WHILE watching Netflix’s lavish new box-set blockbuster The Crown, an entertaining guilty pleasure based on the Windsors, I was struck by a scene highlighting the fawning reverence towards royalty in the not too distant past.
The family are travelling on the royal train to Sandringham for what will be George VI’s last Christmas and as the engine slows down, crowds of local people bow and curtsy to choruses of “God save the King”. I assume the modern viewer is supposed to be shocked by how reverential we were back then. Look at them all throwing their hats in the air and shouting “three cheers for His Majesty” we are meant to smile condescendingly, while tutting at the sychophancy of the early 1950s.
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What makes me despair about this scene, however, is that it highlights just how little has actually changed. Fawning reverence towards the Windsors is alive and well, indeed thriving in 21st century Britain. Why else would we be falling over ourselves to give the richest, most powerful family in the country £369m of taxpayers money to repair a palace?
The Treasury announced on Friday that it will increase the sovereign grant by 66 per cent to cover the cost of an extensive programme of refurbishment for Buckingham Palace, the Queen’s main residence. Now, I don’t doubt that without the cash, the 18th century pile in central London will indeed fall into disrepair; we all know archaic wiring and old boilers eventually have to be replaced. And as someone who also lives in an old building I can sympathise to some extent with Her Maj on this one - I need a new boiler too. The difference is, of course, I don’t expect someone else to pay for it. And I wouldn’t dream of accepting contributions from those less fortunate from myself who can’t afford to pay their own housing costs.
But that’s the bizarre reality of modern Britain: the working poor are expected to subsidise the lifestyles of the rich and privileged. And the Windsors, with their vast personal and inherited wealth are the most glaring and obscene example of this illogical, hideous situation.
Don’t get me wrong, I accept that Buckingham Palace falls into the National Heritage category, and as such there is an argument for using public money to repair it. But if we follow this line of thinking then the building should be treated like any other monument and opened fully to the public. If that means having tourists wandering through the Queen’s living quarters while she’s having a cuppa with the corgis, then so be it. If she doesn’t fancy this, Her Majesty should either move out to one of her other residences – she wouldn’t be short of options – or pay for the repairs herself. And with a personal fortune estimated at around £350m, she shouldn’t have much trouble getting a bank loan.
Lest we forget the Royals have had more than their fair share of cash to pay for building repairs in recent times. Following the 1992 Windsor Castle fire, we, the great unwashed, gave the Queen almost £35m of our hard-earned cash, while she deigned to contribute just £2m of her own money.
As you’ve probably guessed I’m a republican and as such I obviously disagree with any public money being spent on the Monarch. But what I find genuinely astonishing is that even at a time of biting austerity and economic uncertainty we are being told by the UK government that we should be grateful to subsidise the extravagant housing demands of this family.
The situation becomes even more surreal when you consider that this is the same government which is so openly and ideologically opposed to helping ordinary people with their housing needs. One need only look to the thousands of working class Londoners currently being moved out of their city because of the shortage of social housing, or the alarming numbers of working families forced to make themselves homeless and exist in hostels and bed and breakfast accommodation because neither they nor their local council can afford the astronomical private rents that are now the norm in London and the south east. Unless you earn more than £38,000 a year, most estate agents down there won’t even consider renting you a property.
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The result of all this is that around £2.4bn a year is currently being spent on temporary accommodation by local authorities in the capital. With this in mind, the country surely cannot afford to give the Queen the £369m for these repairs.
It will be interesting to see whether Her Majesty is moved to make a contribution. It will perhaps be even more interesting to see whether her subjects even bat an eyelid either way. When will this folly end?
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