Campaign group Republic has called on Buckingham palace to break with tradition and stop their dishonest spin around the royal finances.
Every year the palace attempts to down play the cost of the monarchy by dividing it by 60 million people then claiming it's no more expensive than a pint of milk or iTunes download. The palace also ignores tens of millions of pounds of public money spent on the monarchy every year.
The royals also try and dodge serious accusations of abusing public money rather than face their responsibilities: this year they are desperately trying to justify £4m of taxpayers' money spent on the grandson of the head of state.
Republic's CEO Graham Smith said today:
"The job of reporting royal finances needs to be taken out of the hands of the palace and given to some honest brokers. The spin has to stop, the excuses have to stop, the royals need to be held to account for their profligacy."
"No other public body divides their costs by the entire population and says 'tadaa! look how cheaper we are!' This nonsense has to be rejected by journalists and politicians alike."
"If MPs said their expenses only cost each voter 50p each that wouldn't wash with the electorate - let's apply the same standards to the royals. £300m - the real figure - is £300m. That's equivalent to thousands of police, nursing or teaching salaries."
"A government department should be responsible for managing these costs and reporting directly to parliament. It's not rocket science."
Republic has released it's own report on the royal finances, showing the total annual bill to be just under £300m. The report can be downloaded at www.republic.org.uk/wortheverypenny.pdf
Every year the palace attempts to down play the cost of the monarchy by dividing it by 60 million people then claiming it's no more expensive than a pint of milk or iTunes download. The palace also ignores tens of millions of pounds of public money spent on the monarchy every year.
The royals also try and dodge serious accusations of abusing public money rather than face their responsibilities: this year they are desperately trying to justify £4m of taxpayers' money spent on the grandson of the head of state.
Republic's CEO Graham Smith said today:
"The job of reporting royal finances needs to be taken out of the hands of the palace and given to some honest brokers. The spin has to stop, the excuses have to stop, the royals need to be held to account for their profligacy."
"No other public body divides their costs by the entire population and says 'tadaa! look how cheaper we are!' This nonsense has to be rejected by journalists and politicians alike."
"If MPs said their expenses only cost each voter 50p each that wouldn't wash with the electorate - let's apply the same standards to the royals. £300m - the real figure - is £300m. That's equivalent to thousands of police, nursing or teaching salaries."
"A government department should be responsible for managing these costs and reporting directly to parliament. It's not rocket science."
Republic has released it's own report on the royal finances, showing the total annual bill to be just under £300m. The report can be downloaded at www.republic.org.uk/wortheverypenny.pdf
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