万花筒 2009-07-03&07-05 经济不好，皇室也拮据（在线收听）

So you see, you got all kinds of work to do: the house needs a coat of paint, the concrete needs to be fixed. Well, pity the Royal Family, even they are not immune to the global recession. Queen Elizabeth reportedly is raiding Her piggy bank to pay for improvements to the palace or palaces, and royal visits around the world. She's also asking the British people to pick up some of the tab and that is causing quite a stir. Greg Palkot is at Buckingham palace. So what's all the hoopla, Greg?

Hey, John. Yeah. We are in front of Buckingham palace or as it is especially known by the locals “Buck house”. So that's my cameraman all laughed at. Zoom beyond me and look up at the flag flying over the building. It's the Union Jack that means that the Queen is not in residence. If She was there, Her own Royal Standard would be flying. She's traveling and what has caused a lot of stir in this country is the money that She and all the Royals are spending traveling and at home, especially in this recessionary period, it's all picked up by the taxpayers. The last fiscal year budget has just been released and they have spent, according to the Buckingham Palace officials, 66 million dollars equivalent. That's 2.5 million dollars than last year. Some of the travel expenses have been raising eyebrows. John, one trip by Prince Charles last year set a record to South America 'cause they poured one million dollars. A one-way flight by Prince Andrew to Egypt cost 90,000 dollars, and a train ride from here to Liverpool, couple of hundred miles away by the Duke of Edinburgh and that was 20,000 dollars. As you noted, they are spending at such a clip that they are dipping into their reserves, and they should be gone within two years, John.

Wow, obviously a lot of criticism, but there are some defenders of the crown as well, right?

Yeah, that's right, John. There are a lot of defenders. They say it's “value for money”. Yeah, that's the phrase often used here. They're symbols of the regime of this country. The basic working budget that they have, in fact, hasn't changed for several years, and they worked it out. It cost about a little more than one dollar per head in this country to keep the Royals in business. Still, they justified some budget items in their budget like a 25-million-dollar maintenance bugdet. Some people think that they should be spending a little bit more money. If you come back live, do us again. All of I show you that the scene in front of Buckingham Palace. It's a good crowd but the Royals should be taking advantage of that crowd a little bit more according to the critics. The place is only opened up to the public two months out of a year, unlike the White House which is basically opened up all the time. If they can bring people through here all the time spending money, that could raise them royal profits and get some royal headaches off the minds of the Queen and the government here. Back to you John.

All right, sounds good. Greg Palkot, thank you.