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| SNP threat to the Queen's income - what the national newspapers say | SNP threat to the Queen's income - what the national newspapers say |
| (about 4 hours later) | |
| The Queen’s income is threatened by Scottish nationalists. She may have to move out of Buckingham Palace in order that it can be refurbished. She enjoyed a 6.7% increase in funding last year. And her family spent more than £5m in travel bills on their global travels. | The Queen’s income is threatened by Scottish nationalists. She may have to move out of Buckingham Palace in order that it can be refurbished. She enjoyed a 6.7% increase in funding last year. And her family spent more than £5m in travel bills on their global travels. |
| Rarely has the presentation of the Queen’s annual accounts garnered as much coverage as it did in today’s national newspapers. And it is the supposed removal of funding via Scotland’s crown estate that got the bulk of the coverage. | Rarely has the presentation of the Queen’s annual accounts garnered as much coverage as it did in today’s national newspapers. And it is the supposed removal of funding via Scotland’s crown estate that got the bulk of the coverage. |
| The Times (Scotland to cancel funding for the Queen), Daily Telegraph (Scotland accused of cutting Queen’s funding) and Daily Express (Scotland won’t pay £2m bill for the Queen) splashed the news on their front pages. It got big billing too in the Daily Mail (Scots to grab Queen’s cash) and in the Guardian (Scottish changes could leave Queen short of £2m). | The Times (Scotland to cancel funding for the Queen), Daily Telegraph (Scotland accused of cutting Queen’s funding) and Daily Express (Scotland won’t pay £2m bill for the Queen) splashed the news on their front pages. It got big billing too in the Daily Mail (Scots to grab Queen’s cash) and in the Guardian (Scottish changes could leave Queen short of £2m). |
| The Sun, however, concentrated on the overall increase for the monarch, All rise, with a picture of the Queen and a cheeky bubble quote: “One is really coining it”. | The Sun, however, concentrated on the overall increase for the monarch, All rise, with a picture of the Queen and a cheeky bubble quote: “One is really coining it”. |
| The Daily Mirror preferred to highlight the travel costs, £5m cost of heir travel (geddit), and pointed out that the largest slice of that total was spent by Prince Charles “and his entourage”. It was less interested in claims that the Scottish government “is trying to wriggle out of paying its share for the monarchy”. | |
| For the Times, the idea that the SNP might withhold crown estate revenues is more than an accounting sleight of hand. It is rebellion. Its editorial argued that Nicola Sturgeon’s party “intends to foster a quiet republican insurrection” and continued: | For the Times, the idea that the SNP might withhold crown estate revenues is more than an accounting sleight of hand. It is rebellion. Its editorial argued that Nicola Sturgeon’s party “intends to foster a quiet republican insurrection” and continued: |
| “The sums involved are small, but their significance is large. While there is a legalistic explanation for the SNP’s course of action, it is not the real one. | “The sums involved are small, but their significance is large. While there is a legalistic explanation for the SNP’s course of action, it is not the real one. |
| Scotland is proposing to keep the Queen as head of state while gaining revenues from Scottish assets held in her name and expecting the rest of the UK to fund the institution that she leads. | Scotland is proposing to keep the Queen as head of state while gaining revenues from Scottish assets held in her name and expecting the rest of the UK to fund the institution that she leads. |
| This is a bold, provocative and unwarranted step that takes little account of the result of last year’s independence referendum and even less of the pro-monarchy views of a majority of Scots”. | This is a bold, provocative and unwarranted step that takes little account of the result of last year’s independence referendum and even less of the pro-monarchy views of a majority of Scots”. |
| The Times’s leader writer was in thundering mode: “In case anyone was in any doubt, the crown estate affair makes clear where republicans within the SNP would like to take their country after [another referendum]”. | The Times’s leader writer was in thundering mode: “In case anyone was in any doubt, the crown estate affair makes clear where republicans within the SNP would like to take their country after [another referendum]”. |
| It reminded readers that the Queen spends her summers in Balmoral “out of an affection for the place that is widely reciprocated”, and “she regards the preservation of the union as among her most solemn duties”. | It reminded readers that the Queen spends her summers in Balmoral “out of an affection for the place that is widely reciprocated”, and “she regards the preservation of the union as among her most solemn duties”. |
| It concluded: “The Scottish referendum was defeated with extravagant promises of devolution. These promises must be kept and the SNP has a mandate to wield the new powers they confer. It does not have a mandate to rewrite history, or the constitution”. | It concluded: “The Scottish referendum was defeated with extravagant promises of devolution. These promises must be kept and the SNP has a mandate to wield the new powers they confer. It does not have a mandate to rewrite history, or the constitution”. |
| The Mail’s pithy editorial was scathing about the SNP. It had sworn its allegiance to the Queen during the referendum, so its is “petty and contemptible” for it now to seek to seize the revenue from her crown estate property. “It’s an insult she’s done nothing to deserve”. | The Mail’s pithy editorial was scathing about the SNP. It had sworn its allegiance to the Queen during the referendum, so its is “petty and contemptible” for it now to seek to seize the revenue from her crown estate property. “It’s an insult she’s done nothing to deserve”. |
| The Express editorial, “The Scots must pay up”, was uncompromising: | The Express editorial, “The Scots must pay up”, was uncompromising: |
| “The Queen rules over the whole of the United Kingdom, whether the Scottish Nationalists like it or not. They should respect the fact that the people of Scotland voted to retain the Union and stop playing games with this money”. | “The Queen rules over the whole of the United Kingdom, whether the Scottish Nationalists like it or not. They should respect the fact that the people of Scotland voted to retain the Union and stop playing games with this money”. |
| It accused the SNP of being “nothing but trouble” since losing the independence referendum, adding: “The monarchy is a much-loved part of the British establishment and should not be used as a political football”. | It accused the SNP of being “nothing but trouble” since losing the independence referendum, adding: “The monarchy is a much-loved part of the British establishment and should not be used as a political football”. |
| The Express’s Scottish edition, incidentally, didn’t publish that leading article. However, it carried one also critical of the SNP for “waging class war” with its land reform plans, which “are guided by ideology, not a serious attempt at economic progress”. | The Express’s Scottish edition, incidentally, didn’t publish that leading article. However, it carried one also critical of the SNP for “waging class war” with its land reform plans, which “are guided by ideology, not a serious attempt at economic progress”. |
| The Sun’s editorial, which ran in both England and Scotland, accepted that “the Queen’s massive pay rise will have republicans foaming with rage”. But, it said “the monarchy’s public funding is still only 56p a year for every Brit. Her Maj does cost us a packet. Of crisps”. | The Sun’s editorial, which ran in both England and Scotland, accepted that “the Queen’s massive pay rise will have republicans foaming with rage”. But, it said “the monarchy’s public funding is still only 56p a year for every Brit. Her Maj does cost us a packet. Of crisps”. |
| The Telegraph’s leading article, “Our finest ambassador”, didn’t concern itself with the monarch’s funding or the SNP’s threat to it. Instead, marking the Queen’s state visit to Germany, it contended that there is “a political dimension” to her meeting with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, because of the EU negotiations. | The Telegraph’s leading article, “Our finest ambassador”, didn’t concern itself with the monarch’s funding or the SNP’s threat to it. Instead, marking the Queen’s state visit to Germany, it contended that there is “a political dimension” to her meeting with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, because of the EU negotiations. |
| “Of all the EU states, Germany is keenest to see the UK remain in the club as a fellow Anglo-Saxon, freemarket, counterweight to a French-led Mediterranean bloc”, said the paper. | “Of all the EU states, Germany is keenest to see the UK remain in the club as a fellow Anglo-Saxon, freemarket, counterweight to a French-led Mediterranean bloc”, said the paper. |
| It concluded: “There is no better reminder of the ties that bind us than a state visit from the Queen... In her 90th year and on her 270th official overseas trip, she will once again demonstrate that she remains this country’s finest ambassador”. | It concluded: “There is no better reminder of the ties that bind us than a state visit from the Queen... In her 90th year and on her 270th official overseas trip, she will once again demonstrate that she remains this country’s finest ambassador”. |