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Comment by laurencerowe | Hacker News Reader

Monarchy is absurd but as Brit it's just not something most of us take seriously. As a recent American I am slightly horrified that school children are expected to swear allegiance to the flag at the start of every school day and local sports games start with the national anthem.

Hard to imagine the US equivalent to the British football stadium crowds chanting "stick the coronation up my arse": https://twitter.com/herecelts/status/1652687767942443009

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"up your arse"

I wouldn't use Celtic is an example of "British Football" or British attitudes. They would likely be offended by that! They are the republican side of the Irish sectarian divide in Glasgow and will sing pro-IRA songs and such.

There is plenty of anti/disinterest in Britain about the Monarchy but probably not enough vitriol to get that chant elsewhere. There would probably need to be a specific catalyst e.g. if Prince Andrew turned up at a game then chants calling him a Paedo would be guaranteed. For most Brits, if you don't like the Monarchy, it's very easy to just ignore it. Celtic is on a different level.

They're a very well-supported club where anti-monarchist songs, chants or signs are completely commonplace and don't ruffle too many feathers generally. Celtic may not like being called "British" and their feelings on the monarchy probably aren't the same as the majority of football supporters in the UK (I'd argue that they are representative of your average Scot) but that wasn't the point.

That said the point was that it's unimaginable that supporters at a US sporting event chanting about how they hate their head of state. I disagree with that - someone is forgetting about the origin of "Let's go Brandon"

This is unfounded speculation but perhaps the difference is that a lot of people in the US voluntarily migrated there, while we know how the English crown got to rule over Wales, Scotland and N. Ireland.....

> I disagree with that - someone is forgetting about the origin of "Let's go Brandon"

The US system is "fine" with 49% of the population hating the elected president. The president is not the monarch, nor representing the supreme political ideal. AFAICT the equivalent of anti-monarchy in the US is denouncing the US constitution.

> we know how the English crown got to rule over Wales, Scotland and N. Ireland

That's true for Wales and Northern Ireland, but the original union of the crowns had the Scottish king becoming the king of both England and Scotland.

But yeah the US equivalent might be insulting the constitution or even the flag.

I take very seriously the hypocrisy, that on the one hand they're only ceremonial but on the other can privately lobby the government, are exempt from multiple laws and taxes, are reportedly billionaires yet still expect taxpayer funding.

The equivalent you might be looking for is the clowns expect us to swear allegiance to them and their offspring on Saturday. I'll happily swear at them but it won't be my allegiance.

Time to end this scam.

They get tax payer funding only because they voluntarily give most of the income to the government.

If you wanted to frame it as a tax rate it'd be high than a normal citizen's.

I'm not ideologically royalist, but I'd rather have the current system than an elected president.

> voluntarily give most of the income to the government

Got a source? According to The Guardian they use no end of smoke and mirrors so the plebs can't find out how much they're worth. Not to mention them not being subject to inheritance tax.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-57559653

So their tax rate is 75% - 85%.

I'm no expert. You may want to read this:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-interactive/2023/apr/...

Doesn't the monarchy have to pay a lot of money for maintenance on the properties that they "own", which the government would have to pay instead if it was confiscated?

Sure, but they also take an extraordinary amount of money from taxpayers. Also, there are issues over whether they own everything they make money from (e.g., properties, and recently a large number of official state gifts). I'd say they're doing rather well off of us ;P

The Gruanidad has been running a series on this (especially nice to see in the run up to the coronation) https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/series/cost-of-the-crown

In particular, from here, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/apr/07/british-roya...

> Elizabeth II and Charles III have extracted cash payments worth more than £1.2bn from two hereditary estates that pay no tax, in addition to the millions they receive in public funding for their official duties. In 2022, they received £21m each from the duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall respectively, despite a centuries-old debate over whether the two estates in fact belong to the British nation.

> can privately lobby the government

Case in point, "The Black Spider Memos":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_spider_memos

The monarchy are bad but they are far from the biggest problem facing the UK. I think we should get rid of them too but suspect it will take another generation or so before it becomes politically Vivek to say so.

Not sure what you mean by the British Royalty not being taken seriously. The UK were throwing anti-royalist protestors into jail this past year... https://www.npr.org/2022/09/12/1122379162/uk-anti-royal-arre...

And John Lydon getting knifed and nearly lynched by a mob for writing God Save the Queen is still somewhat fresh in the British psyche.

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