Comment on Where has the tax money "saved" in uk austerity gone?

• NateNate60@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  The Sovereign Grant was some £86 million, which certainly sounds like a lot, but the reality is that heads of state are actually just really expensive no matter whether you have a republic or a monarchy. Maybe you could argue that a president could just quietly exist in the background while people expect a monarchy to be lavish and fancy, at least to a degree. There’s a lot of pomp and ceremony associated with the head of state, because they not only represent the government of a country but also serve as a cultural symbol for the nation as a whole.

  For comparison, in the US, excluding the policy departments within the Executive Office, the White House Office and Executive Residence and presidential salary budget lines totalled almost $94 million in FY 2025. This does not include the cost of Secret Service protection (paid by the Department for Homeland Security) nor does it include the cost of Air Force One trips (paid by the Department of Defence). And while Brits complain about their monarch not having to pay tax, I think the fact that the American president, or at least the current one, cheats on his taxes is also a somewhat open secret.

  I’m American and technically also British despite never having been there (I hold a type of second class citizenship through Hong Kong), and I honestly think £86 million is a bargain for the UK monarchy considering their cultural draw and the fact that they’re not just the head of state of the UK but a dozen other countries as well.

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  • sanguinepar@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    one can argue all day about whether it’s appropriate to have a monarchy in the modern day

    That was my main point, I wasn’t really talking about how expensive or otherwise they are (although admittedly it came from a misunderstanding of QE).

    I’m from the UK, and it absolutely sickens me that we still have a monarchy, any monarchy (let alone this particular one). I’m opposed to monarchy in principle, and would be even if the specifics of our monarchy weren’t so repulsive.

    Appreciate the detailed post, but the cost argument is just window-dressing for me. It’s the core concept I reject. Hopefully we can get shot of them one day.

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