I came across a gem of an article over at Jezebel dealing with royal finances in Britain. The headline pretty much sums up the author’s attitude: “Queen of England has been Queening So Hard Lately that the Taxpayers are Giving Her an Enormous Raise.”
In the article, Erin Gloria Ryan claims that the Queen’s “salary” went from $44.8 million to $56 million. There’s one problem with that assertion: the Queen doesn’t get a salary. The $56 million figure refers to the Sovereign Support Grant, which is intended to defray the costs of being head of state. Calling that the Queen’s salary is a bit like calling the White House administrative budget President Obama’s salary.
It’s also worth noting that the Sovereign Support Grant is not paid for through taxation. As the Jezebel article correctly points out, it’s a portion of the profits from the Crown Estate, which is a multi-billion pound property portfolio. Despite the name, the vast majority of its profits go into the public purse. The Queen only receives 15% of the estate’s net revenue from the financial year two years prior.
If Ms. Ryan had done her homework instead of relying on a single article from NBC, she might have adopted a less sensational tone (and there’s really no excuse for not doing the research, considering HM Treasury provides a very informative page about the Sovereign Support Grant). Then again, the prosaic truth doesn’t generate as many page hits.
Codex Lochianus 