. How shallow and hypocritical they are, poncing around claiming to do “good works”, while they actually suck us dry. 😡 https://t.co/A5tBr89zgr
— alexandra hall hall 🇺🇦🌻 (@alexhallhall) November 3, 2024
In response to all this, many are remembering the immortal words of Tony Benn:
#Dispatches #RoyalFamily pic.twitter.com/bsry8J16r1
— Princess Diana (@01PrincessDiana) November 2, 2024
21st century Britain
Even the most devout monarchist surely agrees that we shouldn’t be paying these people three times over.
This latest Royal exposé shows that everything the Royals do seems to ultimately lead to them enriching themselves. Are we going to carry on living in the Medieval Ages? Or are we going to turn into a normal country and take back the public good from this very private malignancy?
Featured image via UK Government
