Queen asks for poverty grant to heat palaces

Hugh Freaking Dillon

http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/msnb ... d=25697524

:shock:

Report: Queen made bid for poverty grant


Photo by John Stillwell - WPA Pool/Getty Images

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LONDON - Critics slammed Britain's Queen Elizabeth II after a report revealed that a senior aide asked the government if the monarch would be eligible for an anti-poverty grant to heat her palaces, Sky News reported on Friday.

"It's appalling, it's the most crass thing I have ever heard in my life," Sky quoted Graham Smith, a spokesman for Republic, a campaign group calling for the monarchy to be scrapped, as saying. "The anti-poverty grant is meant to go to needy people — and the idea that the palace can take money from the poor to bankroll the rich is disgusting."


According to a freedom of information request, the royal aide wrote the government in 2004 complaining that the cost of heating the monarch's homes had doubled to 1 million pounds ($1.58 million) a year, Sky reported. The aide also said the 15 million pounds the royal household received to maintain the buildings was inadequate, according to Sky.

The request was turned down in a letter, Sky reported.


"I ... feel a bit uneasy about the probable adverse press coverage if the Palace were given a grant at the expense of say a hospital," a government official explained to the royal aide in an email, Sky reported. "Sorry this doesn't sound more positive."

"I think this is where the Community Energy Funding is directed and ties in with most allocations going to community heating schemes run by local authorities, housing associations, universities etc," the email read.


The Queen already gets 38.2 million pounds a year from the government, which includes 7.9 million pounds to cover staff salaries and her personal spending.

Cosmo

Tell that bitch Cosmo says to put on a goddamn sweater... or move into a condo with central heating.

catefrances

heres a tip for you betty... sell one of your palaces and pay for your own heating.

Byrnzie

Doesn't surprise me. The rich and powerful in England have been fleecing the country for years. And it's about to get worse now with the Lib-Con's upcoming spending cuts which will target the poor to the tune of £4bn.

Random_Wookie

i am not sure what to say, but that is fubar

nuffingman

Byrnzie wrote:

Doesn't surprise me. The rich and powerful in England have been fleecing the country for years. And it's about to get worse now with the Lib-Con's upcoming spending cuts which will target the poor to the tune of £4bn.

This seems about right to me as the rich and powerful in all countries have been fleecing the people for years. The £4bn in spending cuts are going to hit most of us not just the poor. I think that's a bit of underhanded Labour propoganda. I certainly can't be classed as poor but with all the cancelling of contracts and budget reductions I'm going to notice a huge downturn in work.

As for the Queen asking for this it's just another example of how the wealthy are completely out of touch with reality.

blackredyellow

My first reaction when reading that was that it was something from the onion...

dimitrispearljam

any link for donation?

dimitrispearljam

dimitrispearljam wrote:

any link for donation?

but as Gary said,,,no need donation..God will save her.. :roll:

BinauralJam

She's Old, Old people get Cold. Give her the $$$, she'll be dead soon, let her be warm until then.

Kel Varnsen

catefrances wrote:

heres a tip for you betty... sell one of your palaces and pay for your own heating.

She could sell one of her palaces, but that would end up costing the UK government a crap load of money. Basically how it works is that the Royal Family has all these properties which they basicaly sign over to the government. Those properties make somewhere in the neighboorhood of 300 million pounds per year for the government. In exchange the government pays the royal family something like 8 million pounds per year to pay for things like staff and expenses and property maintenance that sort of thing. And that doesn't even factor in the amount of money that tourists bring to the UK thanks to the Royal family. So really if anything the queen brings in way more money to the UK than she costs (by something close to a factor of 50 times).

Claireack

Don't know what to say to this - bit gobsmacked tbh.

pandora

oh my

I guess everyone's hurting

catefrances

Kel Varnsen wrote:

catefrances wrote:

heres a tip for you betty... sell one of your palaces and pay for your own heating.

She could sell one of her palaces, but that would end up costing the UK government a crap load of money. Basically how it works is that the Royal Family has all these properties which they basicaly sign over to the government. Those properties make somewhere in the neighboorhood of 300 million pounds per year for the government. In exchange the government pays the royal family something like 8 million pounds per year to pay for things like staff and expenses and property maintenance that sort of thing. And that doesn't even factor in the amount of money that tourists bring to the UK thanks to the Royal family. So really if anything the queen brings in way more money to the UK than she costs (by something close to a factor of 50 times).

yeah... my heart bleeds for the monarchy.as for those who support such a system... but i do like castles.