The royals should pay for themselves

For a long time, the UK has been wading through an era of cuts, cuts and more cuts. The NHS is expected to shave off £20bn in costs by 2021, schools are preparing for 16% cuts over the next three years, and controversial plans to reduce working tax credits have been in the public eye recently. Despite there being some overly optimistic murmurs of an end to austerity, it’s looking unlikely that George Osborne is going to start splashing the cash any time soon. It’s a sticky situation that, supposedly, we’re all in together.

But guess who’s still balling? That’s right, the old baked bean and co. are seemingly unaffected by UK’s financial state.

The royals will never have to make the same sacrifices as the rest of the population

For at least two years, there will be no cuts to the royal budget. In fact the taxpayer funded income for the royals will actually rise to as much as £44 million (due to repairs needed for the palaces), before the royals will have to face reductions to funding. This is on top of the Queen’s private income from the inherited estates, land owned, and the crown estate.

Although this money doesn’t hugely impact the taxpayer, with the cost per person coming to just 56p each – quite good value, considering we reap the vast benefits of the royal loving tourists – there is an issue. By not scrutinising the royal budget, and even allowing it to rise, they are sending out the message that the royals will never have to make the same sacrifices as the rest of the population. While we’re all feeling the effects, old Lizzy and Phil carry on livin’ it large.

And it’s not just the main figureheads that are smooth sailing through austerity. The swarm of right royal scroungers living off the Queen’s handouts indirectly affect the amount of public funding needed. If they were to be axed from the royal payroll, the extra pennies needed for repairs could be covered by the private income, and there would be no need for taxpayer’s money which could be much better spent elsewhere.

With the potential £8 million rise to the royal budget, the government could have paid for roughly 1000 heart bypass surgeries or 10,000 cataracts operations; built a new average sized school; or even paid off 889 students’ tuition fees for a year! Instead, that money will be spent on tarting up Buckingham Palace’s interior and reupholstering the corgis’ baskets.

The whole notion of this is not only uninspiring for the public, it undermines the government’s harsh and increasingly unpopular tactics for getting the country back in shape. The issue is enhanced because now there really isn’t any reason why taxpayer’s money should continue funding the royals’ ever expanding budget. The royal family has next to no power anymore. No one is going to be thrown in the stocks for opposing the rise to their budget, and therefore it seems ridiculous that we should have to keep paying out.

Ultimately it’s time for the royal family to start budgeting and getting by on their own. Switch the fine wines for Sainsbury’s Basics, make the horse and carriages available for hen dos, rent out Balmoral as a haunted house, or maybe just get Charles flogging shedloads more Duchy Originals. It doesn’t matter how it’s done, just as long as it puts an end to the royal freeloading.