are they worth it?

[ramtops]

from an article in the Times this morning, comes the news that Prince Charles thinks the army should guard the Royal Family.

the article goes on to mention some of the costs involved in protecting these people from ... whatever they're protected from. So, switching it to the Army would require *600-700 soldiers* - more than a battalion.

further figures:
to protecting the Queen at Balmoral this year - £1.2 million
to protecting Prince Harry for six weeks in Australia last year - £600k

The Home Office refuses to discuss the cost of policing the Royal Family but an authoritative figure is about £30 million a year, although that does not take into account the burden placed on police forces by royal visits.

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that's a lot of money - are they worth it?

Comments

[timill]

What does it cost to protect Chirac or Berlusconi?

Going Republican would not abolish the position of Head of State. Choices:
(a) Active President, separate election. President Blair & Prime Minister Brown?
(b) PM=President. You want President Maggie?
(c) Inactive President. Why bother?

Whoever it is will still need protection.

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

Whoever it is will still need protection.

The one advantage of it being a hereditary monarchy, though, is that if the current monarch dies, the next one in line just becomes the new monarch, without any messing about. So we don't actually need to protect them at all: there's lots of them.

If they want to pay for protection for themselves, they should be free to do so, of course.

[lostcarpark.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but they're nice to wheel out for the tourists. They need to commercialise it a bit more - I'm sure you could turn all sorts of Royal properties into cash generating attractions. How about the changing of the guards? For a small fee you could have the guys in the furry hats do a little dance or pretend to be the Keystone cops...

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

that's a lot of money - are they worth it?

Nope. Even assuming that we need a hereditary monarch, it's not like we're short of heirs to the throne: there's a whole lot of them milling about. Let them take their chances! If they want special protection, they can pay for it themselves: they're loaded.

[captainblue.livejournal.com]

Monarchy = good for entertaining heads of state and touristy stuff, plus they do contribute to the exchequer (more so than those who own stuff in the UK and benefit but live elsewhere).

How much does it cost us to protect Mrs Thatcher et al and what benefit do we receive in return? None...

[spride.livejournal.com]

Citizen Windsor needs to remember that although it's the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force, it's still the British Army, and the last Charles but one had a very negative experience with them.