Royals 'Diss' Their Own Cash Cow

I was somewhat amused by an article I came across in the Sunday telegraph over the weekend, where the Duke of Edinburgh had apparently described onshore wind farms as 'absolutely useless', further describing them as a 'disgrace'. This of course adds to the opinions of his eldest son and heir to the throne Charles, who has refused to have any of them on his land.

'absolutely useless?'

In the above paragraph, please note that the grand old Duke only refers to onshore wind farms and not offshore farms, but surely if they are 'absolutely useless' onshore, then the much more expensive offshore farms must be worth even more right royal criticism?

Ah, not exactly. You see, the Royals are about to have their costs covered by the revenue earned from the Crown Estate, a multi billion pound asset that includes much of the sea bed for several miles out into the ocean-around the whole of the UK. This means that the current and planned massive offshore farms will line the pockets of the Royals to the tune of tens of millions of pounds a year. Needless to say, the coastal communities adjacent to these energy facilities will see none of this cash.

absolutely loaded?

I am always amused when Royals, politicians and other assorted nimbys queue up to slate all onshore wind farms as 'useless,' over subsidised and a 'disgrace', only to be quite happy with the much more subsided offshore wind farms. Of course, by making such criticisms of onshore wind farms, they are in fact condemning all forms of renewable energy as it is currently the cheapest form of renewable energy production in the UK. Nevermind, for why let a gust of double standards get in the way of a good royal rant?