Australia gives Knighthood to Prince Philip - er, ... A Prince Philip appreciation thread

[kentonio]

Why bother? As I said a lot of it was assumption based (particularly the tourism stuff, because how do you prove conclusively what the tourist numbers would be if the palaces were empty?) but I happen to agree with most of their assumptions. You certainly won't, so there's no useful gain to debating it.

[Dauphin]

Can you show them for me then?

[C0ckney]

having done a little research it appears that there are 115 unicameral parliaments and 64 bicameral parliaments worldwide.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Let's show another factor.

The Royal family don't need Buckingham Palace. They have four other palaces in the near vicinity, plus other palaces in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and a couple of other huge mansions. So it's not being efficiently used.

The Ritz hotel makes about £6 million profit a year. Buckingham Palace is over twice the size of the Ritz, has even more swank value, has unrivalled conference facilities and the largest private gardens in London. Based on the Ritz's performance, any idiot could get a cool £15 million- £20 million profit out of it annually. Instead, the inherent inefficiency of its use means it's a drain on the public purse.

[Hauldren Collider]

Let's show another factor.

The Royal family don't need Buckingham Palace. They have four other palaces in the near vicinity, plus other palaces in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and a couple of other huge mansions. So it's not being efficiently used.

The Ritz hotel makes about £6 million profit a year. Buckingham Palace is over twice the size of the Ritz, has even more swank value, has unrivalled conference facilities and the largest private gardens in London. Based on the Ritz's performance, any idiot could get a cool £15 million- £20 million profit out of it annually. Instead, the inherent inefficiency of its use means it's a drain on the public purse.

Dude, I'd sure as hell pay to stay the night at Buckingham Palace if I were a tourist.

This post has actually changed my views I have now gone from thinking the British monarchy is stupid to actively wanting it to go away so that it will be possible to rent a room at a palace

[kentonio]

Can you show them for me then?

IIRC this was it.

http://www.brandfinance.com/knowledg...chy-as-a-brand

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

In arriving at the tangible value, we have included the value of the Crown Estate, the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall and the Royal Collection. By different, and inevitably arcane, ownership routes these assets all belong to the country as a whole. They are appreciating assets which, at current best estimates, are worth £18 billion. While the Monarchy employs these assets they belong to everyone.

In arriving at the intangible value we have included both economic benefits and costs.

Benefits include the revenue uplifts from tourism, products and industrial sales in addition to free global advertising and public relations. Finally they include the net increment to GDP created by the Royal feel good factor.

Costs include the Civil List, earnings from Royal tangible property (ceded by the country to theMonarchy), security and other costs. Manyof these ‘costs’ are in fact incurred employing the Royal Household and Security staff, many of whom would remain if we had a President rather than a Monarch.

Spot the lack of accounting for inherently inefficient use of Crown Estate resources that I highlighted in my last post. However they win kudos back for their devil-may-care attitude to spell-checking and proofreading. And for the brazen cheek of counting the Crown Estate as a tangible asset of monarchy.

[Alexander's Horse]

The Royal family don't need Buckingham Palace. They have four other palaces in the near vicinity, plus other palaces in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and a couple of other huge mansions. So it's not being efficiently used.

I say move in the comrades and open soup kitchens for the poor. Where is Ken livingstone when you need him?

Tony Benn, RIP, had a lot to say about all this - and he saw it from the inside as a repentent member of the upper class.

[Alexander's Horse]

Tony Abbott announcing Prince Philip - splice into four weddings and funeral

[Alexander's Horse]

Local comedians are having a field day

[Alexander's Horse]

[pchang]

Royal feel good factor??????

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

I'm loving that "brand value of the monarchy" site. It keeps throwing up new chuckles, like this one-

Case Study: Duchy Originals

A brand with perhaps the closest Royal connection of all is Duchy Originals. The brand is named after the Duchy of Cornwall, a series of estates across Cornwall, Devon, Herefordshire, Somerset and Wales of which are controlled by Prince Charles in his capacity as Duke of Cornwall, while the logo is a stylized version of the arms of the Duchy. Launched in 1990, Duchy Originals produces high quality, organic food and fulfils the Prince’s personal goals of organic farming and charitable endeavour. Ingredients are sourced from organic farms across the Duchy of Cornwall and beyond, while a portion of the profits are donated to the Prince’s Charitable Foundation, a figure which has reached over £6million. Since 2010, the brand has been integrated into Waitrose, a Royal Warrant holder, as one of the supermarket’s premium range. The success of the range, which has survived the impact of the recession on premium foods, highlights the enduring appeal and commercial power of the Monarchy.

Nope. It registered an operating loss of £3 million in 2008/2009, after flat-lining the year before. Any normal company of similar size would probably gone bust. Instead it was bailed out by Waitrose, a fact curiously unmentioned in the quote above. And if that's not a big enough question mark over the commercial power of the monarchy, just consider Ardent Productions, Prince Edward's royal-stamp-of-approval Monarchist production company, which sucked in millions and went spectacularly bust in 2002 when there wasn't even the faintest sniff of a recession in sight. How does the brand value site cover that debacle?

Edward set up his own production company, Ardent Productions, but stepped down as director to support the Queen in royal duties and the firm was eventually liquidated.

Y'see?

[kentonio]

Yes ok, the monarchy has no value and the vast crowds of people who visit the UK each year to watch the changing of the guard and gawp at the palaces hoping to catch a glimpse of the royals are actually just a figment of our imaginations, just like the mass media appeal of stories/pictures/scandal involving them.

Why is it so difficult to just hold an ideological position without having to try and rewritd reality to support it? Ok, you dont like the monarchy, good for you, but trying to imply it doesnt have huge mass market appeal is just dishonest.

[C0ckney]

one of the few things that brazilians, who on the whole are pretty ignorant about the outside world, know about the UK is that it has a queen and a royal family, about whom there was a fair bit of media interest when the royal birth happened.