Been waiting with bated breath for this...

[Gob]

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have announced the nursery Prince George is to attend alongside the release of a new photograph of their family.





The two-year-old will go to the Westacre Montessori School Nursery in Norfolk from January.

A nursery spokesman said: "We are looking forward to welcoming George to our nursery."

The nursery, near King's Lynn, is close to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's home, Anmer Hall.

The BBC's royal correspondent Peter Hunt said the duke and duchess appreciate what they see as the care being shown by the British media around the privacy of their children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, and are grateful for the public's support in respecting the privacy of their young family.

He said the couple would be pleased George's new nursery was sited in a private road, not a public one.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Never heard of them.
but they look like a nice family.

[MajGenl.Meade]

It has been a worry. I can relax now

[dales]

Never heard of them.
but they look like a nice family.

Just more rich white people. [yawn]

[MajGenl.Meade]

[kmccune]

How much does the royal family cost the British taxpayers a year?

[MajGenl.Meade]

Crown Estate property belongs to the reigning monarch but is not administered on their behalf. Revenues or debts from the estate accrue to the UK Treasury at their request. The request of the Monarch is at the start of their reign until the end of it, and is a free choice.

The Crown Estate is one of the largest property owners in the United Kingdom with a portfolio worth £8.1 billion, with urban properties valued at around £4 billion, and rural holdings valued at £1.049 billion; and an annual profit of £240.2 million, as at 31 March 2012.

That annual profit of 240.2million accrues to the British Treasury (public purse) - not the monarch

Year 2014:

The Queen’s official expenditure from the Sovereign Grant, the amount released from the public purse each year to finance the monarch, increased to £35.7m - a rise of £1.9m on the previous year.

But another view:

Now the arrangement looks like a bargain for the taxpayer. The Crown Estates brought in £230.9m to the Treasury last year (2011) and Queen only received £32.1m from the state, so on the face of it there’s a huge net gain for the taxpayer. That’s one reason why monarchists claim that the royal family pays for itself....

...Is the real cost of the monarchy much higher?

Republic have published an alternative royal budget which puts the real annual cost to the taxpayer at £200m – more than five times the figure acknowledged by Buck House.

None of this takes into account the unmeasured because unmeasurable "tourist attraction income" that accrues across the UK to all manner of businesses. It can be argued that absent the monarchy, tourism would not be altered. Perhaps so - but perhaps if we tore down St. Paul's, the Houses of Parliament, the clock tower of Big Ben, Westminster Cathedral and so on, tourism would not be the loser.

So we can say with Mr Micawber, "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery."

As for me and my house, we'll stick with the monarchy as long as it doesn't become some common bunch of arses drifting around Europe in shorts and t-shirts