Funding for the Royal Family comes in part from large estates (land) owned, most notably the Duchy of Lancaster and the Duchy of Cornwall. This land is traditionally owned by the King/Queen and the current heir. In addition the civil list is a payment from the government but it doesn't really add up to that much (just under£8 million for 2010 according to Wikipedia, thats maybe $10 million I'm not sure), it's certainly way less than the two Duchies make.
The Queen holds a ceremonial place in government, signing bills into law, opening Parliament etc. Technically she is still empowered to select a Prime Minister, but the reality on the ground is she picks whoever can command a majority in the House of Commons, so in effect the PM is chosen by elected MPs, not the Queen. The Queen also does a lot of diplomatic stuff as she is head of state, and don't forget all the time posing for pictures that end up on currency and stamps almost everywhere.
I'm a republican (in the UK sense not the US) so I'm all for the dissolution of the monarchy, but as for stripping the wealth of the Crown it gets problematic as to who owns what? Dot he Duchies belong to the state or the royal family? Where do you draw the line in protecting private property? It would be a complicated issue should it ever arrise.
It's probably not going to do so for the lifetime of the Queen as she's quite popular and seems to know what she's doing. If Charles were King it may be a different story given that he apparently doesn't understand that the best thing he can do to avoid provoking a constitutional crisis is to shut the hell up and stop interfering in things like agricultural policy and planning applications. Who knows, maybe the monarchy is unlikely to finish out the century, this is certainly my preference.
As for why the US loves the royal family as much as it does, your guess is as good as mine. Might be some kind of reality TV/celbutard culture thing, might be the fact that the US is such a young country that the populace craves 'venerable' institutions.
Either way, this whole wedding thing is a giant pain in the arse because most of the freaking shops will be shut tomorrow.
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Re: Can someone educate me on the state of royalty in England?
The Queen holds a ceremonial place in government, signing bills into law, opening Parliament etc. Technically she is still empowered to select a Prime Minister, but the reality on the ground is she picks whoever can command a majority in the House of Commons, so in effect the PM is chosen by elected MPs, not the Queen. The Queen also does a lot of diplomatic stuff as she is head of state, and don't forget all the time posing for pictures that end up on currency and stamps almost everywhere.
I'm a republican (in the UK sense not the US) so I'm all for the dissolution of the monarchy, but as for stripping the wealth of the Crown it gets problematic as to who owns what? Dot he Duchies belong to the state or the royal family? Where do you draw the line in protecting private property? It would be a complicated issue should it ever arrise.
It's probably not going to do so for the lifetime of the Queen as she's quite popular and seems to know what she's doing. If Charles were King it may be a different story given that he apparently doesn't understand that the best thing he can do to avoid provoking a constitutional crisis is to shut the hell up and stop interfering in things like agricultural policy and planning applications. Who knows, maybe the monarchy is unlikely to finish out the century, this is certainly my preference.
As for why the US loves the royal family as much as it does, your guess is as good as mine. Might be some kind of reality TV/celbutard culture thing, might be the fact that the US is such a young country that the populace craves 'venerable' institutions.
Either way, this whole wedding thing is a giant pain in the arse because most of the freaking shops will be shut tomorrow.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by nebulon82.
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