I've just Googled 'Civil List' (which is what the money the Queen gets from the State is called). The Wikipedia entry is quite interesting.
She gets £7.9 million from the State (us) which is a sum fixed in 2000 - so no inflation increases since then.
72% of that (about five-and-three-quarter million) goes on staff salaries (cleaners, chauffeurs, grooms, secretaries, cooks etc etc.). I think some bankers get paid more than that as individuals?
The Civil List is not for the Queen's personal use, but to spend on staff, premises (eg Buckingham House belongs to the State) and other offical expenses such as state functions - the garden parties are included in that, as are Honours ceremonies etc. Maintenance for State-owned properties that the Queen uses is paid for by the State, but would be even if we became a Republic - Buck House would be turned into a museum, I expect. She personally pays for her own private properties, eg Sandringham.
I'm sure Catherine's 69p per tax payer is correct, but if you look at it another way -
she gets £8 million (approx);
there are 60 million of us (again approx; it's more)
so she gets less than 13p per head of population.
The Crown Estates generate over £210 million for the Treasury; this is not the Queen's money.
She pays income tax now, though she didn't always. She is, privately, a very rich woman; I'd be interested to know how much income tax she pays (I didn't try to find the figure). It may be more than the Civil List figure :shock: :lol: - though I'll bet she's got a good accountant!
The total cost of the wedding is not the same as the cost to the taxpayer. The extra cost of the security would be met by the State, over and above the normal cost of employing the military and police personnel anyway. There'd be portaloos for the crowds and so on. As Catherine said, that money would not otherwise have gone to the NHS!
But I'll bet the actual cost of the wedding - the church fees, the catering and so on - was actually paid for by the two families. Media rumour said the Middletons were paying over £100,000. The State may have contributed to the costs for the guests who had to be invited (as opposed to friends and family).
I'd like to know whether the Middleton family is going to need security from now on. Pippa would be a prime target for a stalker.
Viv 8)