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THE SPECTATOR'S • NOTEBOOK
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The Queen's money is, naturally enough, a matter of great interest; and 1, for one, am delighted at Mr Heath's decision that the Queen should send a Gracious Message to the House of Commons asking for more. A Select Committee. with Mr Harold Wilson on it, will be set up to Investigate; report and advise. It would be right and proper for the deliberations of such a committee to be held in public, for it will be public money and the use to which it is put for public purposes that will be the Committee's subject.
There will be those who will squawk that the Civil List, being the Queen's pension. is far too private and intimate a matter to be dealt with in public. Such squawkers, quite deliberately in most cases, confuse matters. The Queen's vast private fortune is not the subject under discussion at all; nor are her private expenses. Her personal wealth, being accumulated without any payment of death duties, capital gains or income taxes, must now greatly exceed that of any of her sub- jects. This may well be an excellent thing. that the head of the realm should also be its richest member.
However, the public income she receives—as opposed to the tax immunity she is graciously allowed—is unarguably a matter of legitimate public interest. Quite clearly the Civil List of 1475,000 a year, if it was about right when it was fixed in 1952. cannot be right now, supposing the outgo- ings are justifiable and constant. If the Royal Household is to carry on as it has done hitherto, certainly a great increase in the Civil List must be called for.
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