HERE in Britain, we have an exclusive club for multi-millionaires — exclusive because the only people who can join it are members of the Royal Family.
The benefits are very generous and unique. Special tax breaks, increasingly large handouts from the public purse and the ability to keep your will secret, so no one really knows how much you have amassed.
No senior royal — with one exception — is worth less than £20million.
So where has all this money come from? They haven’t won it on the horses, or on the lottery.
And they certainly have not worked for it.
First, there’s the Sovereign Grant, the annual payment from the government to the Queen. This has rocketed from £7.9million in 2011 to a whopping £85.9million last year.
And that does not include an estimated £200million on security costs, often to “protect” minor royals you have probably never heard of.
One reason for the whopping increase is the disastrous decision of then Chancellor George Osborne to let the Queen have 25 per cent of the income from the Crown Estates which, despite the name, have been in public hands since 1760.
This body owns a quarter of a million acres, lots of scattered properties and, importantly, river and sea beds.
The sea beds alone are giving the Queen a bumper windfall of hundreds of millions from the construction of wind farms — money that should be going into the public purse.
Why are we handing over hundreds of millions in public money to possibly the richest family in Britain when people up and down the country are struggling with high energy bills and queuing in food banks?
And compare the funding for our royals with what other European monarchies get: UK £86million, Belgium £12million, Denmark £10million and Sweden £6million.
Second, there are the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall. These are ancient royal lands going back to the 14th century.
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The only reason they were not handed over to the public in 1760 along with the Crown Estates is because they were at the time basically worthless.
The Duchy of Lancaster was worth just £16.92 in 1760. Now they are worth millions.
The Duchy of Lancaster owns the Savoy Estate covering much of central London — fields back in 1399 when the Duchy was founded, hugely valuable real estate today.
The Duchy of Cornwall, which provides over £20million a year to Prince Charles, dates from 1337 and calls itself a private estate, except when it comes to paying tax, when it calls itself public.
Unlike any other estate, it pays no corporation tax. This Duchy too owns vast swathes of property across the country.
In London this includes the Oval cricket ground. Extra cover for Prince Charles to hit the taxpayer for six.
But as mentioned, there is now one exception to the super-wealthy club: Andrew, the Grand Old Duke of Sleaze.
As revealed in The Celeb Report yesterday, it looks like Andrew will be cadging off Her Majesty to help keep himself and Fergie afloat.
But we need an absolute assurance that this will not involve public money.
If the Queen uses Duchy of Lancaster money — as seems likely — she could offset that against tax as a business expense.
That would mean less tax paid and so a public subsidy for Andrew’s shenanigans.
That cannot be allowed to happen. The public would find the idea revolting.
We need a clear statement that any money the Queen hands over will have no implication — directly or indirectly — for the public purse.
Going forward, the sad reality for Andrew is that he is going to have to start living within his means. But then, the pariah prince won’t be receiving many invitations.
