A question to those in the UK

[SamuelRSmith]

TheRealMafoo said:

kowenicki said:

Well I suppose we could go for presidents and get people like Nixon, Carter and Bush jnr in on the act.....
Then again.....

The Royal family have no real power any more and cost the UK tax payer 69p per person per year. No big deal really. I dont know why people get excited about this either way.

Is that 69 pounds?

If so, at 61 million people, that's 4.2 billion a year. A hell of a lot more then we pay for our Prez (and you still need to pay your PM).

No, 69 pence. 100p = £1

So divide your figure by 100

Our PM isn't paid anymore than any other minister. The PM, by concept, is merely a "first amongst equals" when it comes to them Vs other Ministers. This has been going downhill since Thatcher, though, with the birth of Prime-Ministerial Government, and Blair really started to push the idea of a Presidential-Prime Minister in terms of public relations (centering campaigns around personality of the party leader rather than the the party, being an international statesmen rather than the foreign minister, that kind of thing).