So is Nicola Sturgeon planning ‘a quiet republican insurrection?’ The Times says so in a thundering leader today: Jacob Rees-Mogg has even outed the party as ‘closet republicans’. And why? Because the SNP is withholding £1.5m of funding that is due to the Queen. Or so we’re told.
The truth is a little more complex – and rather different. The money for the royal family does not come from the Crown Estate. It comes from HM Treasury, and under a formula set up in 2011 the Queen’s Budget is pegged to the profits of the Crown Estate (a kind of performance-linked pay, if you will. Very Tory).
The Crown Estate is the royal family’s sprawling property empire – an £8 billion kingdom of retail parks, hotels, farms, golf courses, Regent Street and the entire UK seabed. All revenue from the Crown Estate has been surrendered to the Treasury since 1760, with a fixed amount being granted to the monarch on an annual basis.
Now, as part of those oh-so-successful attempts to reduce support for the SNP, the UK government agreed to devolve control over the Crown Estate so that the Scottish Government would get control over the Scottish parts.
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