The Queen's True Worth
 

A new book on it's way:

David McClure has written previously on this topic.

Royal Reporter Richard Palmer has some insights into Mr McClure's new book in regard to the effect of the Coronavirus/Covid 19 pandemic on the Prince of Wales' income.

"A serious financial storm in the near future" for the Duchy of Cornwall.

Prince Charles supports a large personal staff, and has working Royals, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, to consider.

How will the non-working Royals, the Sussex's, fare in a downturn of Charles' ready cash.

Book due out soon - September.

https://www.amazon.com.au/Queens-Tru.../dp/B08DCQZQ9V

Some newpaper articles based on this new book -

https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal...-charles-farms

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...on-higher.html

A little more from "The Queen's True Worth" - by the author himself.

This time in "Town and Country" -

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/so...inancial-cost/


And the "Daily Express" newspaper has been serialising Mr McClure's book for it's readers.

Thank you Sun Lion of the Town and Country article that is written by David McClure. From just reading through the article, McClure goes through a lot of details about the expenses in maintaining estates. Without discrediting McClure, he is "A TV producer and columnist for The Guardian". The Guardian at some point make their left-leaning views and Republicanism (anti-monarchy) quite publicly. I also checked the articles McClure has written for the Guardian, not surprisingly, he is very critical of the Royal Family.

https://www.theguardian.com/profile/david-mcclure

In the Town and Country articles that McClure has written, I could not tell if he was actually a republican, because the points he made were objective.

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/au...david-mcclure/

Putting that aside, it would be interesting to read The Queen's True Worth: Unravelling the public & private finances of Queen Elizabeth II, from the perspective of a Republican with left-leaning opinions, if he actually made his position clear like in the Guardian. If the book is written similarly to the Town and Country's style and tone, then I don't think readers would be "turn off" by the overtly criticism.

How do you work out HM's true worth? It is extremely complicated. The Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, and Windsor Castle all in Right of the Crown. Work that one out. Then the art work in all of those palaces is owned by the Monarch. So said Royalty magazine in 1992 in an article on Christopher Lloyd her purveyor of The Queens pictures. Back then the art work was valued/estimated to be worth seven billion. The paintings belong to HM nothing was said about it being in right of the crown.

Then there are her investments in other countries mainly Commonwealth countries. In 1977, when I was in Tamworth NSW the locals were all talking about her visit to open a new
building. That is when I saw her and Prince Philip drive by in a Bentley. The locals all said she owned a large property/ranch outside of town. I found that very interesting?

Don't forget she inherited diamond mines in Sth Africa from her father.
Back to Australia, I have met quite a few workers from Rio Tinto in Western Australia who all told me she owned 52% of Rio Tinto. That let me tell you is worth billions. I could never understand why the Merlin diamond mine in the Northern Territory found a very large diamond around 105 carats and they gave it to Queen Elizabeth 11. It was in the news at the time. It was owned by Rio Tinto.

So working out how much Her Majesty is worth is extremely difficult especially as financial assets are bought and sold. We don't know what she owns in Canada or New Zealand for instance.
Then there is her stock market portfolio. Remember how disappointed she was during the GFC in 2008.

:previous:


Well, fact is, after the fire in Windsor the Queen volunteered to pay taxes in exchange for some funding to repair the Castle.

A Queen, which pays taxes! And if she cheats, will she then be thrown into the Tower? This was a bitter loss of sovereignity!

Just because of the lack of monies!

That's true Victor. HM pays taxes on investments in the UK. I couldn't say what the tax arrangements are on foreign investments.

I have heard some people said that The Queen is the biggest tax contributor, if you consider the percentage (25%) that goes into the Sovereign grant, while the rest (75%) goes into the Treasury. On top of that, she may have paid income tax and other taxes (which I am unsure of).

I'm not quite sure if I should put it in this thread or the Royal Wealth & Finances thread.

Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis (Labour life peer in the House of Lords) has tweeted out and tagged David McClure.

Andrew Adonis @Andrew_Adonis
The royal finances are deliberately opaque but @davidjmcclure’s new book shows that the monarchy enjoyed a bonanza from big increases in state support after 2010 plus historic Duchy of Lancaster & Cornwall revenues. These are gifted from the state & not ‘private’
7:40 PM · Sep 24, 2020·Twitter for iPhone

https://twitter.com/Andrew_Adonis/st...65121994608642

To which Graham Smith (CEO of Republic UK) replied

Graham Smith (not that kind of republican) @GrahamSmith_
Replying to @Andrew_Adonis and @davidjmcclure
Yep. The answer is a republic

Baron Adonis has also tweeted a picture of an extract from the book, The Queen's True Worth

Andrew Adonis @Andrew_Adonis
The media & Parliament do a bad job of holding the monarchy to account for its huge revenues: the media only cares about the celebrity side while party leaders stop parliamentary scrutiny lest it be thought anti-monarchist (which it isn’t). @davidjmcclure’s book is timely
11:33 PM · Sep 25, 2020·Twitter for iPhone

https://twitter.com/Andrew_Adonis/st...86258159341568

He definitely has been reading the book, which was proven by an earlier tweet with a picture of the cover

Andrew Adonis @Andrew_Adonis
Today’s book. Fascinating on the finances of the monarchy by ⁦@davidjmcclure
8:48 PM · Sep 25, 2020·Twitter for iPhone

https://twitter.com/Andrew_Adonis/st...44709807521793


I am not quite sure if Baron Adonis is a Republican (Anti-monarchist). He is more widely known to be staunch Remainer, who strongly opposes Brexit.

That is not correct. It is the other way round, she does not pay 75% from the Crown Estate, of which zero comma zero is hers. Instead she receives 25% from the Crown Estate.

The Crown Estate funds the Treasury "for the benefit of the Nation". It is not the private property of the monarch - it cannot be sold by the monarch, nor do revenues from it belong to the monarch. The Crown Estate is a Public Body of which the Treasury is the "mother department."

From an historic perspective: At 1066 the ancestor of the Windsors, William the Conqeror, owned the whole land - at least for one second: Before he shared it with is Barons.

And more and more land was given to the Barons or later taken away from the Crown by force.

The Crown Estate, of which's income the Crown gets a precentage, is the mere rest of it.

That is true, but essentially it is the equivalent of saying: "5% of all North Sea oil revenues flow to the Sovereign Grant." Then it still is 5% from the revenues flowing into public money to be allocated for the Sovereign (and for an example not spent to education or housing). Some posters seem to think "the Sovereign Grant is essentially the Queen funding the monarchy by her own assets: the Crown Estate". That is not true.

Perhaps: By the Crown's "former" own assets. But you are right: If bad came to worse and the Monarchy would be abolished, the Windsors would get nothing out of the Crown Estate, I am sure.

David McClure has written another article for Town & Country, this time on the Duchy of Lancaster. The heading is A Closer Look at Queen Elizabeth’s Most Elusive Estate: The Duchy of Lancaster. The blurb is This vast holding, first established in 1399, has become a major source of income for the Queen. As at the end of the article mentioned, it is adapted by Mr. McClure from his new book, The Queen’s True Worth.

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/so...ter-explained/

He did tweeted out as a promotion of his article on Town & Country

David McClure @davidjmcclure
The Queen's shape-shifting Duchy of Lancaster is now the wellspring of her wealth, topping up the monarchy's public grant and no longer being a private estate. Me in @TandCmag based on my new book The Queen's True Worth (@lume_books available via Amazon)
5:14 PM · Sep 27, 2020·Twitter Web App

https://twitter.com/davidjmcclure/st...15676036706305

I always roll my eyes when someone moans about the mone6the govt gives "HM". it is of course to maintain crown property and pay for those horrendously expensive state dinners when the government wants to be very welcoming or cool and remote. It takes a small army to organize one of those and the whole deal doesn't come cheap.

The costs of a State Dinner really is just a fraction of the total budget. Everything one needs for a diner: the venue, the ameublement, the linen, crystal, porcelain, gold- and silverware is just there. As are the kitchen brigade, the footmen and all the staff around. A State Banquet is the most glittering event but actually can be quite cheaper than a Garden Party outside.

The absolute bulk of the costs of all monarchies is in the staffing, the pensions, the maintenance, the security. Proof of the pudding? In this Corona year without barely any grand event the expenditure of the Royal Household is hardly different from the one in a year with three State Visits.

David McClure has tweeted out a photo of a short report from the Telegraph, where Camilla Tominey quoted him and paraphrase some content in his book

David McClure @davidjmcclure
"The more the turbines turn on the coastal wind farms, the more the Crown Estate becomes a money-spinner for the monarchy" me and my new book The Queen's True Worth quoted in a piece by @CamillaTominey in @Telegraph
5:53 PM · Oct 7, 2020·Twitter for Android

https://twitter.com/davidjmcclure/st...34268489797632