Mom slams $15M Queen’s Jubilee gift as kids ‘barely survive’
She wants the royal family to put their money where the schoolkids’ mouths are.
A UK mom is going viral after slamming the queen’s Platinum Jubilee for spending more than $15 million (£12 million) on gifts that could otherwise go toward the country’s struggling children.
A Twitter thread questioning the gesture currently boasts tens of thousands of likes on Twitter as of Thursday morning.
“My daughter got a platinum jubilee book about the Queen, she also got a nice mug w/ the Queen’s face on it,” genocide researcher Arnesa Buljušmić-Kustura wrote in the post. “The book was sent to all kids in the UK and it cost 12 million pounds to do that.”
Her complaint was posted a day before the kickoff of the four days of celebration for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, which saw the royal family stand on the balcony as Royal Air Force jets soared overhead.
Buljušmić-Kustura found the ostentatious gift expenditure particularly hypocritical as some of her daughter’s classmates are forced to “share their bedroom with 3 other kids, their 2 bed apartment with parents, grandparents, siblings too and sometimes a cousin or two,” per a followup tweet.
“Some of her classmates couldn’t go on an upcoming school trip so we covered their fees. Some of her classmates come to school in worn out uniforms because their parents cannot afford to buy them new ones,” the activist added in a followup tweet. “Some of her classmates parents work multiple jobs to survive.”
She added in another tweet, “But hey…the 12 million dollar [15 million in US dollars] book was a special memory they’ll never forget…while they barely survive.”
Buljušmić-Kustura added that the gift expenditure also exacerbated the nationwide tax woes, writing, “I also have to say . . . it doesn’t come easy to me either as we are struggling to pay for our extortionate visa fees in order to stay in the country, while we struggle with the rising cost of living, and as we continue to pay double tax, double NHS surcharges. But hey . . . nice book!
Indeed, according to Lancaster Live, the pageantry-studded event will cost UK taxpayers a whopping £28 million, or $35 million.
Needless to say, her thread divided social media, with one critic writing, “It’s a parents job and responsibility to feed their own children not the Gov or the sch. Priorities as always.”
“Parents job to feed and clothe ..you said you pay extortionate cost of visas..you say large families all living In single rooms?” scoffed another. “Sounds like you need to have a word with yourself and ask why you wish to stay in this land if you are just going to complain.”
However, others’ agreed with the mom’s sentiment. “Nobody is saying to put it off — just why are we spending so much on unnecessary things? what could that 12 million have gone to go make a difference?” wrote one.
“Kids can’t eat, people are scared to use the gas and they’re spending a billion on a party for a rich ornament that arrogantly wheels out her noncey son at any opportunity. Nope. The Met and Tories can piss right off too,” wrote angered political satirist and commentator @Supertanskiii, amplifying the cries to cancel the Jubilee.
While others wrote the extravagant celebrations were in “extremely poor taste” and “gross,” others broke down just how disparaging the wealth gap is between the royal family and, well, everyone else.
“On a day of Jubilee celebrations, that will cost £50ml, for a family worth hundreds of millions, who we give £87.5ml of tax payers money to each year; it’s worth remembering there will be 17 year olds forced to work today on a minimum wage of £4.81 an hour,” wrote activist Howard Beckett.
“If they can pluck money out of thin air for the jubilee, they can feed the poor,” tweeted another, adding a damning statement about the royal family: “They choose not to.”
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