It’s by no means unusual for a new broom to sweep away the excesses of the past or attempt to, and King Charles isn’t the first senior figure to voice concern at the size and complexity of the Royal Household.
Prince Philip was definitely aware of how many people it took to run the larger royal residences and said so.
There was a time when Prince Philip had a few days free and thought it would be a good idea to spend them at Sandringham. He hadn’t even settled in when he looked out of the window and observed a busload of staff arriving, from telephonists to cooks, all needed to run the Big House for the few days he would be there.
He was horrified. Fortunately, Wood Farm became vacant shortly thereafter. (This was the house where Prince John, uncle to the late Queen’s father, George VI, had lived until his demise in 1919).
It was much smaller and could be run with a skeleton staff. So, from then on, that’s where he and the Queen tended to visit, except when they opened Sandringham House for family parties at Christmas or in the summer.
Wood Farm is where Prince Philip lived in retirement between 2017 and 2020.
However frustrated he might have been with the extensive entourage, and perhaps, the flummery involved, Prince Philip was not the monarch. Now his son Charles is flexing his muscles and no doubt change will soon ensue.
According to a newspaper outlet, the King is fed up with hearing ‘this is how it was done in the Queen’s reign’.
He’s identified that sometimes the same job is done repeatedly when it only needs to be done once and that if a maid attends to a room, should her work really be checked by three others?
It’s suggested that the King intends to tighten the ship, decrease the number of those employed and instead pay fewer people better wages.
It’s more than understandable that Queen Elizabeth II ran things in her own particular way and equally understandable that the King will wish to do some reorganising.
Quite rightly the Queen ran her household along established lines and no one could possibly accuse her of being personally extravagant. She was significantly different from the Queen Mother who ran her court in an extravagantly Edwardian way.
I’m not suggesting that we should cut the Royal Household to the bone, but if they want all that staff they should at least pay for it out of their own money because they should pay their own way for some things. The rest of the country has to pay for everything out of their own money, so why shouldn’t they?
Like it or not though, they do bring a lot of revenue to this country through tourism.
However, is this the same Prince Philip, who acquired such immense wealth during his marriage, that the terms of his will were not open to the public? Is this the same Prince Philip who whined about a lack of funds and a fear that he might have to sell his polo ponies?
Is this the same Prince Philip who insisted on receiving a taxpayer-funded allowance while married to the Queen? The same Prince Philip who didn’t think that his family should be paying inheritance tax or income tax and only under duress came to a voluntary agreement for the payment of income tax?
Yes, that’s him, the same one.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 