A Right Royal Mess

This week it was revealed that the royal family cost the British taxpayer £37 million last year, which works out at 61p for every man, woman and child in Britain and includes:

1. A royal train journey made by the Prince of Wales from Aberdeen to Plymouth costing almost £45,000,
2. A further trip by Prince Charles to Sri Lanka, Australia & Fiji by chartered plane that cost £300,000,
3. Another chartered flight by the Duke of York to the Far East to promote UK interests that cost just under £125,000.

This was hailed by Alan Reid, Keeper of the Privy Purse, who described this as "value for money".

Meanwhile in Birmingham a Twenty20 Vision wristband can be bought for £20. The cost includes:

1. A Lance Armstrong style Wristband,
2. Admission to all four Warwickshire Twenty20 games which normally cost £10 each,
3. Free bus travel on selected routes which serve the cricket ground after 15.00 on the day and
4. A £1.20 donation to charity

In fact, it does so much I think it might single-handedly be keeping the local economy running after the collapse of Rover.

There are a million people in Birmingham. If we save the 61p each we can buy 30,500 Twenty20 wristbands.

Not only will it provide even better value for money, but we'll provide some for the Royal Family so they can learn to use the bus.

The royals were also in the news this week as Prince William graduated from St. Andrew's University. One thing the People's Republic noticed was how his name was given as William Wales during the graduation ceremony. His surname is technically "Mountbatten-Windsor" but the story doesn't end there. Mountbatten comes from his grandfather, Price Phillip, who had to select a surname because he didn't have one. He actually comes paternally from the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg. Windsor comes from his grandmother, the Queen and originates from 1917 when George V changed the family's name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha due to anti-German feeling during the war. So his real surname should be:

Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg-Saxe-Coburg-Gotha

The People's Republic proposes that we should remember this royal family as the House of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.