Charles and Camilla 2

[samurai_sarah]

Carry on from here:

 

[Jackie3]

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While that might have been a concern if everyone was on speaking terms, let‘s be honest here. That‘s not why they didn‘t show up. I‘m certain William and Harry haven‘t spoken in months and after those attacks on Camilla, it may not be that different with Charles.

What a remarkable skill you have. These are two people you've never met, and you are "certain"?  Can you do that with other celebrities as well? 

Harry spoke his truth about Camilla. If you want to call that an "attack", you certainly can. Bear in mind, you are backing an adulteress, who is probably a racist, and is clearly friendly with other racists. 

Harry was not obligated to write a book that praised Camilla up and down, and he didn't. Even though it upset the royalists. That takes courage. The price he paid is that he didn't have two disapproving, self-important septuagenarians at his little girl's party. A huge loss, I am sure.

I'll bet they managed to have fun without them. 

I've never understood grandparents who don't want to be involved in their grandchldrens lives. It really is Charles' loss. All the jewels in the world aren't as beautiful as the love of your grandchildren. 

[prayawaythefundie]

1 hour ago, Jackie3 said:

The price he paid is that he didn't have two disapproving, self-important septuagenarians at his little girl's party. A huge loss, I am sure.

Then why did you complain about it?

[Jackie3]

1 hour ago, prayawaythefundie said:

Then why did you complain about it?

Just seemed sad to diss your little granddaughter in that way.

[rosamundi]

The King is carrying out a major shake-up of the monarchy which ultimately means that more members of the royal family will have to fund and fend for themselves, the Evening Standard understands.

"It is understood Charles is keen to reduce the number of royals with a financial dependence on the crown, especially if they do not have an active role to play. He wants funds from the Duchy of Lancaster, the portfolio of land, property and assets held in trust for the King, and the sovereign grant that covers the cost of royal travel on official engagements, to be spent more effectively. He also wants to pay his staff competitive salaries and pensions so that he gets the best people for the jobs."

[Jackie3]

26 minutes ago, rosamundi said:

The King is carrying out a major shake-up of the monarchy which ultimately means that more members of the royal family will have to fund and fend for themselves, the Evening Standard understands.

"It is understood Charles is keen to reduce the number of royals with a financial dependence on the crown, especially if they do not have an active role to play. He wants funds from the Duchy of Lancaster, the portfolio of land, property and assets held in trust for the King, and the sovereign grant that covers the cost of royal travel on official engagements, to be spent more effectively. He also wants to pay his staff competitive salaries and pensions so that he gets the best people for the jobs."

Four royals are off the royal payroll. The Queen, Harry, Meghan and Andrew no longer receive any of the Sovereign Grant. Yet the amount of the Sovereign Grant has not changed.  It's still about 86 million pounds a year.

In fact, according to an act in 2011, the Sovereign Grant cannot be reduced. That's true even if the Crown Estate's profits fall (the Sovereign Grant is a percentage of these profits). Even if profits fall, the Sovereign Grant remains the same. By law. From the UK government website:

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Under the requirements of the Sovereign Grant Act 2011, in the event of a reduction in The Crown Estate’s profits in the reference year, the Sovereign Grant is set at the same level as the previous year.

So, with four people off the payroll, what happens to all of the savings? It's hard to imagine that Charles could INCREASE the luxury in which he lives. What are all the extra pounds being spent on?

 

[viii]

I don't see an issue with that. I've always thought that the monarch paid for far too many people. If they're not working royals, then off you go - go get a job, just like the rest of the world. 

[Jackie3]

3 hours ago, viii said:

I don't see an issue with that. I've always thought that the monarch paid for far too many people. If they're not working royals, then off you go - go get a job, just like the rest of the world. 

Then the Sovereign Grant should be reduced accordingly. 86 million for 10 people, for example, 50 million for 6. . . something like that. The extra money could be used to help the struggling British taxpayer.

[rosamundi]

On 3/24/2023 at 5:25 PM, viii said:

I don't see an issue with that. I've always thought that the monarch paid for far too many people. If they're not working royals, then off you go - go get a job, just like the rest of the world. 

Same. Although non-working royals don't receive payments from the Sovereign Grant, if you're not a working royal you shouldn't get the trappings of "being a royal" at a discount. If you want to keep a pied a terre in London, well, the rent for a flat of this quality in Westminster is £X. The rent for a house in the Windsor countryside is £Y, here's your new lease and you need to pay for it out of your resources.

The Sovereign Grant is currently much higher than normal because Buckingham Palace is currently in the middle of a massive repair programme, so I think that while the grant is currently more than 50% higher than normal, the excess is being used for these repairs and once the programme is complete, the grant will reduce to its normal level.

[Jackie3]

On 3/26/2023 at 2:36 AM, rosamundi said:

The Sovereign Grant is currently much higher than normal because Buckingham Palace is currently in the middle of a massive repair programme, so I think that while the grant is currently more than 50% higher than normal, the excess is being used for these repairs and once the programme is complete, the grant will reduce to its normal level.

The Palace repairs have nothing to do with the matter. What will happen to the extra money now that Andrew, Harry, Meghan and the queen are not receiving Sovereign grant funds? Charles will just keep it all?

[klein_roeschen]

For the next 3 days, Charles and Camilla will be visiting Germany, first Berlin and after that Hamburg.

[anjulibai]

My understanding is that Charles is intending to kick the none-working relatives out of their apartments/homes, and then rent those properties at market rate. 

Which sounds fine, except that I don't know who those would be other than either the cousins elderly cousins, who had been promised for decades they could stay until they died, or are young enough to cause a ruckus, like Andrew. 

Kicking out the former would be kind of cruel given their age and the fact that they did spend their lives working on behalf of the Queen, and the later potentially dangerous given all the crap they could make public. 

Supposedly though, Andrew is going to get Frogmore Cottage, which I doubt he'd pay market rate for, so... I don't know. Seems not the most thought out to me. 

I do agree that if there are less working royals, then the Sovereign Grant ought to be reduced. It doesn't make sense to get less people working for the same amount of money. 

[Coconut Flan]

What I read was that Beatrice I think it was has an apartment in St James palace and she and her family would be strongly encouraged to make arrangments to pay full market rent or move elsewhere in the near future.  It referenced older relatives who no longer lived in their palace apartments whose younger children used them as London crash pads.  I don't know who that would be. No names were given in the article.  I do agree with either of those situations, it would be appropriate for the situation to change.  

[Jackie3]

What will the saved money be used for?
I think this is all a distraction. Charles doesn't want attention on the fact he pays no inheritance tax, no income tax, and still expects the the public to fund his coronation. Pay tax like the rest of the country, Charles! That’ll result in real savings.

[hoipolloi]

Looks like C3 & his heirs have some utility for the outgoing district improvement board of Walt Disney Disney World in Orlando, FL:

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ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — In their final days of controlling the Reedy Creek improvement district’s board, Disney executives and attorneys found a way to poison the authority of the incoming members appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and effectively oversee the area’s development....

Particular focus was paid to one section that board members said places certain restrictions on the district until 21 years after the death of the last surviving descendant of King Charles, or until Disney abandons the resort. [Emphasis added]...

“All agreements signed between Disney and the District were appropriate, and were discussed and approved in open, noticed public forums in compliance with Florida’s Government in the Sunshine law,” a spokesperson said.

WFTV worked with an independent attorney who specializes in government law to analyze the agreement Wednesday morning. Upon initial review, the attorney said the agreement appeared to be valid.

Background: DeSantis appointed a bunch of his stooges to the new board authorized by the FL legislature. This was meant to be a giant FU to "woke" Disney. Guess it backfired!

[AmazonGrace]

Daily Mail is upset that the King's guards live in squalor https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11923645/Shocking-state-British-Armys-filthy-Wellington-Barracks-revealed.html

Supposedly the floors are urine soaked, nobody cleans the toilets and the rooms look like this

From now on, I am also going to blame Charles if I'm too lazy to pick up my trash.

[Jackie3]

There is a lot of evidence, going way back, that the royal's servants live in squalor. The footmen used to live in Quonset huts! They also received a wage that is almost unlivable.

This explains the high turnover at the Palace.

 

3 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

From now on, I am also going to blame Charles if I'm too lazy to pick up my trash.

Charles can do no wrong! Only he deserves maid(s), clean rugs and other good things.

As for these elite royal guards, they deserve ".  . .piles of litter, blocked, filthy toilets and leaky appliances."  While paying taxes to their king. While earning 22,000 pounds a year  ($27,000).

Here's some more about their living conditions in barracks designed in the 1830's.

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‘The rats would die in the bins, and we’d have to clean them out when doing block jobs in the morning. There are piles of rubbish inside the accommodation areas and the stench from the toilets is unbearable. All the problems are in the blocks where the privates live.

Complaints? Officers responded just as AmazonGrace did, with kindness and compassion.

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Referring to living conditions, one soldier said: ‘If you said something to a senior officer, they would either ignore you or tell you to f**k off, so we just stopped

 

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One of the soldiers revealed that he received a salary of £22,000 per year and now makes more than double that working in the security industry.

He claimed that 32 privates live on each floor and have to share six toilets and two bathrooms between them.

Amazon, I'm afraid it doesn't help to pick up your trash if it isn't collected. Here's a picture from the article. There are more pictures, but they were too disgusting to post.

 

Repairs and maintence just doesn't happen.

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Earlier this year, it was revealed that Amey, a Ministry of Defence maintenance contractor, missed 10,535 urgent repair appointments since April 2022, with fellow contractor Vivo missing 4,041 urgent appointments.

That's the life of those guards in the pretty red uniforms. Let's not blame Charles, though. 

Edited April 2, 2023 by Jackie3

[Loveday]

3 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

Daily Mail is upset that the King's guards live in squalor https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11923645/Shocking-state-British-Armys-filthy-Wellington-Barracks-revealed.html

Supposedly the floors are urine soaked, nobody cleans the toilets and the rooms look like this

From now on, I am also going to blame Charles if I'm too lazy to pick up my trash.

Yeah, next time the recycle bin in my kitchen overflows (it never does), I'll send a photo in to the Daily Fail and demand that the King sort it out for me toot sweet.😆 

 

Oh, and I'm going to go way out on a limb here and guess that this article is pretty much completely made up. April Fool maybe, or just the Fail's usual shit-stirring on a slow news day.

 

Edited April 2, 2023 by Loveday

[Jackie3]

4 hours ago, Loveday said:

😆

Oh, and I'm going to go way out on a limb here and guess that this article is pretty much completely made up. April Fool maybe, or just the Fail's usual shit-stirring on a slow news day.

 

Funny, because the BBC confirms this.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-55911765

The only reason to think it's "made up" is if you want to believe Charles is a kindly old king.

In truth, he is a billionaire living next door to young men living in squalor. He could alleviate their suffering in an instant, if he chose to. He hasn't chosen to. But he wants them at his coronation looking sharp.

 

The Queen's pallbearers lived in similarly squalid conditions.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11794163/MoD-chiefs-punish-firms-involved-squalid-homes-scandal-withholding-payments.html

 It's so sad these young guys went home to mold and filth, after carrying the Queen to her final resting place.

It seems even the UK government has recognized the failings of the military housing contractors.

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MoD Permanent Under-Secretary David Williams has said military home contractors Pinnacle, Amey and VIVO have been 'placed in default' while their 'performance remains sub-par'.

Nearly 8,000 compensation payments totalling £500,000 have been paid by companies since new contracts began last April.

 

Edited April 3, 2023 by Jackie3

[AmazonGrace]

I am just afraid that my children will see this story... Here I am, their poor mother trying to tell them not to live like slobs, to put their trash in the bin, to clean the toilet after they dirty it up, not to leave garbage and dirty laundry on the floor. And they will be like, "But mom, where is the maintenance? Why is Charles III not having our dishes washed? The candy wrapppers and empty bottles that I threw on the floor last week are STILL there, I am so oppressed!" 

[rosamundi]

14 hours ago, Loveday said:

Yeah, next time the recycle bin in my kitchen overflows (it never does), I'll send a photo in to the Daily Fail and demand that the King sort it out for me toot sweet.😆 

 

Oh, and I'm going to go way out on a limb here and guess that this article is pretty much completely made up. April Fool maybe, or just the Fail's usual shit-stirring on a slow news day.

 

The Daily Mail seems to be conflating two separate issues. Yes, there are concerns about the performance of Armed Forces maintenance contractors, and that's who I'd expect to deal with blocked urinals and other repairs. However, litter on the floor and general mess (including cleaning up vomit from toilets) should be down to the squaddies to sort out, and it's up to the Army to enforce discipline. Privates are generally quite young and it's possible that the "your mother doesn't live here," message needs repeating.

[AmazonGrace]

Yeah badly maintained buildings are one thing. But even if the houses are crumbling shacks there will be no garbage on the rugs and no vomit  anywhere unless whoever lives there put it there and refused to clean up after themselves.

[SoSoNosy]

I can't believe the Daily Fail actually blamed that garbage on somebody other than the slobs who threw it there. They need to go check out the quarters that the Guards of the Unknown Soldier live in, and compare.  Note: I have never seen those quarters, but I just totally believe they are clean and orderly.

 

[sableduck]

So clearly the state of every frat house I visited during college was the British Royal Family’s fault?

Good to know. Here for decades I’ve thought it was just sloppy 20 something men who couldn’t figure out that their mom didn’t live there.

[Jackie3]

19 minutes ago, sableduck said:

So clearly the state of every frat house I visited during college was the British Royal Family’s fault?

Good to know. Here for decades I’ve thought it was just sloppy 20 something men who couldn’t figure out that their mom didn’t live there.

Even the BBC and the British government confirms these men are living in substandard housing. Black mold, filth, no hot water, rats, needed repairs ignored for months. . . 

I'm surprised about the support for these slum landlords!

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-63976593

Military barracks worse than the frontline.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43135967

The royal family holds so many titles as head of different military branches. Yet the very men who ride around guarding the palace, who carried the queen's coffin, are treated this way.

Edited April 3, 2023 by Jackie3