Thanks to Golden Age of Gaia.
Photo: In April Buckingham Palace will receive £36.1m to fund the Queen’s official duties, a 16 per cent increase on the £31m paid by taxpayers last year. Photo: GETTY
Queen’s Finances to be Investigated
Note from Stephen Cook: Now here’s a sign we have entered a new paradigm: the world’s best-known royal and richest woman is to be subjected to a full investigation of her finances by the UK parliament to ensure ‘the people’ are “getting value for money”.
Should be royally fascinating to see how this one pans out.
The Queen’s Finances to be Investigated by Powerful Westminster Committee
By Richard Alleyne, The telegraphUK – 9 February, 2013
The Queen is facing a tough inquiry into her finances and expenses by the most powerful watchdog in government, it emerged last night.
The Public Accounts Committee is expected to launch an investigation into whether the monarch and the Royal Family provide value for money to the taxpayer.
The inquiry, which will look at every aspect of the Queen’s expenditure including the cost of transport, is likely to cause concern in Buckingham Palace because of the PAC’s reputation for grilling civil servants if it deems they have misused public funds.
The Queen’s closest aides can expect a particularly rough ride by MPs about whether the Royal Family is providing value for taxpayers’ money.
The amount of public funds going to the Royal Family soared last year, despite Government cuts.
The investigation follows a change in the law which, for the first time, gives MPs oversight of royal finances.
The PAC, chaired by the former Labour minister Margaret Hodge, will decide on the scope of any inquiry after the National Audit Office is granted access to the Queen’s finances next month, according to a report in the Independent.
Auditors will produce a report on their findings which will then be scrutinised by the committee who will decide whether to call palace officials to give evidence.
Committee sources indicated that this was likely to happen.
“Margaret wants to do it – but obviously it’s got to be a decision of the whole committee,” a source told the newspaper.
“I’m all in favour of it,” said Austin Mitchell, a Labour MP who sits on the committee. “It’s not intrusive. It is about ensuring that the public are getting good value for money.
“At the moment there is no accountability for spending what is a considerable fortune.”
Among the areas the committee is expected to examine are transport costs including the Royal Train and the Royal Flight, as well as money spent on official entertaining and the upkeep of palaces.
Money given to junior royals to support their work backing up the Queen will also be scrutinised while the committee may also want to examine whether Buckingham Palace is doing enough to raise money itself by selling the royal brand.
For example while Buckingham Palace now opens to paying visitors during the summer some have argued it should be open all year round.
Two of the Queen’s other castles, Balmoral and Sandringham, have no public access at all – despite their multimillion-pound maintenance costs.
The change has come about after George Osborne scrapped the Civil List – an annual handout to the Royal Family that has had to be approved by Parliament since 1760 – in favour of paying the Monarch 15 per cent of the income from the Crown Estates as a new “Sovereign Grant”.
Crown Estate assets include Regent Street in London, Ascot racecourse and Windsor Great Park, 265,000 acres of farmland, as well as ownership of our national seabed stretching out 12 nautical miles around Britain.
The Estate’s profits have been paid to the Treasury and taxpayers since 1760, after George III handed the Crown’s property to the state in return for an annual fee to support his duties.
In April Buckingham Palace will receive £36.1m to fund the Queen’s official duties, a 16 per cent increase on the £31m paid by taxpayers last year.
Replies
Hello dear Osiris, it's good to see you again... ;-)
Well, I will suggest that once the royals dance to our divine tune, they will be accepted as fellow souls, among the common evolving people of earth...we have nothing to gain by insulting the royals...but we have much to gain by justly placing them upon a level playing field, with everybody else.....after all, Humanity is one and that includes those who may assume lofty elevation, which is actually illusory, as we aim to point out to all elitists on outer earth...the royals among them..(bankers also.) :-)
I could not agree more with this comment, Drekx. Right on!
Those who consider us dissidents at present will be welcomed back into humanities collective, provided they have proven beyond all reasonable doubts that they will truly be on our side. For now, we must expose them and their actions!
Much Love,
Wes :)
And it's good to see that Charles has at last been gainfully employed by British Rail, as a train driver....which will give him a real vocation in life... ;-)
I said it once and I'll say it again - tyranny and control cannot go unnoticed and the people cannot remain complacent forever. Awareness is rising, and this and other upcoming investigations and the resulting exposures will reflect humanity's awakening and our demand for knowledge and truth.
Much Love all!
Wes :)
Indeed, Louise! I so look forward to a time when all corruption has been exposed and all vestiges of darkness are no longer keeping the beautiful surface of this world down. Darkness will always be illuminated and transcended, and the people will always find the awakenings that lead us onward to purer states of consciousness and understaning.
Many thanks for being here!
Wes :)
and the chips are falling.................................hopefully
The King Of Shamballa .. The Real King of the World said in his rare speech..that heads of Kings and Queens will fall ..one..two..three..four..five..six..seven ..and so on during the end times of Kali Yuga
Feather Winger: I agree.
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