A big thing happened in the UK, and on September 8, 2022, Queen Elizabeth, who ruled the UK for 70 years, passed away. The queen's death is like a thunderbolt for the United Kingdom, and many people do not believe that the Queen of England has died like this.
In the legendary life of the Queen of England, a total of ten prime ministers have been experienced, and even the president of the United States has changed 14 times, but the status of the Queen of England has not changed.
Many people have taken the British royal family as a symbol of britain, even if the british royal family has long lost real power, many people regard the british queen as a rubber stamp, but this does not prevent everyone from respecting the British queen. After the death of the Queen of England, a mass funeral of 12 days is required throughout the UK.
During this funeral, all British corporate stocks are suspended, offering the highest condolences to the Queen. There are also many other preferential treatment regulations for the British royal family, and the British royal family can still enjoy taxpayers' money and provide them with luxurious life.
This makes people feel very puzzled, since the British royal family has no real power, so why does the United Kingdom spend so much money every year to support them?
Click on the attention, and we'll look at it.
First, in Britain, the royal family does not do nothing.
The King of England is not only a name, but also a huge printing press for Britain. In 2016, the British Royal Family contributed £1.8 billion to the UK economy.
According to some departments, the overall commercial value and brand value of the British Royal Family is as high as £67.5 billion and £44.5 billion. As long as a foreigner travels to the UK, in most cases, he is running to the royal family, after all, the UK is only a small island, what is there to see? Many people just want to see what kind of prestige the British royal family really is.
If it were not for the attraction of the British royal family, the United Kingdom would not be a tourist country at all. At the same time, the British royal family has also driven the development of domestic industries, and many big brands in the United Kingdom, such as Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Scotch whisky, etc., are sold so expensive because they are the property of the royal family or have the approval of the royal family.
In the eyes of many people, the British royal family is a symbol of high-quality life, as long as it is something that the royal family likes, then the quality will not be bad. Compared with the French, who always like to talk about the former royal family, the modern royal family in Britain is more convincing.
There are many people who say that the money that British taxpayers give to the British royal family every year has long been returned to taxpayers by the British royal family, which is not wrong. After all, the British royal family has really brought economic benefits to the United Kingdom, which really makes it impossible for the British to abandon the royal family.
The second point is that the influence of the British royal family is much higher than you think.
Britain is still nominally a state owned by the king, and the British royal family cedes power in a peaceful manner, so the government must actually maintain respect for the royal family.
The British royal family has an extremely large family estate, is the largest capitalist and the largest landlord in the United Kingdom, the Queen of England is the majority shareholder of the Bank of England, 1/3 of the beaches in the United Kingdom are the Queen's private property, and even all the swans in the United Kingdom are the Queen's own property.
At first glance, the Queen may seem to have little power, but as the largest capitalist in all of Britain, she is free to influence the country. The ownership of the property was in the hands of the Queen, which was equivalent to controlling a considerable part of The United Kingdom, and in a sense, the government was only the Queen's steward.
If the royal family really broke up with the government, the queen had the right to dissolve parliament and forcibly take back social property. The British Royal Family also recognized the inviolability of private property, while the Queen of England only recovered her own private property, and the government could not embarrass the royal family at all.
If the British government interferes with the British royal family, then the British government will lose a large amount of fiscal revenue in the country. Any British prime minister must accept the queen's canonization when he succeeds to the throne, in a sense, the Queen of the United Kingdom is still the lord of these prime ministers, but these prime ministers have no real closure.
Britain is a country with a serious class solidification, and the vast majority of British prime ministers are aristocratic. The nobility had a lot of power in their hands, and the vast majority of their rights came from the British royal family.
If they still want to continue to defend their privileges, they must further defend them, and whoever challenges the royal family is against themselves, so the British superstructure will never allow the abolition of the royal family.
The third and most important point is that the queen herself has extremely strong political added value.
Queen Elizabeth II is not only Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but also head of the Commonwealth and monarch of the Commonwealth Kingdom. The Commonwealth is not a loose alliance, and the circulation of goods within the Commonwealth is quite frequent.
It seems that Britain has long abandoned its colonies, but in fact all countries, including Canada and Australia, are still members of the British Commonwealth, they recognize the Queen of England as the head of state, and the connection with the United Kingdom is also very close, and the United Kingdom can also bring prosperity to itself through trade with these countries.
Therefore, the British government also understands this truth, the queen is the bond of the British Commonwealth, without the queen, the British Commonwealth will inevitably fall apart. Under such circumstances, if the British Crown is really abolished, then the illusory ties between the Commonwealth will be severed, and the privileges of england will inevitably be spit out, which the British will absolutely not tolerate.
The fourth point is that British politics has always had a hidden dark line.
Many people know that Americans claim to be the separation of powers, that is, the judiciary, legislation and the executive, but in fact, the separation of powers in Britain is even larger than in the United States, that is, the people, the royal family and the government.
Naturally, the people have no way to compete with the government, but the royal family is an important check and balance of the government, if the people do not trust the government, the British royal family will play a role in reconciliation, if there is no British royal family, then the dispute between the government and the people will inevitably become more and more acute.
Thatcher had offended so many people when she introduced reforms, and if it were not for the Queen standing up to escort Thatcher, perhaps the British government would have been overthrown.
For example, during the Second World War, the British Royal Family assured the people that under the supervision of the Royal Family, the British Government would never surrender, which was equivalent to giving Britain a shot in the arm and allowing Britain to survive World War II.
From this point of view, the British royal family is definitely not a mascot without real power, in fact, they play the fuse in the huge circuit of the United Kingdom, as long as the British king is there, the British government will not be circuited, which can be said to be the biggest role of the British Queen to the British government.
On the surface, the British kings are very different from the really powerful kings of Thailand and the Middle East, but in fact they have more hidden rights behind them.
As the only country among the five permanent members of the United Nations to retain a monarchy, britain has always seemed so maverick. It is not so much that Britain spends taxpayers' money to provide a luxurious life for itself, but that the British royal family has always spent its own money.
As the nominal owner of the country and the largest real estate owner, the King of England has all his money as the income of the British Royal Family itself. If the British government forcibly collects taxes on the royal family, and in the end the british royal family's taxes are still in its own hands, it will be completely meaningless.
Therefore, it is definitely necessary to be a smooth person, no longer tax the British royal family, and also save face for each other. Not to mention that in the United Kingdom religious beliefs are still very strong, and the Queen of the United Kingdom in addition to being the head of state of the United Kingdom, but also the spokesperson of the British state religion, it can be said that for many people of faith, the British state religion can never be abandoned.
The queen represents the identity of the surrogate of the state religion on earth, so even if they want to unite these people of faith, they must respect the queen as their leader.
Judging from all the above, the British Royal Family has already extended its tentacles to all aspects of the country, and under any circumstances, the British Royal Family cannot be cleared.
But in any case, the Queen's death is also a huge blow to the British royal family, because the Queen's successor is not as reliable as the Queen.
Now that the thinking of a new generation of British people has been loosened, will the British royal family still play the role of the past after the queen's death? So let's wait and see.