It is being reported on Sky News today that Buckingham Palace is to be refurbished at a cost of £369 Million Pounds over the next 10 years, just as well the SNP doesn’t have to mitigate this Housing Benefit Bill and Spare Room Subsidy, although we will be contributing from our income tax.
The Government has also agreed to an increase of 66% in the Queen’s Sovereign Grant to cover these costs. Allegedly there are lead pipes, broken wires and the Palace needs a new boiler (no pun intended) and all of this work is urgently needing done. Now you would think that many would be aghast at this revelation, it’s not as if we can walk up and get a room for the night when we miss the all night bus back to jockland from Victoria Station after a bender in the big smoke.
However the yoons are all for it, here are a few of the comments. Neil from yoondom says “Buckingham Palace is an iconic symbol of Britain, a major tourist attraction and a venue where Her Maj entertains world leaders, of course it needs to be updated to look its best”.
James also from yoondom noted “How much does the Royal family generate for the UK economy? This expenditure is a drop in the ocean”. George also a resident of yoondom said “Good. It’s one of the few things that I am happy for my tax pounds to be spent on”.
I know that I have banged on about the Windsor Gravy Train before but in the week that we learn that disabled people will lose at least £30 per week from next April this is just obscene. Do the Windsor’s care? My bet is they don’t, one of the richest families in the world can fix their own bloody house.
grumpyscottishman.wordpress.com 
What makes it more obscene is that it was announced on the same day as the Children in Need fundraiser (why does the World’s 6th largest economy and Earthly Paradise need to raise money for it’s children in this way?)
Still, if you’re a yoon zoomer, a nice hoose for Betty Battenberg is way more important than a kids’ hospice or funding medical treatment. So are atomic bombs.
Sickening.
lanark
I know this might sound mean but i do nothing for children in need and never have. I think it is shameful that in a country as wealthy as this services only function because of yearly fund raising thons (money mainly raised from the poor) while we can afford nuclear weapons and the Windors, you are so right it is sickening. They see us coming in this country and must really see that we are zipped up the back.
I suppose the Windsors won’t mind that it is the disabled who will pay for their refurbishment, they won’t give it a second thought will they. I can’t stand any undemocratic system like the Lords and Head of State but that family disgust me no end.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
I feel a bit sorry for the royals getting their lead pipes replaced because my water never tasted the same after I put plastic pipes in.
The lead piping, contrary to what we’re told, doesn’t seem to do the fuckers any harm though, given the age of them. But oh, I’m forgetting they only drink the finest port etc.. and it all comes in bottles. So why go to the expense? Maybe the Chook wants to go into the fishing weight business and needs the lead.
I could at this point gasp with dismay but I’m all out of breath.
Dave
Certainly looks like the best of everything and an arse wiper leads to a long life. I actually don’t wish them ill but what they stand for makes me sick to be honest.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
On the point of the tourist attraction value of the queen and her family, I’d like to make a few points.
Firstly I’m not sure that she does generate that much money. I mean she is almost never seen. It’s not like she is hanging about on the balcony waving at Johnnie Foreigner when (s)he trails his/her weary way from Japan or China, USA or Bolivia. The chances of seeing her are minimal. It is the buildings they come to see.
So I am a regular visitor to France, which has royal palaces which they turned into museums. Masses of tourists flock to them, Likewise, I was in Vienna recently and there are special metro stops for palaces, absolutely TEAMING with tourists, queuing for hours and paying fantastic amounts of money to see all their dishes, and their potties and beds, and on and on. For those that like that sort of thing… that is the sort of thing they like!
The royal families in the rest of Europe have been pruned to the bone. Only the very top of the family is kept. The rest have to do like everyone else and earn their keep.
Now I know that the royals give a lot of pleasure to some people (demographically most likely to be elderly, female, and English, although all nations and ages and both sexes can be royalists). I had an elderly neighbour, and friend, dear Agnes, recently deceased aged 92, who adored them and who once had the immense thrill of meeting princess Alexandra. And i wouldn’t want that pleasure to be denied these largely elderly people. God knows the elderly have practically sod all else in the country to enjoy. I also accept their value as charity enablers. Let’s be honest if one of them shows an interest in a charity, a long line of arse lickers will be ready to give money and time in the hopes that they will be recognised and spoken to by a royal. They also have the ear of the government ministers who can make things happen.
However, we keep in the order of 40 of them in a variety of palaces and mansions. We keep them with servants, cleaners, maids, drivers, cooks, transport, etc, and we keep them in the very very best of everything. The clothes they wear, sometimes only once, cost more than my entire wardrobe for the last 10 years.
There’s no need for this. We should follow what the likes of Fred in Denmark has proposed for his family. Only the top people get royal duties and funding. The rest off their lazy fat arses and go to work.
That way they could knock down buildings so clearly no longer fit for purpose, such as Buckingham Palace, and the entire working family could be moved into Kensington Palace. I’d say, queen and her husband, Charles and Camila, Anne and her husband, William’s family and Harry. The hangers on who do nothing can go live in their own houses… A suitable office block could be found for the royal admin staff who currently work for the monarchy department. Windsor castle could be used for state functions. The rest could be sold or converted to homes for the homeless.
The artworks within could be sold to pay for the refurbishments.
It really is time that we stopped the idiotic subservience to people who are people just like you and me.
To be blunt, they get up in the morning and use the bathroom the same as you and I do. We need to get over their “specialness”.
Tris
You make a lot of good points. I agree with you on the touraism part, I think more people would visit the palaces if they were fully open and not just the 5% during the summer of Buckie P. The artworks they have, and are rarely on show, are another national disgrace given that I actually watched a programme years ago on the BEEB and it was us paying for their upkeep and some of the paintings, master pieces had never actually been on show at all. While I accept that some old folk and some yoons get some sort of weird pleasure for them, some even believe that they care about them does not justify the costs for me.
They also reinforce the class system and that maintains our tainted non democracy and I have no time for that at all. I cannot abide by unelected second chambers or heads of state, it is not accpetable in this day and age and the fact they have more power than many are willing to admit makes it worse. No, if I had any power the line would end with Liz and in the meantime I would be preparing the options for a second chamber and a president or someone elected to act on bahlf of the country at official stuff.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce