{"id":602291,"date":"2025-11-30T00:09:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T00:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/602291\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T00:09:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T00:09:44","slug":"why-doesnt-our-ultra-rich-king-pay-more-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/602291\/","title":{"rendered":"Why doesn\u2019t our ultra-rich King pay more tax?"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Dimbleby believes it is a \u201cterrible misfortune\u201d to be born into the royal family. The BBC elder statesman, who spent decades guiding the nation through monarchical pomp \u2014 weddings, state openings, jubilees and funerals \u2014 says he never envied life inside the palaces he described.<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t know what the King \u201cthinks his job is\u201d, believes the Prince of Wales must haul the institution into the modern age and says Prince George \u2014 \u201cpoor boy\u201d \u2014 faces an even tougher battle for relevance. <\/p>\n

He thinks the Duke of Sussex was wise to head for the Montecito hills. \u201cMaking a clean break instead of being the second son in that position makes absolute sense,\u201d he says. \u201cAnyone in their right mind would leave if they could.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking over Zoom before the release of his three-part BBC1 series What\u2019s the Monarchy For?, Dimbleby, 87, is as effervescent as ever. He reckons he has been a broadcaster longer than anyone else, having guest-presented his first radio programme, Family Favourites for the BBC<\/a>, when he was 12. Many journalists grow jaded, but Dimbleby still has that twinkle in his eye.<\/p>\n

\"Twelve-year-old<\/p>\n

Presenting an instalment of Family Favourites aged 12 and, below, in front of a Shackleton portrait of George II<\/p>\n

WILLIAM VANDERSON\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

\"David<\/p>\n

He is the nation\u2019s \u201chereditary broadcaster\u201d, and with this series is examining our hereditary sovereigns \u2014 a running joke at his expense throughout. Broadcasting is the family business: his father, Richard, was a BBC war correspondent, reporting from the ruins of Hitler\u2019s bunker, and his younger brother, Jonathan, used to present Any Questions? on Radio 4.<\/p>\n

Dimbleby joined the BBC after studying PPE at Oxford and went on to anchor ten general elections and present Question Time for 25 years. He emerged from (semi) retirement three years ago for Queen Elizabeth\u2019s funeral. The handover to Charles sparked the idea to do an \u201caudit of the monarchy\u201d, examining the Windsors\u2019 power, wealth and place in British life. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m interested in whether the monarchy is fit for purpose for the UK in the 21st century,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen the late Queen<\/a> was on the throne, she was part of the structure of the UK. But Charles was kicking his heels all those years, full of ideas about how Britain should be \u2014 everything from architecture to climate change and homeopathy \u2026 His whole life, he\u2019s been proselytising and suddenly he\u2019s meant not to.\u201d As Prince of Wales, Charles wrote about 2,000 letters a year, many to ministers about policy issues. A former aide suggests in the documentary he may still be sending some.<\/p>\n

Dimbleby is also fascinated that, in February, the King took Sir Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner on a tour of his housing project in Cornwall<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s the first monarch ever to take a prime minister on a tour of something that he was keen to demonstrate and argue for,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a breach of what is thought to be the role of the King.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"King<\/p>\n

The King visited Newquay Orchard with Angela Rayner and Sir Keir Starmer<\/p>\n

LEON NEAL\/PA<\/p>\n

The second episode of Dimbleby\u2019s programme examines the royal family\u2019s fortune, much of it derived from the duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster, vast property empires<\/a> that fund the heir and sovereign respectively. It was George VI, Elizabeth\u2019s father, who persuaded the government of the day that the monarch should no longer pay income tax; his daughter voluntarily resumed paying it in 1993. But the duchies still do not pay corporation tax, and Dimbleby says the household is \u201cdefensive\u201d when questioned about the family\u2019s opaque financial affairs. <\/p>\n

\u201cCharles is the first billionaire to take the throne,\u201d says Dimbleby. \u201cWhy don\u2019t they pay capital gains tax or corporation tax?\u201d Unlike his father, William does not disclose his tax bill. (The Sunday Times Rich List<\/a> puts the King\u2019s personal net worth at \u00a3640 million.)<\/p>\n

\u2022 How much does the royal family really cost the British public?<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018Fierce secrecy is damaging\u2019<\/p>\n

Since 2011, the scandal of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor<\/a>\u2019s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein has weighed heavily on the family. Dimbleby calls it \u201ca disaster\u201d, not least because of the Palace\u2019s sluggish handling of the crisis, though he thinks it is \u201cslightly tempered\u201d by many families having a troublesome relative or two. What struck him most, though, was the late Queen\u2019s response. \u201cShe did that extraordinary thing, after the disgrace had almost fully played out, of taking him to the Duke of Edinburgh\u2019s memorial service as her escort<\/a>,\u201d he says. \u201cWhether that was two fingers to public opinion or simple maternal affection is interesting.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Queen<\/p>\n

SUNDAY TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE<\/p>\n

Dimbleby has also been struck by Prince William\u2019s recent declaration that \u201cchange is on my agenda\u201d. What should William do? \u201cI\u2019d try to put myself in the same position as any other citizen and say: \u2018I\u2019m here on a hereditary basis, but I don\u2019t need privileges for that; I don\u2019t want people bowing to me. I want a much simpler role, and that will give me time to go around meeting people, talking about homelessness and poverty. So I\u2019m seen not to be living a lavish lifestyle, but as perfectly comfortably off, looking after my family and doing my bit \u2014 almost behaving like an elected president might behave.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Dimbleby thinks the royal family should be much more transparent too. \u201cI think their secrecy about things that seem to be unacceptable privileges, and the fierceness with which they defend them, is damaging.\u201d It emerged yesterday that the King\u2019s brother, Prince Edward, pays only a peppercorn rent for his Surrey mansion, Bagshot Park near Bracknell, having paid \u00a35 million upfront for a lease of 150 years. Dimbleby also points to the exemption the monarch has from the Equality Act, which prevents employees pursuing complaints of sexual and racial discrimination. <\/p>\n

The series touches too on the relationship between the monarch and the BBC, which is described as the \u201croyal ringmaster\u201d for its role in showcasing the pageantry. Dimbleby had his fill of that long ago. \u201cI got so bored of Trooping the Colour I stopped doing it,\u201d he says. \u201cIt seemed mainly to consist of whether you could recognise how many buttons the guardsmen had. And I stopped doing the state opening [of parliament] because I got bored of it too, really.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"British<\/p>\n

Trooping the Colour at Buckingham Palace in June<\/p>\n

TOLGA AKMEN\/EPA<\/p>\n

Today the corporation has troubles of its own. This month its director-general, Tim Davie, and head of news, Deborah Turness, resigned over Panorama\u2019s misleading edit of President Trump last year. Trump has threatened to sue for up to $5 billion. Dimbleby is unconvinced: \u201cI don\u2019t think Trump\u2019s going to sue the BBC. He\u2019s out of time in the UK<\/a> to take a libel claim, and there\u2019s no evidence it was seen in America.\u201d He notes that when other broadcasters such as CBS have settled with Trump, it often appears to be for wider business reasons rather than the strength of Trump\u2019s claim. <\/p>\n

A secondary row soon followed when the Dutch historian Rutger Bregman called Trump \u201cthe most openly corrupt president in American history\u201d in the BBC\u2019s annual Reith Lectures, only for the line to be edited out. The BBC says it acted on legal advice. <\/p>\n

\u201cI would have said that if he wanted to say that, he would have to prove it in the Reith lecture,\u201d says Dimbleby. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to say he\u2019s corrupt, but [Bregman] should have explained what his thesis was, [rather than] just insulting him.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2018Bloody George Osborne\u2019<\/p>\n

Dimbleby, who applied to be director-general once and chairman twice, says what the BBC needs now is \u201cfirmness of purpose\u201d. He adds: \u201cIf it sticks to its guns, it\u2019ll come through. There are constant attacks on the BBC, mainly from the right, and some of them may be justified, but I think a robust defence will win through.\u201d <\/p>\n

He backs the return of a deputy director-general to keep problems in check, and says that they or Davie\u2019s successor must have \u201cjournalistic experience\u201d. The new director-general will have to negotiate the renewal of the corporation\u2019s charter, which determines its funding and governance for the next decade. Dimbleby would like to see the regressive licence fee \u2014 a \u201cbig, big problem\u201d \u2014 replaced with something more like Germany\u2019s radio tax, which is a household levy, but his idea is to base the cost on the value of the licence holder\u2019s property. <\/p>\n

He also wants the World Service to be fully funded by the Foreign Office again: \u201cIt used to be, until bloody George Osborne, who gave the royal family their biggest bonanza payout ever, while telling the BBC it had to pay for the World Service.\u201d<\/p>\n

What the BBC most needs now, he says, is urgency. \u201cThey need to get cracking, choosing new bosses. It\u2019s a vast organisation to have nobody running it.\u201d He smiles, admitting that the job he was once passed over for still has an allure \u2014 even if few others see it. \u201cIt\u2019s not the most attractive job on earth, except to broadcasters like me, who really love the BBC and think it\u2019s the cat\u2019s whiskers.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the Monarchy For? begins on Tuesday at 9pm on BBC1 and iPlayer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Dimbleby believes it is a \u201cterrible misfortune\u201d to be born into the royal family. The BBC elder…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[5105,7710,519,448],"class_list":{"0":"post-602291","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-royal","9":"tag-royal-families","10":"tag-royal-family","11":"tag-royals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115635747606931679","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}