[JudyKayTee]

Prince Charles and his wife (Camilla) are coming to Canada for some sort of whirlwind visit.

All I have been reading is the actual cost of the trip, the annual cost of the Royal Family to taxpayers - apparently they are VERY expensive figureheads (for lack of another word to describe the family).

I mean no disrespect - but what is the general feeling (either in the UK or here) about the Royal Family? Seems like a big expense and I'm not sure exactly what "they" do.

I do think Prince Charles serves as a big example but, again, I only know what I've read.

[Curlyben]

The actual cost of the Royal Family on the British Tax payer isn't as great as you might think.

Most of Prince Charles' income is derived from the lands he "owns" in the Duchy of Cornwall.

The total cost of the Civil List, the funding mechanism of the Royals pales into insignificance when compared to the costs associated with government.
The Queen is paid £7.9M a year

Here's a breakdown for you: The Civil List - an interactive guide | guardian.co.uk | guardian.co.uk

Civil list breakdown: The Monarchy Today > Royal finances > Sources of funding > Civil List

There's a ton more information here: The Royal Household

You do realise that one presidential trip is significantly more expensive than anything the Royal Family does ?

[JudyKayTee]

You do realise that one presidential trip is significantly more expensive than anything the Royal Family does ?

I don't know - I didn't research it. I don't disbelieve you. This is the info that I keep reading "here": "The total cost of the Queen's Civil List - which pays for the running of the Royal Household including staff salaries - was £13.9 million in 2008. It was made up of £7.9 million from the Government and £6 million from the reserve. The boost from the reserve accounted for 43% of the total. This prompts speculation as to how much the Queen will ask the Government to increase the Civil List by when the current financial deal runs out in December 2010. If she continues drawing on the reserve at the current rate, she will run out of funds by the start of 2012 - the year of her Diamond Jubilee. The pot of money has gone down from £35 million to £21 million over the last decade." http://en.mercopress.com/2009/06/29/...69p-per-person

I have no idea what the President and his family are costing taxpayers in the US - and I'm not sure I want to know!

[Curlyben]

Look at it this way.
There are 60 million people in the UK (rounded for ease)
Lets say half work, so that's 30 million.
The entire Civil List would be less than ONE pound per working person per year.

Now I'd say that's good value, wouldn't you?

[Just Dahlia]

The whole 'Royal Family' thing fascinates me, I can't wait to get time to read the sites you posted Ben.:)

[Gemini54]

The Royal family makes occasional trips to Australia as well - and our press savages the amount of $$ that are spent receiving them. However, people, especially older members of the community - turn out in droves to see them.

Having said all that, Princess Anne came to Australia a while ago to very little fanfare because she supports a charity, whose name I can't recall. Although I'm not Royalist, they do seem to do a lot of good work for charity. Whether that outweighs the cost of supporting them I don't know!

I suspect that future kings or queens of the UK will not have as much influence or power as Queen Elizabeth ii - the times they are a changing and the monarchy will have to as well. It is a huge expense to support them and they have an amazing amounts of assets.

I would suggest that Australians, by and large, are very cynical about royalty and the Queen being our head of state. But again, when we went to a referendum about becoming a republic about a decade ago, the idea was roundly quashed by the voters! Go figure.

[albear]

They bring in tourism,
We make jokes about them - a lot of jokes :D,
We're one of the remaining few countries to have royals.
So to be honest like CB says worth it really :)

[Fr_Chuck]

You would be surprised at what costs are there for the president.

As part of Carters body guard detail in Atlanta ( after he was no longer president) there were helicopters all day watching the air traffic, there were security on roof tops ( all day)
There were security in every building he was to visit all day, before and after the bomb dogs went though. The route was driven and checked several times and more.

Add 100 times this for the siting president.
I know this will get you a laugh but there is a security person for the president that makes sure he does not use a batchroom that is not secure, his "waste" has to be property secured so that no other government can have them tested for any illness or other use.

In the US so much of the Presidents travel is absorbed by local governments that have to provide traffic details to block off sections of road ways, and to provide a lot of the building security also.