So, how much does the queen cost?

[andrewducker]

via draxar

Comments

[matgb]

Dislike the tourist profit argument. Last I looked (and it was half a decade ago) France takes more tourist revenue from tourists, including US visitors than us.

Simple reason, we have Buckingham Palace, open a few days a year if she's not in residence and mostly closed off anyway. They have the Louvre. Which would you rather visit?

But the rest looks sound, I just dislike it when the main arguments in favour of keeping are marketing based and false anyway, there're much better arguments based on actually sound constitutional principles &c.

[innerbrat]

Plus a few British bonus points for using '7,000 million' instead of the American 'billion'.
Minus many more for capitalising 'republican'. They're not members of an American political party.

[spacelem.livejournal.com]

It makes me so happy that someone else noticed this! One billion = million^2 = 10^12. Or at least that's how I mentally translate numbers. One trillion is a really, really big number, not something that Bill Gates is approaching any time soon.

[innerbrat]

Mind you, the British billion is not the international standard, and it's quite correct to use the American billion in academic papers or anything designed to be read internationally.

That's my palaeontolgy background for you.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Hm. I'm generally in favour of not rocking the boat when it comes to the constitutional monarchy, but I'm not sure about the figures. I doubt the Queen would actually get to keep all the royal lands owned by George III if she became a private citizen, and aren't death duties supposed to claw it back from her in a few generations?

[andrewducker]

I'd imagine that death duties would work really well to claw a lot of it back quickly.

[lpetrazickis.livejournal.com]

I entirely fail to believe in the inviolable sanctity of royal property. Nationalize the lot once Good Queen Elly kicks the bucket. I have no interest in ever seeing HarryWilliamCharles on Canadian money.

links for 2011-07-20

[pingback-bot.livejournal.com]

User innerbrat referenced to your post from links for 2011-07-20 saying: [...] So, how much does the queen cost? [...]

[chuma.livejournal.com]

The guy who does these, apart from being Yahtzee Crowshaw's long lost cousin, is awesome. He needs a 5 minute BBC2 segment.

[andrewducker]

Yeah - his videos are awesome.

The BBC should do a best of the net. I'm sure they'd be thoroughly oversubscribed.

[eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com]

cheerleaders, soldiers, hamburger, a guy with a big gut, flag, bald eagle, that pretty much sums it all up. Now I want a hamburger.

[eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com]

needs a really big car though, or maybe a pickup truck

[eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com]

also, GOD BLESS THE AMERICAN TOURISTS

[d-c-m.livejournal.com]

I wondered about that and I am not surprised it is true.

Still, how did the royals get that land?

[andrewducker]

The Feudal System :->

But taking things off people that own them _now_ because of things that happened hundreds of years ago is not likely to happen.

[d-c-m.livejournal.com]

Yup. I figured as much.