[Glenn.]

A new official portrait of the king has been unveiled, created to hang in public buildings across the UK under an £8m government-funded scheme that an anti-monarchy campaign group has described as a “shameful waste of money”.
The Cabinet Office announced last year that it had set aside funds to offer every public body – local councils, courts, schools, police forces, and fire and rescue services – a free portrait of King Charles.
The photograph of the monarch in full regalia inside Windsor Castle was taken last year by Hugo Burnand, who also took the king and queen’s coronation portraits and their 2005 wedding photos.

Many public institutions displayed official portraits of Queen Elizabeth II, and “the offering of the new official portrait of King Charles III will enable organisations across the UK to carry on that tradition”, the Cabinet Office said.
“The accession of his majesty the king marked a new chapter in our national story,” said Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister. “Displaying this new portrait will serve as a reminder to us all of the example set by our ultimate public servant and I hope as many eligible organisations as possible will wish to continue this proud British tradition and honour our king’s reign.”
The Cabinet Office’s announcement last year was met with criticism amid complaints of shrinking budgets across Whitehall and local government. The anti-monarchy campaign group Republic called the initiative a “shameful waste of money”.

At a time when a majority of local councils are raising taxes and cutting public services, when schools and hospitals are struggling, to spend even £1 on this nonsense would be £1 too much,” said Graham Smith, the chief executive of Republic.
He added: “The government has lost the plot if they think people want their money spent on pictures of Charles. They need to scrap this scheme and direct the money where it’s really needed.”
The official portrait depicts the king in his Royal Navy uniform as an admiral of the fleet, with his right hand resting on white gloves on an antique table and his left hand grasping a sword. He is standing in the royal residence’s grand corridor.
Public authorities can apply for a free portrait until 2 February, with delivery of the portraits expected to take place between February and April.


Despicable.

[Zizu]

Absolute disgrace

Whoever rubber stamped that amount should bd flogged !!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[The Slim Reaper]

[parmnion]

Hopefully his arse problems end him..william wouldnt have that..common kate wouldnt allow it.

[Oliver_W]

There aren't any paintings mentioned in the article you posted x

[bitontheslide]

it's a painting in millions of locations. At least we only do it when there is a new monarch, america do it every time there is a new president

[Cherie]

sounds like the deal of the century to me

[bitontheslide]

every country in the world has a picture of the head of state in all government offices and that changes when there is a new head of state. How is this even a story

[Zizu]

Originally Posted by bitontheslide

every country in the world has a picture of the head of state in all government offices and that changes when there is a new head of state. How is this even a story

8 million reasons if the rumours are true


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[thesheriff443]

Originally Posted by Zizu

8 million reasons if the rumours are true


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Charles gave 900 million profit from off shore wind farms to the government last year

People are ignorant to the fact the royals bring far more money to the country than is spent on them.

If you ended the royals today we would be worse off and they would continue to make even more money and keep it for themselves

[smudgie]

Not bad really.
It will be the only official one given away during his reign probably.

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by smudgie

Not bad really.
It will be the only official one given away during his reign probably.

…and also, hasn’t there always or very often been a budget for keepsake Royal Souvenirs to be given to the public for any significant Royal occasion and this feels like a version of that…and maybe even cutting back on that, I wouldn’t know what any comparison would be…I’m not specifically a fan of the royal institution as it is today as such but this for me just feels a bit like another media ‘outrage story’…the public are going through difficult times financially so it’s not the best timing, is it…but it’s not as if these things are timed or planned etc…

…anyway, if schools and individual councils etc are required to request their free photo…it’ll be interesting to know how many requests there are and how many are displayed …they might only have had a handful of requests, poor Charles if that were so…I’m sure the grandchildren will put in a word of support for the photo at their school to have one displayed in the assembly hall or wherever….

[bitontheslide]

it's the kings armed services, post office, passport office, inland revenue, diplomatic service, law courts etc etc etc. Just those offices alone is a lot of pictures. A large quantity equals a big cost

[Soldier Boy]

I'm torn. I think the monarchy is a waste of time so I think £1 spent on them is a waste, especially for a vanity project. On the other hand, I also hate it when people fail to actually rationally scale things and clutch pearls in a way that looks a bit daft... that sort of "But £8 million is A LOT OF MONEY!!!" mindset.

£8 million is an absolute fortune to one person, absolutely. £8 million in terms of the budget of every council building, police force, school and other government facility in the UK is an absolutely minuscule part of the budget. like to put it into perspective, if you divided it up between everyone in the UK, we'd get 12p each. Even if being somewhat more reasonable and dividing it up between everyone who is on Universal Credit - it's something like £1.25 each.

Now would I rather everyone on UC get £1.25 extra in their next installment than have pictures of Charles everywhere? Obviously, yes, but I think it's important to remember that £8 million is not a large amount of money in a national budget.

Because if you argue that it IS a large amount of money, when you know it isn't a large amount of money, then you have time arguing for essentials that are going to cost a lot of money ... e.g. providing free school lunches for every child in the UK would cost something like £300 or 400 million every year. I absolutely think it's something they should be doing. But how do you lobby a £400 million annually from the govt. when you've just screeched at them that £8 million as a one off ringfenced fund - 2% of what you're looking for every year - is a huge amount of money.

[Ammi]

…whatever the sum, my thoughts as well are that pot/that budget is only there and was only made because of the huge events of the death of the Queen and having a new royal head….without those events, there would not have been the budget made…those are the ‘government budgets’ I’ve always been familiar with…a school budget for instance…will be allocated by the LEA for the various different sections and if one of those sections doesn’t use its allocation…?…it just disappears and is no more…. it doesn’t carry over or cross over into another area where there might be huge shortages and feel ‘more appropriately spent’ and to help balance those shortages…I would think that this would have been very specifically for the coronation and what was felt to be a good way to mark the occasion….

[bitontheslide]

Simple things like changing Queens Council to Kings Council for barristers costs millions, new coinage costs millions, new stamps costs millions, new post boxes cost millions.

Thats why i question why the painting even warrants being news

[Zizu]

Originally Posted by bitontheslide

Simple things like changing Queens Council to Kings Council for barristers costs millions, new coinage costs millions, new stamps costs millions, new post boxes cost millions.

Thats why i question why the painting even warrants being news

They all sound like disgustingly , disgraceful wastes of much needed cash imho


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Soldier Boy]

Tbf things like new coinage and stamps are not really extra costs as they don't collect up all the old ones and replace them, they just start putting him on the new ones as and when they're made. Vast majority of coins in your change will likely still have Her Maj on them.

The rest though yes a huge expense. The Monarchy itself is a huge expense. And while I agree with doing away with that ENTIRE expense on principle... I don't understand why there's extra outrage about this relatively small slice of that expense.

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Cherie

sounds like the deal of the century to me

Originally Posted by bitontheslide

every country in the world has a picture of the head of state in all government offices and that changes when there is a new head of state. How is this even a story

Originally Posted by Soldier Boy

... I don't understand why there's extra outrage about this relatively small slice of that expense.

How much do people expect the printing of thousands (millions?) of large pictures, dispatching them, and hanging them to cost?

[Zizu]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

How much do people expect the printing of thousands (millions?) of large pictures, dispatching them, and hanging them to cost?

Why bother in the first place we’ve all seen thousands pictures of this creep with his floozy over the decades


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Zizu

Why bother in the first place we’ve all seen thousands pictures of this creep with his floozy over the decades


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Why bother with sports and arts? Why bother with being alive? Why bother with nice food instead of blandly nutritious stuff?

[Zizu]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

Why bother with sports and arts? Why bother with being alive? Why bother with nice food instead of blandly nutritious stuff?

That’s hardly a fair comparison ..

He’s one the most recognisable faces in the world .. we don’t need to have his damn face everywhere .. most people can’t stand the bloke for one reason or another ..

It’s not as though he’s given 50 years of his life to the job like his mother


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro