FURY AS SCOTS TRY TO CUT QUEEN’S CASH
NICOLA Sturgeon was accused of wanting to set herself up as “Queen of Scots” after the Scottish National Party voted to end state funding for the Royal Family.
The vote by SNP members at the party conference in Glasgow to strip the Royal Family of its annual revenue of £14million from Scotland was called “a grave insult” to the Queen.
It came just ahead of the keynote leader’s speech by Ms Sturgeon, where she laid out her far-Left plans for a socialist independent Scotland, with renewed demands for an independence referendum, a raft of policies extending state control and a hint that she would raise taxes.
The First Minister, who also demanded a second EU referendum, was mocked for wanting to turn Scotland into “the Venezuela of Europe”, in reference to the South American oil-rich state being bankrupted by socialist policies.
Outrageous
The SNP vote centred on profits made by the Crown Estate – which comprise rural grounds, the UK’s seabed and much of its foreshore, office buildings and shopping centres – that go to the Treasury, with the Royal household getting 15 per cent.
Responsibility for Crown assets north of the border – which generate about £14million in revenue a year – is being transferred from Westminster to Holyrood Palace.
Senior Tory MP Andrew Rosindell said: “This is an outrageous vote that underlined that the SNP wants to turn Scotland into the Venezuela of Europe. It is a grave insult to the Queen and fails to appreciate what she has done for Scotland and Britain in more than six decades of service.
“It also fails to understand the value of the monarchy and Royal Family as a whole, which attracts far more investment from abroad than they cost.”
He added: “Maybe Nicola Sturgeon has become so arrogant that she now fancies herself as Queen of Scots.”
The move further to the Left by Ms Sturgeon’s SNP comes as evidence is growing that Scotland is fed up with the party after 10 years of failed rule.
A Sunday Express poll showed 42 per cent of Scots think the SNP has done a bad job in power, with 39 per cent saying it had done well.
Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson has a plus-17 point approval rating, while Ms Sturgeon is on zero.
The Royal household has seen its income increase in total since the Sovereign Grant Act was passed in 2011, receiving £76million this year, compared to £31million in 2012/13.
The SNP resolution called for the Act to been repealed with cash “spent on the wider public good” instead.
One of its sponsors, Julie Hepburn, the party’s former political education convener, said: “I don’t support a constitutional role or the provision of public funding for the monarchy, but until such time as we are given a choice in the matter, the UK Government will continue to fund them with public money – our money. It is basically the equivalent of the Royal Family winning the lottery every single year.
“Her Majesty is purring all the way to the bank... there can be no moral justification for giving just one family over £70million.”
Ms Sturgeon also told party members that they must continue to fight for independence and warned she will press for another referendum after Brexit is completed.
The case for leaving the UK “does not depend on Brexit”, she said, but added the decision to leave the EU – which was not supported in Scotland – showed “what can happen when we don’t control our own future”.
THE SNP might think itself to have been outrageous and daring for calling for funding for the Royal Family to be cut off in Scotland but in truth it shows them up as the fatuous little band of self-satisfied student activists that they really are.
For a start, as they perfectly well know, this is not going to have any actual effect since the matter is settled at Westminster.
It’s easy to call for radical change when you know absolutely nothing is going to happen.
Second, this reeks of revenge. Just before the referendum on Scottish independence the Queen came as close to making a political statement as she ever has done by asking the Scottish people to think very carefully about what they were doing.
The Scottish people are not stupid. They understand the immense value of the monarchy, the stability it promotes. They will not be impressed by the juvenile antics of a group of people fast losing their grip on power.