As we’ve discussed, Buckingham Palace released a lot of Sovereign Grant numbers to show where the taxpayers’ money has gone during 2020 and the first half of 2021. It should be noted that a lot of these numbers and press releases are purposefully obtuse – this is not meant to be any kind of comprehensive audit, and internal palace numbers will never be broken down and itemized in any way. Plus, for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge specifically, they’re being financially supported by both the Sovereign Grant and Prince Charles’ Duchy of Cornwall money. Charles pays for the Cambridges’ upkeep, office staff, keen fancams and all of those buttons. But taxpayers (through the Sovereign Grant) are paying for Will and Kate’s travels, security, and transportation. Remember how the Queen bribed Will & Kate with their own helicopter? Yeah, that goes on BP’s ledger. Remember the Covid Choo-Choo tour? The travel expenses are on BP’s ledger. Speaking of:
The 1,250-mile royal journey by rail set off from London, a few weeks before Christmas last year, to thank communities, outstanding individuals and key workers for their efforts during the coronavirus pandemic. The couple made stops in Edinburgh, Manchester, Berwick, Batley, Cardiff and Bath Spa and ended their three-day tour by visiting the Queen at Windsor Castle.
The cost of the train is met by the taxpayer and has long been controversial with the service nearly scrapped in 2013 when it was feared the rolling stock would have to be replaced. During the Golden Jubilee year of 2002, the train’s journeys cost £872,000.
The royal accounts revealed the Cambridges’ journey cost £47,965 and the monarchy only made a handful of major royal trips due to the pandemic.
The most expensive was the Prince of Wales’ charter flight in October to Kuwait to pay his condolences following the death of the country’s Emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, at a cost of £58,993.
The overall cost for royal travel during 2020-21 was £3.2 million, down by £2.1 million on the previous financial year, but despite the reduced number of trips a significant amount of the funds was used for leasing payments for the transportation.
The cost of helicopters was £2.1 million, including operating lease payments of £600,000, large and small fixed wing aircraft cost £100,000 each, rail travel was £700,000, which included lease payments of £200,000, and vehicles £200,000.
I kind of think they’re low-balling the cost of the Covid Choo Choo tour. The £47,965 just accounts for the cost of the train, I believe, and that definitely seems like a low number. But then you have to take into account all of the buttons, extra staffers, dumbass videos and such. All for their stupid super-spreader tour which no one wanted.
The cost of the helicopters is of particular interest to me – think about how infrequently most royals were traveling in 2020. It was really just Charles, Camilla, William and Kate doing any kind of traveling. So why is that helicopter flight number so high? How often were Will and Kate flying back and forth from London to Norfolk, not to mention all of the other helicopter trips they take? As Omid points out, no one dares itemize the helicopter trips either.
The report also shares travel costs (including the Cambridge’s UK train tour and Prince Charles’ flights to Kuwait to pay condolences to country’s emir) but doesn’t itemise trips under £15,000—meaning the 47 royal helicopter trips totalling £669,149/$934,510 don’t get detailed. pic.twitter.com/wPkXaJvRXn
— Omid Scobie (@scobie) June 23, 2021
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red.
That choo-choo number is low-balled by a lot! No way that several days of travel via a private train that disrupts the public system is that cheap! Those 47 journeys via helicopter though. That’s some juicy rose tea waiting to be spilled. I mean if Baldingham is still in the rose bushes business, he could be trimming other bushes near Norfolk as far as we know.
I bet the price for the Covid choo-choo train does not include the cost for additional salaries which is one reason the number looks so low-ball.
Especially when they weren’t allowed to travel between regions for large portions of 2020. But they really should be detailing when and where those trips were taken.
Does the Crown have a long-term lease on that helicopter or do they just “rent” it for each trip? An answer to this question could solve the mystery around the $£$£$£$ spent on helicopters? Also, is the salary of the pilot included in a “lease agreement” or that an additional charge per flight trip?
I think salary costs are computed separately from transportation costs. I know that’s how I do it when I have to estimate costs for a particularly projects. My costs are x $/day, then the vehicle costs x $/mile + gas, & so on. This document isn’t really the breakdown that it purports to be. And 47 helicopter trips is almost 4/mo, which means weekly. That’s a lot of to-ing & fro-ing. By helicopter, no less.
I can’t remember the context, but I believe it’s a long term lease for the helicopters. Which makes sense. Another company would maintain them.
William and Kate one year we’re often seen flying for leisure until a ban was put on photos of them within KP. That was after will and Kate returned from a joint event. One got into a car and another a helicopter heading in separate directions and they never glanced at each other. One of the many press protections they enjoy.
It also came after years of criticism that Kate’s preferred mode of transportation was a heli.
To her parents, to AH, to catch a flight for vacation, to shop. It was hard to ignore.
This is why they built the hedge at KP – so people couldn’t track their comings and goings.
I think the helicopter usage used to be more detailed – or at least broke it down by personal and work travel. Then they stopped doing that so people would watch the royals leave KP and see if they were wearing work clothes or casual clothes to infer whether it was work or personal. So then they built the hedge.
The fact that taxpayers are paying for William (and Kate) to fly back and forth for the weekends in Norfolk when they could take a train is appalling.
William flies a helicopter, remember. So firstly, there is no pilot salary, and secondly, because he *can* fly, then yes, it’s him and Waity doing their weekly jaunt to their country pile so he can at least throw a leg over his favourite rose bush….
Wow, cost Mr Rage and Mrs Buttons a lot of money to breathe on kids!
£47k is probably just the cost of running the train itself. If we take into account staff salaries, clothing and security, the cost would jump up. And that goes for probably all the tours/trips.
And 47 helicopter trips?!?!? That’s almost 4 a month and almost once a week?!?!?! In a time where people were /supposed/ to stay at home
Ha, Sofia! I just typed the same thing above. Weekly helicopter trips, during a pandemic!
You can bet they’d defend it as being “safer.” Also, as I wrote above, there’s no pilot fees, as Will is a helicopter pilot and you can bet he’d be flying himself.
So they send out a cost breakdown that isn’t really a cost breakdown? What’s the point of it then? More palace pr?
I will be needing actual numbers for all this bullshit spending please
Maybe Katie mcbuttons was sending the helicopter to buckelberry to bring her mummy to and fro every weekend. Can’t talk about that though because that would be breaking lockdown rules. Mummy was needed because Willy went gardening on the weekend
The lack of details about the helicopters rides. I mean true details would be dates and providing who got in the helicopter and where it went each time. So technically each ride could be compared with the court circular to show that it was actually being used for royal work. Surely the helicopters wouldn’t be used excessively between households by one royal member while another another royal member stayed somewhere else. Can’t imagine why we don’t get details of the helicopter rides.
I think you identified exactly why there are no details on the helicopter rides. If everything was aboveboard then we would have the details.
That’s too many helicopter trips during a pandemic and I’m sure 47 is not the correct number. The Royal Train ride was a waste of money but we all know the reason for that train ride was because Meghan travelled on it with the Queen.
It’s beyond me why they need to spend so much for helicopters and aircraft to get around their teeny tiny little country. Just get a luxury van and a driver.
I said this on the other post, but 47 rides is nearly one per week, which seems an awful lot like a regular commute… maybe between properties, if one has to visit the children or attend a family event and doesn’t want the public to know they’re not living at home?
ETA: also, does anyone know the travel protocol for heirs? Not to be morbid, but there should definitely be rules/guidelines about how many heirs to the throne can travel together, for safety? Like putting heirs 2-5 in the same helicopter repeatedly seems unduly risky, so to me it’s not very likely these are all family trips. One or two, sure, especially for the photo-op (so you can then deny any other, more untoward usage), but 47? No way.
This always really bothered me. Especially after what happened to Kobe and his family😓
There ARE rules and guidelines, but they started to get ignored a bit by Charles and Diana for tours when they had William as Charles did not want to subject his kids to the same sort of semi-abandonment as a toddler he had to go through, and I think it wasn’t until both Will and Harry were boarding school-aged that Charles and Diana did joint out of the country tours without the kids. Will & Kate and Harry & Meghan have continued the trend, but now that George is 8 Will & Kate are likely to consider changing that.
I have to fly in a helicopter periodically for work and even with a great pilot, it *is* risky. I would much rather take the train or drive.
The helicopters!! My gosh. I’d love to fly in one once in a lifetime. This is like their own personal uber. It’s like that bit in Broad City where the kid Ilana is babysitting is being whisked away in an ‘uber’ but it’s a helicopter. Urgh abolish the monarch already please.
Imagine giving that money to NGO’s? All this money spent only for PR… it’s mind blowing specially in a context of a pandemic where so many people lost their jobs…
I wonder if the Keens are going to stage another budget flight stunt to juxtapose to Charles’ 58k pound charter flight to Kuwait.
Where is all the indignation about “preaching” environmentalism and flying private and using helicopters? I think the royals should have to do like other government travelers and provide a cost analysis and use the cheapest method of getting somewhere. Also an analysis of carbon usage comparison should be made for the environmentalists.
The train trip costs are definitely low – that’s probably just the cost of actually operating the train, no other costs associated with the trip.
the helicopter travel is BAD. 47 trips!
If we assume they followed the rules (big assumption) and didn’t travel anywhere really from March to probably June, maybe even later (whenever they went to wales and remember their vacation to Cornwall) then its not even 47 trips in a year. It’s 47 trips in 9 months.
What I want to know is does that include out and back or is it one way? If William flew to Norfolk to spend the weekend, is that one trip, and then the flight back another trip? Does the helicopter stay in Norfolk or does it go back to London (so then its more flights than just the 47). The lack of transparency here is staggering.
They could have “escaped” to an island in a private jet, they were not on the radar all the time.
Totally worth it for Keen to show up in wigs, buttons and plaid.
I’m sure Scotland will be glad to stay and keep paying for trips from royals who have been asked not to come.
Abolish the monarchy. We’re already opting out of celebrating colonization but not them, how does that make sense.
That first photos showing the air droplets that spread covid captures the stupidity of that tour.
And now it is known neither of them had gotten vaccines when they went on tour.
Agree. If ever there were proof of how droplets spread, it is that photo. They should have made posters of it and slapped “Protect the NHS” across the bottom. They are the ultimate covidiots.
Ha, ha… I read the header as “dangerous.” That works as well.
These two don’t come cheap.
And yet their behaviour is so cheap and demeaning.
The tabloids should be making noise about these extravagant helicopters rides at taxpayers expense. Instead they choose to battle over the Queen’s nickname which does not cost a penny to the taxpayers.
Where are the views of Camilla Tominey, Richard Kay, Piers Morgan, Dan Wotton, Sarah Vine etc on unnecessary and exorbitant helicopter rides and other travel expenses incurred by the Royals at taxpayers expenses?
Gone were the days when journalists focused on what really matters to the taxpayers. For eg, on 9.2. 2016 Kate was widely criticised for taking a helicopter trip from London to Norfolk costing 3000 pounds when the Queen herself travelled by train at the cost of 54 pounds.
The world has lost respect for the British monarchy and Boris Johnson.
As a UK kid, I grew up being told how the world envied our monarchy and that Americans were particularly jealous of us. The absolute joke of it!