King Charles III has long trumpeted his “slimmed-down monarchy” plan long before he took the throne. However, there is one royal critic who seems to think that the monarch isn’t doing enough to cut costs as the U.K. suffers through a cost-of-living crisis.
British taxpayers just learned this week that Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral cost them a whopping sum of $204 million. With King Charles’ “downsized” coronation reportedly costing $125 million (we are still waiting on that final tally), the royal family seems happy to spend everyone’s money without really looking at the optics. And now, the Daily Mail‘s Norman Baker is telling the king that it’s time to rein in the spending.
He wants to know “why should the public pay for such vanity excursions,” including weddings, funerals, and jubilee celebrations. Royalists always double down on the tourism influx, but Baker noted that there were plenty of hotel vacancies the week of Charles’ coronation — this was not a sell-out event. He warned that King Charles “needs to be careful” in an era of anti-monarchy protests, which are growing in number at each royal engagement.
It seems silly that the “pomp and pageantry” is billed as a “public expense” when Charles “sits on a vast private fortune,” but that is how the system is currently set up. Baker is calling for a bigger axe to the royal budget beyond “keeping Andrew, Harry, and Meghan off the palace balcony.” So, it looks like King Charles has some work ahead of him.
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