The shit in Spain falls mainly in the fan

[Zanza]

Germany is just being sued by the descendants of the Hohenzollern family as they want real estate and art back that was confiscated. However, it was confiscated by the Soviet military government in 1945 and Germany declared legal acts by the occupying powers beyond its jurisdiction, especially as the head of the house back in WW2 supported the Nazis - the degree of this support is under discussion in historic academia.

[Sheilbh]

One of my pet peeves with the Spanish monarchy is that their numerals are counted using the list of the Kings of Castille, instead of reseting the count when Spain was founded*

*Nobody can really agree on when that happened, which is one of the reasons of the artifact.

This has caused controversy here too. In the fifties when she was crowned anything with ERII got vandalised in Scotland because she should be ERI in Scotland. Post boxes in Scotland still don't have ERII on them due to the incidents

Apparently in the UK the numerals follow either kings of Scotland or England. So for both it would be Charles III, for William it would be William V (not William IV of Scotland), but if we were to have a King James it would be James VIII (following Scottish kings) not James III (following the English).

Presumably Spanish separatists want a Republic because of the stronger republican tradition in Spain? Or am I wrong and they want, I guess, Felipe I?

[Maladict]

Germany is just being sued by the descendants of the Hohenzollern family as they want real estate and art back that was confiscated. However, it was confiscated by the Soviet military government in 1945 and Germany declared legal acts by the occupying powers beyond its jurisdiction, especially as the head of the house back in WW2 supported the Nazis - the degree of this support is under discussion in historic academia.

They're also claiming the Dutch mansion Wilhelm II spent his exile in. Are they this desparate for money or is it something else?

[Zanza]

I find it more probable that they are pretentious assholes who somehow think they are better than their fellow citizens. The Austrians got it right with the Habsburgs.

[celedhring]

One of my pet peeves with the Spanish monarchy is that their numerals are counted using the list of the Kings of Castille, instead of reseting the count when Spain was founded*

*Nobody can really agree on when that happened, which is one of the reasons of the artifact.

This has caused controversy here too. In the fifties when she was crowned anything with ERII got vandalised in Scotland because she should be ERI in Scotland. Post boxes in Scotland still don't have ERII on them due to the incidents

Apparently in the UK the numerals follow either kings of Scotland or England. So for both it would be Charles III, for William it would be William V (not William IV of Scotland), but if we were to have a King James it would be James VIII (following Scottish kings) not James III (following the English).

Presumably Spanish separatists want a Republic because of the stronger republican tradition in Spain? Or am I wrong and they want, I guess, Felipe I?

Felipe VI should be Felipe V if we started counting Emperor Charles as the first monarch of an unified Spain (there's cases against that).

Regarding secessionists, without getting into a looooooooooooong discussion around the Catalan national myth, which is tiresome  for them republicanism is essentially a PR tool. Allows them to build bridges with Spanish republicans, and also gives them a boogey man that they can use almost as a Spanish Soros.  The fact that the House of Barcelona became extinct in the XVth century doesn't give much a rope to would-be Catalan monarchic nationalists either (there's claimants, but they have no clout).

Plus republicanism in Spain is complicated, it has become a left-right issue, due to the Civil War. Conservative republicans do exist, mind, and they are *quite* influential. (a lot of reporting on royal scandals has come from conservative newspapers).

[Josquius]

What I don't get is countries that spend even more money on elected presidents to do exactly the same job of having dinners with foreign president's and opening hospitals and other such stuff. Seems a bit useless without the celebrity from birth factor.

Disagree - they normally have more constitutional powers than a monarch because they have democratic legitimacy. It varies across Europe but all mostly ceremonial Presidents have more constitutional powers than a UK monarch (practically speaking) from the very strong (I think Italy) to the quite weak (Ireland) - so they can do things like, for example, referring bills to the courts before signing them or having quite a lot of influence in coalition formation.

Only some are actually directly elected a lot are elected by a special convention or the parliament. So they have some democratic legitimacy but don't have an equivalent mandate as the legislature/government.

Also I think they are able to be ceremonial in an important way - I think it is good to separate the "state" from the "government", for things like memorials, state dinners etc. Sometimes more political figures are good at the ceremonial stuff of the state (Cameron was surprisingly good - I remember his response to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry), sometimes they're not (see Trump - or for that mattter Johnson or Berlusconi). Plus they can often come from a slightly off-kilter political background which makes them slightly different, more substantial figures - Joachim Gauck in Germany, Mary Robinson and Michael D Higgins in Ireland - or just the fact they're not going to be competing to be PM lets them take on an honest broker/kingmaker role - like Napolitano in Italy.

I'm no expert on the system of other countries. But the typical republican proposal of just a one for one replacement for the queen is just pointless.
Keeping the state separate from the government is definitely useful- though it has been looking ever shakier these days. But I just don't see how we'd get this with an elected politician without first seeing massive change in the UK towards becoming a democracy a generation or two before hand.

And the "cheapness" of the Royal Family where fund the costs of their public role is still quite expensive and probably cross-subsidised by the income from their billions of pounds of private property (the Duchy of Lancaster for the Queen and Duchy of Cornwall for Charles), which they don't pay corporation tax on because they're the crown

Yes, no doubt the explanation for how they can do it more affordability yet less effectively.

[Admiral Yi]

Even a second long glance at that chart should tell you something is wrong with that number.

It should but it didn't.

[Admiral Yi]

The office of the German president has a budget of about 44 million Euro, the biggest chunk of which are the costs of about 209 staff members and pensions for former staff members.

Why the hell does the German president need a staff of 209? 

[Barrister]

Of course Canada, Australia etc have a real bargain - a free head of state 

If only.

The office of the Governor-General runs into the tens of millions of dollars.  Plus because it's appointed for a term, we have several former GG's running around, who in addition to a generous pension they are given millions to set up charities, plus can bill "expenses" back to the government.

[Zanza]

Why the hell does the German president need a staff of 209? 

To fulfill his constitutional obligations.
https://www.bundespraesident.de/EN/Role-and-Functions/role-and-functions-node.html

[Grey Fox]

Still much cheaper than what the Brits pay, no?

[Barrister]

Still much cheaper than what the Brits pay, no?

Well actually no, though it's complicated.

When it comes to actual, direct subsidy we pay more.  However there's the issue of the Queen's estates which she doesn't pay tax on, but does otherwise provide money back.

Edit: Misread the figures.  The UK apparently pays just slightly more in direct subsidy per capita than Canada ($1.68/person in Canada, $1.93/person in UK).  But then there's the Queen's estates (in the UK) that both benefit from being tax-free, but also give direct contributions to the British treasury that greatly exceed the direct subsidy.

[celedhring]

The Queen retains estates in Canada? You guys should've done like your southern neighbors.

[Syt]

Interesting before/after:

[Tonitrus]

Atlantis was thought to have many wonders...but I did not know satellite imagery was one of them.