Queen Elizabeth’s cash crisis: Monarch ‘down to last million’
According to The Daily Telegraph
, a report by the House of Commons’ Public Accounts Committee has found that the Queen’s financial reserves have reached a “historic low,” dwindling to 1 million pounds ($1.66 million) from 35 million pounds ($58 million) in 2001.
The Committee’s report has placed the blame squarely on the Queen’s advisers for overspending in a manner out of line with the austerity measures that have been adopted by Prime Minister David Cameron’s government. According to the Telegraph, the royal household only managed 5 percent efficiency savings over the past five years, while some British government departments have cut their budgets by up to 33 percent. In the 2012-13 fiscal year, the report found that the royal household received 31 million pounds ($51.4 million) in taxpayer funds, but spent 33.3 million ($55.2 million), dipping into the reserves in the process.
Margaret Hodge, a Labour MP who chaired the committee, told Sky News that the financial mismanagement has resulted in two of the Queen’s most famous residences falling into disrepair, with no contingency plant to pay for the backlog of repairs. More>
By Contributor B Harmon: It’s hard to imagine that Queen Elizabeth II is gradually losing her millions. Lets all get out the crying towel and mourn her loss. Frankly, I’m tired of all the articles and pictures on the rich and famous especially Prince William and Kate. Enough people! When are we going to recognize the less fortunate??? No, not me as my heart is for those that will have no home this year or no food to eat, or no health insurance, or the widow that lives on barely enough to pay for the roof over her frail aching body or about the child that lost his Medical coverage and cannot have any more chemo? Enough of this, I am getting depressed just thinking about it.
Remember the weekly show called “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”? It was in the 1980s and was quite popular with a lot of Americans. Each show, the host would visit celebrities and royalty viewing their luxurious mansions, their exotic cars, and their sparkling jewelry and apparel. People couldn’t get enough of this show and we should wonder why? Don’t we all secretly hope for wealth thinking that it would solve all of our problems? To be recognized and adored by millions?
Jesus knew the heart more than anyone and that is why he warned us about cravings to be rich and famous. Two thousand years ago Jesus said in Mark 10:25 “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of G-d.”
With Jesus I think it is a matter of priorities and too many times, people make riches their G-d or in other words make it their idol. One of the First Commandments says, “You shall have no other gods before me.”
All of this to say, we put too much emphasis on wealth and are honoring wealthy people like Queen Elizabeth II, Prince William, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Angelina Joli, Bill O’Reilly, Warren Buffet, and I could go on and on. Not just people but sports has become an idol to some. Millions are spent on it, households are dedicated to it, and who profits? Do the poor, the widows, and the orphans get some of that wealth?
What Does The Bible Have To Say?
Matthew 7:24 (ESV) “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Luke 12:33 (ESV) Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.
1 John 2:15 (AMP): 15 Do not love or cherish the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.
John 15:19 (AMP): 19 If you belonged to the world, the world would treat you with affection and would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world [no longer one with it], but I have chosen (selected) you out of the world, the world hates you.
Related Article: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/royal-family-burned-money/story?id=22266021