British royals have the life, don’t they? They reside in lavish palaces, have their living expenses heavily subsidized by the taxpayers (to the tune of £38m a year), don’t seem to have to do much of anything other than have tea and play polo… not a bad deal by most appearances. But that doesn’t stop them from asking for more, like when the Queen asked to use a state poverty fund to heat Buckingham Palace and some other royal properties:

The Queen asked ministers for a poverty handout to help heat her palaces but was rebuffed because they feared it would be a public relations disaster, documents disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act reveal.

Royal aides were told that the £60m worth of energy-saving grants were aimed at families on low incomes and if the money was given to Buckingham Palace instead of housing associations or hospitals it could lead to “adverse publicity” for the Queen and the Government.

Aides complained to ministers in 2004 that the Queen’s gas and electricity bills, which had increased by 50 per cent that year, stood at more than £1m a year and had become “untenable”.

We’re a bit surprised it would ever be cold in Buckingham Palace, because anyone capable of making this kind of request would seem to be full of hot air.

At one point, someone used thermal imaging technology to examine the palace and rated it 0 out of 10 for energy efficiency, with heat being lost from the windows, cracks in the walls, the roof… so this is obviously not a green building by a longshot. Maybe the Queen should consider a nice, energy-efficient flat somewhere.