Besides the obvious ‘royal’, there are four other ‘Rs’ Prince Andrew and his ilk should abide by, writes Leonid Bershidsky
Can royalty be fired? Do European royal households bring in more than they cost? And should we feel sorry for Prince Andrew?Royal Male: Britain's Prince Andrew, Duke of York, on November 20 2019. Picture: AFP/JOHN THYS
Perhaps the only monarch who does play an active political role is the king of Belgium, who constantly has to prod parties in the country’s two nearly-independent halves to form governments together. At the same time, the monarchies have a value to the nations they serve, which can be expressed in financial terms.
Brand Finance calculated that all these contributions are worth £1.8bn a year. Compared to that, the monarchy’s cost — £82.2m in the latest financial year — doesn’t look excessive. If the monarchy were a business with as many employees as the royal family has members, currently two dozen people, it would be an extremely low compensation cost.
That left the House of Bernadotte [the royal house of Sweden] with just 10 members who receive a subsidy for public service, though the royal family counts nine more, including the five children.In their paper, Balmer, Greyser and Urde wrote of the five “Rs” essential to a crown brand: royal, regal, relevant, responsive, respected. Of these five, only the first one applies to Prince Andrew: he’s royalty by birth. The other four “R’s” refer to behaviours that support the value of the brand.
That’s probably something that should have happened to Prince Andrew, too. In the fateful interview, he said he lived “in an institution”, as though Buckingham palace was some kind of orphanage or sanitarium. It’s hard to feel sorry for him, but not everyone is suited for the role of a royal brand guardian.
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