Amid tight budget, queen is pinching pennies along with rest of Britain

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Washington Post:

LONDON -- With historic budget cuts about to change the way the British live -- slashing children's benefits, freezing public salaries and trimming welfare roles -- one must do one's part: Even the queen is cutting back.

Financially ailing Britain is dramatically shifting away from an era of big government, entering a new age of austerity to fend off the same kind of fiscal crisis now gripping Greece. With her subjects facing a barebones budget and a bevy of higher taxes, Queen Elizabeth II has launched what some here describe as a preemptive strike against those who say that this deeply indebted nation can no longer afford the gilded trappings of its monarchy.

The queen is freezing salaries for royal servants and aides earning more than $73,500, and reviewing all vacant slots with an eye to reducing her staff of 1,400 -- which includes a royal piper who plays under her window in the mornings as well as an official counter of swans. For the first time in her 58-year reign, the queen has also agreed to regular audits of royal expenditures by the same national agency that reviews education, defense and other types of government spending.

The queen's household is reportedly preparing to cut back on official engagements and reduce spending by 25 percent or more in the coming years as government financing of the monarchy is potentially scaled back. Already, palace officials say, roof leaks at Buckingham Palace will be temporarily patched instead of pristinely repaired. Plans to rip out asbestos and Victorian-era lead water pipes at the palace will also be put off, potentially for years, as will the refurbishment of Queen Victoria's dilapidated mausoleum at Windsor Castle, the royal family's weekend retreat.

After a fit of public outrage at the cost of providing security to minor royals, the queen's granddaughters, Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice, are also set to lose their 24-hour bodyguards, which have reportedly cost taxpayers here upwards of $700,000 a year.

As a result of steps already taken, the cost of the monarchy to British taxpayers fell by roughly $4 million over the past year, the palace proudly disclosed this week. Overall, the queen spent $56 million in government funds in 2009-2010 -- or 91 cents per British citizen -- down from $61 million a year earlier. That figure, however, does not include the massive and jealously guarded cost of providing security to the major royals, including the 84-year-old queen and her husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, 89.

"The royal household is acutely aware of the difficult economic climate and took early action to reduce its expenditures in 2009," Sir Alan Reid, the Keeper of the Privy Purse -- the Queen's top accountant -- said in a statement this week. He himself agreed to a $20,000 cut in pay, to $264,000 a year. "We are implementing a headcount freeze and reviewing every vacancy to see if we can avoid replacement."
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The economy is hitting everyone these days...