Tony Blair flies commercial??

[El Diablo]

iron,

Your post is incorrect. The Prime Minister, like the royal family, uses a mix of Royal Squadron planes, chartered planes, and commercial travel. I suspect that since some budgetary controversies regarding use of the royal planes, the PM has perhaps flown commercial more often when going on holiday. But, in general, your Head of State/Head of Government distinction is just plain false when it comes to stuff like travel on special government planes.

[iron81]

I think you're right. I know that various Heads of Government get to fly military jets and such. I was trying to explain why Blair would be caught dead flying commercial and I got carried away when I said that they don't get to do that kind of thing.

[El Diablo]

iron,

OK. My point was specifically wrt your characterization of the UK PM as some "ordinary person" who "doesn't get to do the cool stuff" like that. To the contrary, he's pretty much just like the US President wrt stuff like that. Of course, the US is a lot bigger and has far more security concerns, so some things are viable for the PM that aren't for the President.

Here's an example of the type of stuff that is pretty standard for an "ordinary person" like that: dinner

[El Diablo]

iron,

Here's an article re: what I referenced in my earlier post: Blair royal plane holiday controversy

Apparently it has been pretty standard for PMs to use the Royal Squadron planes even on holidays, but sounds like even the royal family has been cutting back, so I suspect the reason for this commerical flight was more for political reasons than anything else.

[Lestat]

<font color="blue">"We find it extraordinary that while senior Royals have pulled in their horns to save public money, Mr Blair can take his family around Europe in this extravagant manner," a Buckingham Palace aide was quoted as saying in The Mail on Sunday. </font>

LOL!!! I find it EXTRAORDINARY that an entire country still wastes their time on royalty! Talk about a waste of government funds... What do they spend pampering those blue bloods anyway?

I know I'll get flamed by those from the UK, but catering to so-called royalty is insane! Of course, that's just my opinion and I'll be the first to admit we waste tons of money on stupider stuff right here in the good old USA!

[El Diablo]

L,

I haven't spent much time in the UK in the last few years, but when I was last spending a lot of time there (up through 2001), a lot of people in the UK felt the same way as you re: the royalty.

[Terry Tidy]

There's also the, often used, argument that having the monarchy generates a lot of tourist income. Unless I'm mistaken, the royal family now receive fairly small (around £8million in total I think) amounts of cash from the government.

Admittedly that must just represent the cash part and not all the extras they get free.

But very true, few people in the UK idolise the queen.