Spain's 17-cent king: Europe's cheapest monarch

OLÉ LOL!
Spain's ruling party has defended the government's budget for the country's royal family, saying the royal house costs each Spaniard a low 17 Euro cents (23 cents US) a year.

The Spanish Government on Tuesday talked up its decision to provide €7.78 million to the royal family as part of the country's 2014 budget, Spain's Huffington Post reported. This is down 1.8 percent from the €7.93 million destined for the royal purse in 2013. 

"Defending the budget of His Majesty is the easiest thing in the world," said Juan Manuel Albendea, a spokesperson on budgetary matters for Spain's ruling conservative Popular Party (PP).

The politician added he felt "lucky" to be able to support a royal budget which was the "most austere" in Europe.

He then cited figures from his own party's research showing that the British Monarchy had a budget of €46.6 million, while that figure was €12 million in both Denmark and Sweden and more than €8 million in Luxembourg.

With 46.7 million people in Spain, the budget for the country's royal family comes to just 17 cents per Spaniard per year, Albendea said.

The comments came in response to requests from other parties that the monarch's budget be slashed next year.

Source: The Local

Saudi King Abdullah 'treasures’ dagger given as a gift by Hitler

This tidbit is contained in “The U.S.-Saudi Royal Rumble”, an article by Washington Institute expert Simon Henderson published on Sunday in Foreign Policy...

"King Abdullah still treasures a dagger given as a gift from the Fuhrer himself, and occasionally shows it off to guests. Visiting U.S. officials are briefed in advance so they can display appropriate diplomatic sang-froid if Abdullah points out the memento,” Henderson writes.

The original report about Abdullah’s dagger comes from a 2004 book by Lebanese-American political science professor As’Ad AbhKhalil, “The Battle for Saudi Arabia.”...It’s not completely clear from the phrasing of the text whether the dagger was given to Abdullah himself – he was only 15 at the time - or to Ibn Saud; or, more likely, conveyed to Ibn Saudi during the well-documented meeting on June 17, 1939 between Hitler and Ibn Saud’s emissary Khalid al-Hud al-Gargani that took place at the Nazi leader’s famous “Eagles Lair” retreat in Berchtesgaden in Bavaria.

According to minutes of the meeting kept by the German Foreign Ministry, Hitler had assured al-Hud that the Reich and the Arabs had common interests because “we are both fighting the Jews.”

Source: Haaretz

Queen tried to use state poverty fund to heat Buckingham Palace, but government thought it probably wouldn't look good

They're already welfare recipients, so why not? From The Independent:

The Queen asked ministers for a poverty handout to help heat her palaces but was rebuffed because they feared it would be a public relations disaster, documents disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act reveal.

Royal aides were told that the £60m worth of energy-saving grants were aimed at families on low incomes and if the money was given to Buckingham Palace instead of housing associations or hospitals it could lead to "adverse publicity" for the Queen and the Government.

Aides complained to ministers in 2004 that the Queen's gas and electricity bills, which had increased by 50 per cent that year, stood at more than £1m a year and had become "untenable".

The Royal Household also complained that the £15m government grant to maintain the Queen's palaces was inadequate. In search of more money-saving schemes, the Queen's deputy treasurer wrote to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to ask whether the Royal Household would be eligible for a grant to replace four combined heat and power (CHP) units at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.

He asked: "Community Energy can fund up to 40 per cent of the capital costs of implementing a community heating scheme... Since we are already grant-in-aid funded [the Queen receives £15m a year for the upkeep of her palaces] we would like to know whether the Household [would] be able to benefit from these grants. I look forward to your comments."

Under this scheme administered by the Environment department, schools, hospitals, councils and housing associations have been awarded £60m for heating programmes which benefit people on low incomes.

Taxpayers already contribute £38m to pay for the Royal Family. Yet some of the buildings which would have benefited from the energy grant were occupied by minor royals living in grace and favour accommodation on the royal estates. Surprisingly the Government offered no resistance to the proposed application and cleared the way for the Queen to take advantage of the handout.

But by August 2004 the documents show that Whitehall officials had changed their minds and poured cold water on the whole idea. In an email sent to the Palace it was diplomatically explained that the funds were aimed at people on "low incomes".

The official wrote: "I think this is where the Community Energy Funding is directed and ties in with most allocations going to community heating schemes run by local authorities, housing associations, universities etc. I also feel a bit uneasy about the probable adverse press coverage if the Palace were given a grant at the expense of say a hospital. Sorry this doesn't sound more positive."