Queen of England Gets A Pay Freeze Until 2015
Queen Elizabeth II is facing a pay cut over in Blighty, where her income is set to be ‘frozen’ until 2015. That could mean the monarch’s income could fall below the 2010-11 level of $50 million. Or, as it’s known in the royal household, the ‘danger level.’
The Queen’s income comes from taxes paid by British mugs like me who live in the UK, and by their vast swathes of real estate.
According to the British Treasury, however, a new method of calculating royal income means things are going to be tight around Casa del Queenie:
“The grant levels envisaged in the early years of the new system [starting April 2013] are, in real terms, below what the Royal Household spent in every one of the last 20 years.”
This has come about after a recent change in the law gave the Queen 15% of all profits generated by the Crown Estate over the next two years. Several British newspapers reveal that the Crown Estate portfolio includes Regent Street, Windsor Great Park and more than half of England’s shoreline. In March 2011, 1,768 people in the UK were sleeping rough on the streets. Just thought I’d throw that in there.
This drop in income might well mean fewer public appearances by the Royals. Sir Alan Reid, keeper of the privy purse, admitted it would be “very difficult for overall expenditure to fall much further without impacting on the Royal Household’s activities in support of the queen and the long-term health of the estate.”
Fewer visits from billionaires undeservedly born into colossal wealth yet glorified by a complicit, sales-hungry media – who knows where that will leave morale amongst us huddled masses?
