The Royals: Are they still as popular as they once were?

Is it time for the Royals to reassess their financial relationship with the county?

Transcript

00:00Is it time for a reassessment of the monarchy's financial relationship with the public?

00:07Now, the difficulty is that when you actually look at the stats, it's quite problematic knowing exactly how much they cost.

00:14There's a lot of mystique about it. What we can guarantee is it certainly costs probably at least 100 million a year.

00:21Anti-monarchists, they reckon it's closer to sort of to 500 million a year, so half a billion,

00:26which, dare I say, that's a lot of money in terms of the upkeep and the salaries of the staff.

00:33Security is a big issue, flying people around.

00:36But, of course, that's then balanced by what supporters say they bring a lot of interest in.

00:40And, of course, anybody who ever goes to London and certainly if you're in the Green Park area,

00:45you swing past Buckingham Palace and it's a kind of must see.

00:48So there's a lot of sort of interest in what the royals do.

00:51I don't doubt that sort of the new firm, as it were, that's what it's referred to,

00:57they're trying to sort of keep the sort of the interest levels down by less controversy because we had a lot of that.

01:04Earlier this year, Polling showed the Prince and Princess of Wales remain the most favourably viewed members of the royal family.

01:11Despite several turbulent years, including the death of Queen Elizabeth II

01:15and a series of serious medical diagnoses among senior royals,

01:20public sentiment toward key members has held relatively steady.

01:25The Prince and Princess of Wales top the list,

01:28with 74% of Britons expressing a positive opinion of both William and Catherine.

01:33Close behind is Princess Anne, viewed favourably by 70% of the public.

01:37So they do have that sort of ability of, you know, if you like, trying to have the common touch,

01:43which is kind of ironic because, of course, they lead a very sort of cloistered existence.

01:48I know they do a lot of sort of walkabouts, but, you know, it's all very much sort of staged.

01:51And therefore, you know, what was sort of interested is the, you know, what they said they really think.

01:57But we never quite know because, of course, they don't put their sort of their feelings on record.

02:02And indeed, there is a sort of view that Prince Charles, he was very sort of vocal over the years

02:08when he was just Prince Charles, but he seems to have sort of gone quiet.

02:11He's not the sort of the controversial sort of figure he once was.

02:15We've got to the end of the sort of the crown, as it were, or have we?

02:18But nonetheless, you know, the soap opera of real life became a, if you like,

02:22a soap opera of the sort of the fictional sense.

02:24And, you know, it entertained lots of people.