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Great speech...

That's what I am saying Dave "The government divides and rules us, the rich and powerful ruling classes with the Queen at the top, the richest woman in the world, keeping the last bastion of the class system going in Britain with money filtering down from the top to ?royalty? who believe like the Queen that they have a divine right to rule over us the ?common? people."

The Queen isn't the richest woman in the world. Most of what she has is held in trust - she can't sell stuff like the rest of us. And countries that have an elected head of state don't have poverty, do they? No poor people in America, Germany or France, for example.

Would you prefer the military and police swore an oath of allegiance to Margaret Thatcher or Tony Blair?

Can we knock on the head for once and all the idea that children are starving in this country - they aren't. One minute we have the government bemoaning the fact that kids are too fat and now you tell us that really they are starving. Make up your minds... There is no real poverty in this country. Travel to Africa as I have done and there you will see people who are really starving. Even the so-called poorest kids in this country have mobile phones, X Boxes, designer trainers and the like. They may have moral poverty but they certainly don't have financial poverty.

Cannabis is not part of our culture - that's a plain daft assertion.

"our life is made richer as we subsume their culture into ours" - but we don't. We are constantly told that we have to respect their culture and not assume that they will adopt ours - diversity and all that bollocks.

You make some good and obvious points but offer no solutions.

Elizabeth's personal fortune has been the subject of speculation for many years. Forbes magazine estimated her net worth at around US$450 million in 2010, but official Buckingham Palace statements in 1993 called estimates of ?100 million "grossly overstated". Jock Colville, who was her former private secretary and a director of her bank, Coutts, estimated her wealth in 1971 at ?2 million (the equivalent of about ?21 million today. The Royal Collection, which includes artworks and the Crown Jewels, is not owned by the Queen personally and is held in trust, as are the occupied palaces in the United Kingdom such as Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle,and the Duchy of Lancaster, a property portfolio valued at ?383 million in 2011. Sandringham House and Balmoral Castle are privately owned by the Queen.The British Crown Estate?with holdings of ?7.3 billion in is held in trust for the nation, and cannot be sold or owned by Elizabeth in a private capacity.

We don't really know who the richest people in the world are because of tax evasion and offshore funds but she is hardly hard up.

The latest available figures (for 2009/10) show there are:

3.8 million children living in poverty (after housing costs)
2.6 million children living in poverty (before housing costs).

No, I never said that she was hard up or likely to go hungry etc etc but as you apparently agree most of what she "owns" isn't her personal property. If you have a spare Blu-Ray player, you can sell it. The Queen can't sell off a Rembrandt in the royal collection even if she wanted to.

As regards child poverty, I suppose it depends on your, and indeed Cpag's, definition of poverty. I do not believe that there are 3.8million children in the UK who don't have enough to eat or have to go to school barefoot - as happens in many overseas countries. Of those households with supposedly poor children, I wonder how many have a car, mobile, PlayStation, flatscreen telly etc? I would hazard a guess at most of them.

"How rich is Queen Elizabeth?"
Her estimated personal fortune is around ?350 million (US $525M). The Duchy of Lancaster estate, a portfolio of land, property and assets, is held in Trust for the Sovereign and worth around ?348 million. She also owns properties privately that have never been valued, including Sandringham House, Balmoral Castle reputedly worth ?160 million and the Castle of Mey. Her personal art collection is worth at least ?10 billion, and she owns personal jewellery and a large stamp collection built up by her grandfather George V. Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, the Crown Jewels and the Royal Art Collection are held in trust for the nation. The Crown Estate, the royal lands dating from 1066, are worth around ?7.3 billion and generate ?304 million (2008/9) in revenue a year which is handed back to the Government as payment in return for the ?38.2 million per year (2009/10 down 7% from ?41 million in 2008) cost of running the monarchy. This arrangement dates from George III who gave up the right to the income in return for the Civil List paid to members of the Royal Family. It has been announced that this will be changed in 2013 to a Sovereign Support Grant based on a percentage of the income from the Crown Estate

You can believe what you want about British child poverty but the facts remain.

But that's the point - they aren't facts. The figure for what constitutes poverty is arbitrary but compare "poverty" in this country to the real thing overseas and no one could claim that there is poverty in this country.

They are statistical facts or are you an expert on poverty? I am talking about the UK not overseas and I have made that clear.

Yes, I know that you are talking about the UK and I am saying there is NO poverty in the UK. There are no children going to school barefoot, no children going hungry etc, etc.

Have you never heard the expression "There are lies, damned lies and statistics"? Statistics can be manipulated any way you want. I'd be more concerned about the children who leave school unable to read and write properly (obviously, a few of them contribute to this site!) than specious "statistical facts" about poverty in this country...

You are obviously intransigent in your views and will not listen to opposing views.
"4 million children - one in three - are currently living in poverty in the UK, one of the highest rates in the industrialised world. This is a shocking figure given the wealth of our nation."