By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions. We in turn value your personal details in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
Please log in or register. Registered visitors get fewer ads.
On my way to work this morning I helped a fairy get up after she'd fallen over. 'That was kind of you', she said, 'in return, I'll grant you a wish - anything you like'.
'ok', I said, 'I wish to live forever '.
'ah', she says. 'I'm afraid that is the one wish I cannot grant.'
'mmm' I replied. 'ok then, I wish to die when England win the world cup'.
Ritchie Benaud. Knowledgeable, calm with no hysterics, and that gift for.not saying too much - most of them want to dominate to the extent that it's about them rather than the game. It also helped that he was a really cool bloke.
It is indeed the case that it was originally 25%, so this represents some progress, but you don't have to be a raving Marxist to be of the opinion that the profits from our off-shore wind should go towards investment in renewable energy rather than swelling the royal coffers. As to how it's all spent, this is far from clear as the Royal administrators are notoriously cagey despite repeated freedom of information requests from journalists. And the Crown still gets lots of dosh from multiple sources - as well as the Sovereign Grant (untaxed) and Crown Estate, there's also the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, so-called private estates that are not private enough to pay corporation tax (even income tax and capital gains tax are only paid voluntarily, and of course no inheritance tax is paid either).
We have the most expensive monarchy in Europe by far in terms of state support, and one that benefits from unique tax treatment available to nobody else.
It's technically independent of both the monarch and the government, but due to a deal done with the government during the Cameron years, the monarch gets 12% of its profits which as I've said has gone up substantially during recent years due to offshore wind farms. This is in addition to the so-called sovereign grant, which has also gone up significantly (£132.1 million in 2025-6 from £86.3 million the previous year).
Nothing against Charles or the Royal Family generally, but the finances need looking at. Among the most obvious injustices are the profits made from the king's property management company, which has made more than £1bn for the third consecutive year thanks to the boom in offshore windfarms paid for through energy bills.
The so-called 'crown estate', the royals’ portfolio of land and property, reported £1.2bn in profit for the last financial year, almost three times the amount it made three years ago. Two-thirds came from the offshore wind industry. Wind developers paid £875m in option fees last year to secure areas of the seabed from the crown estate, which is considered the legal owner of the ocean floor around much of the country. And once new windfarms begin generating low-carbon electricity the developers will be required to pay the crown estate a portion of the revenue they collect from energy bills.
The crown estate also plans to increase the annual pay packet of its chief executive, Dan Labbad, by almost 20%, the fourth consecutive hike. Labbad will take home almost £2.33m for the last financial year, up from almost £1.95m the year before, and more than four times the £517,000 he received in 2019 when he stepped into the role.
A few years back, same thing happened to the person next to me. When he remonstrated with the parents, they replied that they didn't want to tell their brat to stop as they 'believed in self-expression'. The guy immediately turned around and emptied the contents of a yoghurt pot on the child's head, thus causing mayhem mid-air. When challenged, he just said he was 'expressing himself'. To be fair, it did diffuse the situation a bit, as everyone except the parent started laughing.
With a Scottish mother and Belgian father, I'm always in two minds. That until, someone gave me a shirt with 'Dykes' written on it, which I fear will get some comments.
Either way. Fk England. That is, until Eze scores.
Had a chat with a self-proclaimed Arsenal fan sporting a shiny looking team shirt on the tube going home from central London on Sunday evening. He claimed to have supported them 'for years' but when attempting to talk it was obvious that I knew more about them than he did. I suspect that he just bought the shirt to watch the final game and feel good by being part of the merry mass on Sunday. Sad, If you ask me, but understandable I guess.
That was my judgement until he told me that, as with me of course, that he'd been born in Hammersmith. Treasonous tw*t.
I remember someone saying to me that they were dreading the game - and indeed the warning signs had been there: whilst we beat them comfortably at home that season the away game was a strange one, ending 3-3, and I came away from that one moaning that we had been too easy to score against (there were a number of games where we conceded 4 or 3 away that season). However, the week before the final we'd beaten Leicester away 1-4 so I was hoping they'd take that confidence to the game. I don't think we even managed a shot on target. And then the following game we got royally thrashed at home against Spurs 1-5 and I was so depressed I barely spoke to anyone for weeks. Bloody team.
Windsor Castle on Harrow Road one of my favs back in the day. Many great memories - Dr Feelgood, Rory Gallagher, Wishbone Ash, Jethro Tull, Rod Stewart and many bands well before they were famous - U2, Madness, The Jam and many more playing to often sparse audiences at most (according to one story, Iron Maiden turned up to play but refused to play to a near-empty pub leading to an argument with the landlord who subsequently barred them).
The place is still there, sort of, but long since unoccupied.
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
