the only reason any exist in the first world is by supreme authoritarian control or bribing the public. which is what i was saying in my initial post, they live a cushy life but they bought it by giving up a far more cushy life and all of their control to keep their heads. it also requires they maintain, ruthlessly, a squeaky clean public image. they've paid off all of the national tabloids to bury stories. they've hidden away family members with special needs. and yet after all that a few trips to Epstein's island was what really screwed up their image the most.

New age. Harder to hide things.

Also from Twitter. Lol

Please be respectful when talking about the Queen. She was a head of state, a monarch, a mother to multiple pedophiles and most importantly a devoted cousin to her husband

pack all of the nasty stuff on top of each other and it still for me is less than her scrubbing her special needs relatives from her family. but thats more to do with my personal bias from working with special needs kids.

That was normal until shockingly recent times

so was banging teenage girls, sadly.

I think there is something charming about monarchy in regards to tradition. Having no real power but being strictly devoted to the nation is a good thing IMO.

Take away their wealth and make them wards of the state who get shot if they leave and I'll agree.

What do you mean by "take away their wealth?" Are you referring to their allowance? The monarchy is just a physical manifestation of the country itself. What belongs to the monarchy, belongs to the UK.

Take away their autonomy to spend the wealth, take away the private bank accounts that were revealed in the Panama papers, take away their rights.

Then let them live as wards of the state in luxury but with zero choice.

I imagine that 99% of their wealth isn't fungible. It's all in castles and other stuff that the monarchy isn't even allowed to transfer any way.