linky

The “duchy” has raked in more than £60 million in such funds over the last decade, which it has claimed was being donated to charity. But “internal duchy documents” (yes, this is a real thing) show that much of the funds are actually being used to renovate the king’s real-estate holdings, some of which are then rented out for his own profit

Apparently, Queen Elizabeth II approved using these bona vacantia funds for upgrades in 1987 and again in 2019. Such renovations include double-glazed windows (nice!), log burners, and new roofs. In one case, an old farmhouse was renovated partially using these so-called bona vacantia funds, only to be rented out as a four-bedroom home for £1,450 per month.

The feudal-era practice was signed into law by the Parliament in 1925 but, as The Guardian reports, “why this was done is not known.” Meanwhile, it has helped King Charles, a landlord, amass a private fortune that is estimated to be worth £1.8 billion.

  • BeanBoy [she/her]
    ·
    7 months ago

    Relax he’s just a figurehead with no real power at this point

    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
      ·
      7 months ago

      I don't think CGPGrey had any real political power at any point but okay.

      (Ayyy)

      • Wheaties [comrade/them]
        ·
        7 months ago

        definitely more popular than the king. i know that's a low bar, but it must count for something?

    • Teekeeus [comrade/them]
      ·
      7 months ago

      Amazing how anglo islanders believe that an inbred clan of major landlords with enormous land holdings have no power in their society

    • HumanBehaviorByBjork [any, undecided]
      ·
      7 months ago

      even if it was true and he was just a monstrously wealthy removed without political office or special privilege, i'd still want to line him up against a wall with his family and shoot the lot

  • Tunnelvision [they/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    I feel like that’s not even something he would have to hide? Like yeah that’s definitely something I would expect a king to do. This is why the British need to stop playing pretend and just get rid of these people already.

  • DragonBallZinn [he/him]
    ·
    7 months ago

    The Royal family are literally just government funded LARPers. I honestly feel bad for UK citizens they have to indulge in this giant LARP.

    • Great_Leader_Is_Dead
      ·
      7 months ago

      He had a really bad video defending the British monarchy cuz "muh tourist money". Ignoring French killed their monarchy and still get buckoo tourist bucks.

      He also took a Telsa to the "most dangerous road in America" to test out the self driving. Said road was a well paved two lane in Kentucky that's only dangerous cuz it attracts a bunch of motorsports enthusiasts, and he was clearly there at a time where there was hardly anyone there. So yeah the autopilot works okay on bendy well paved roads, Whoopty Doo! Even his fans kinda called him out on that one.

      I'm sure he's a perfect pleasant human being but he's clearly a naive tech bro lib who thinks everything would be awesome if le epic science nerds ran everything.

      • Kosh [she/her]
        ·
        7 months ago

        Buckingham palace is a dump too.

        Versailles is fucking really nice and it comes with the bonus of knowing that the family that lived there all got got.

      • Infamousblt [any]
        ·
        7 months ago

        Oh yikes. Libs can make treats if they keep their lib shit to themselves but...sounds like he can't manage that.

      • Wheaties [comrade/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        7 months ago

        Since we're talking about him;

        I kinda think he's pivotal to a lot of techbro brain-worms getting treated as though they're the default common sense position. Like, his neutral classroom-friendly presentation acts to cover and launder a lot of ideology. The Simple Solution to Traffic is probably the most obvious example, and I'd guess it's the one with the largest impact (hint: he doesn't think trains are the 'solution'). Perhaps the most egregious, though, is Why Die? and it's companion video Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant. The former argues the usual techbro nonsense about the end of death being just around the corner -- maybe even within your lifetime! And the latter is a narrated animation of a children's book written by Nick Bostrom.

        It's not just limited to specific videos. Usually the topic is well researched and educational, but the brainworms leak in through visuals and tangential comments. Go back through the archive, he used to throw in references to bitcoin whenever he could (doesn't do that one so much now, interestingly...). There's these two videos, How to be a Pirate Captain and How to be a Pirate Quartermaster, which are actually a really interesting look at how pirates organized themselves in the early/pre-modern era -- but in one of them he just flat out claims that DNA decides your personality.

        • jack [he/him, comrade/them]
          ·
          edit-2
          7 months ago

          I think Versailles is the most popular tourist destination on Earth. It gets more tourists than every British Royal thing combined

          • SoyViking [he/him]
            ·
            7 months ago

            It makes sense as the absence of royalty makes the places publicly accessible.

            What would appeal to you the most as a tourist?

            • Look at this nice palace. King Bob lives there, or
            • Look at this nice palace. The Bob dynasty used to live there but now it is a museum where you can go and see all the pretty artwork and artifacts.
      • CrushKillDestroySwag
        ·
        7 months ago

        I got to ride in a Tesla recently, the autopilot literally failed within thirty seconds of pulling away from my house where it tried to cross the double yellow on the road right outside my neighborhood. After that my uncle said that it really only works on the highway and he didn't try using it again lmao.

        • Great_Leader_Is_Dead
          ·
          7 months ago

          Some More News video on self driving cars is one of their better videos

      • GrayBackgroundMusic@lemm.ee
        ·
        7 months ago

        He had a really bad video defending the British monarchy cuz “muh tourist money”. Ignoring French killed their monarchy and still get buckoo tourist bucks.

        Whoa, I don't remember this. Which video?

    • zed_proclaimer [he/him]
      ·
      7 months ago

      Yeah he’s an absolute empty headed turbo lib who regurgitates liberal ideology

    • DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      7 months ago

      A bit late on this, but no one else has mentioned it, he made a pair of videos called "Americapox" where he uses Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel" as his only real source and uses it to talk about how the reason the native Americans were "at the bottom of the tech tree" (paraphrased) was because they didn't have superior European animals and metalsmithing. He basically calls them primitive savages, just using video game terminology.

      Jared Diamond's pop history book has come under intense scrutiny by historians, as it claims incredibly racist things like the Incas being too "primitive" to know what an ambush is. He blames this "primitiveness" on their lack of metalworking and domesticated animals, but it is just recycled 19th century rhetoric cleaned up for a late 20th century audience. And Grey used it all completely uncritically.

      And when Grey was called out on this terrible source, he did the usual internet shitbag thing of pretend it was all just a prank bro, and people shouldn't take him so seriously. Weirdly enough, he only says this when people call him out, he never tells people who believe his nonsense that he's just messing around.

  • Tachanka [comrade/them]
    ·
    7 months ago

    apparently the Brtish royals are trying to regain lost power

    • Legislation effectively outlawing protests.
    • Arrests of people attempting to raise republican placards on the 6th of May.
    • His Majesty's Ministers overruling Parliament in introducing the above.
    • Future move to digital currency asserts Crown power against the old bourgeois financial order.
    • Partial restoration of the Crown Estate to the person of the Monarch
    • The Royal family is entitled to 25% of the revenue of the Crown Estate; Basically publicly owned land and mineral rights.
    • This is a huge retrogression even from the early days of bourgeois power.
    • In 1793 the Crown had given up the estate to the treasury in return for a Civil List grant.
    • The Cameron gov. reversed this by handing 25% back to the monarchy.
    • The King receives an annual income (in kind) of about 209 million pounds.
    • The King controls, uses, or derives revenue from around 9.6 billion in assets.
    • The king's top 9 palaces are worth about 3.5billion pounds, for which he and his family pay no rent, and all of which is maintained at the public's expense.
    • The King receives from the public, in exchange for nothing, as much as 8,500 average subjects earn per year.
    • The tourism that the monarchy supposedly brings in to the UK is maintained by the working class and still brings in less revenue than the tourism in Republican France.

    ukkk

  • Dolores [love/loves]
    ·
    7 months ago

    i just think CGP Grey's US citizen should've been revoked if he's such a simp for jolly old england

  • Teekeeus [comrade/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    The feudal-era practice was signed into law by the Parliament in 1925 but, as The Guardian reports, “why this was done is not known.”

    it has helped a landlord amass a private fortune

    Lib journalists really are clueless. The answer is right in front of them

  • HumanBehaviorByBjork [any, undecided]
    ·
    7 months ago

    i mean, what basis would they even criticize him on? they're a feudal nation with a king. that means their country is basically owned by one family. if your royals are doing what royals do, behead the roaches.