"The Monarchy is not paid for by taxes."

Well, according to the ever-reliable wikipedia: "Only the Queen officially receives direct funding from the Civil List. The Queen's consort (Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh) receives £359,000 per year. The Queen, as head of state, receives £7,900,000 from the Civil List to defray some of the official expenditure of the monarchy."

Er, isn't this funded by the Treasury? It looks like Gideon is about to give the poor, cash-strapped old dears a bit more too.


Keith: The boats were excellent (as I said earlier), and funded privately. Wonderful sight. Thanks for the Mori poll figures. Just wondered how you knew. I didn't see the republican display, I was at our village street party, doing my bit. Were you involved at all?