 | Well-known Fabians Gordon Brown and Tony Blair (above left). The Queen must continue to open parliament each year (above centre), insists Hugo. Repealing the Royal Marriages Act of 1772 would leave Prince Charles free to marry Camilla
Parker Bowles (below right) without needing his mother's permission first |
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All members of the Queen's family
pay income and inheritance tax, and
none of them is paid any kind of salary.
The civil list provides for administrative
expenses, but since 1993 the Queen has
reimbursed all annuities from her own
pocket except those paid to herself, the
Duke of Edinburgh and the late Queen
Mother. The Prince of Wales is funded
only by the Duchy of Cornwall, and if
that were to be "nationalised", as
recommended in the report, he would
presumably become a so-called burden
to the tax payer.
As to accountability, the Queen's
finances in respect of travel, grants-in-aid
and the running of the royal
collection are published in a much
better way than the money spent by the
Government and ministers. It's true she
does not pay inheritance tax, but I have
no problem with her inheriting from
the Queen Mother without doing so.
Previous monarchs have greatly
enriched the royal collection – Charles
I commissioned Van Dyck – and it is in
the national interest that they should
continue to do so.
All these issues have been discussed
for years, and now they have been
announced again as if new. I do have
some sympathy for the Fabians for
having committed themselves to this
debate at a time when there is
demonstrably great affection for an
exemplary monarch.
The Fabians explain that we might
not always be so lucky with our
sovereign, and this is undeniably true,
but our curious constitution has subtle
ways of removing bad monarchs –
witness Edward VIII. George VI's
private secretary, Sir Alan Lascelles,
once declared: "The monarchy is like a
rose bush. You have to cut off the
occasional head to keep it going."
I am much more worried about
this government than the royal
family. |
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constitution. The main advantage of
a hereditary head of state is that the
sovereign is above politics, trained
from birth for the job, and gains in
stature the longer the reign.
In these days, when the young
understand the system less and less,
the value of a monarch such as
Elizabeth II, who has reigned longer
than Tony Blair has lived, becomes
even more apparent. Most countries
envy us our head of state, so we
don't want to lose her or curb her
powers. Far from clarifying the
Queen's role, and de-politicising
her, she should be left with all the
residual influence she now has.
Vested in the Queen are many
powers that she will never use, and
this means that others cannot use
them either.
The Society also suggests having a
State Opening of Parliament at the
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start of a new term of government
and not annually. But the Queen
must continue to open parliament
each year, in state, because it acts as
a reminder that she is one of the
three essential elements of the
constitution and it is the only time
these three elements are gathered
together in this way. Her most
important role at the state opening is to
give her blessing to the deliberations of
both houses of parliament and then to
leave them to get on with business.
The Fabians claim they want to sort
out the question of royal finances but
they are less than fair in their findings.
They talk of 23 members of the royal
family, other than the Queen, the Duke
of Edinburgh and Prince Charles,
receiving "state remuneration to
perform public duties". This is simply
not true.
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