Another year, another multimillion-pound splurge on one of the richest families in the country. Buckingham Palace pretends the royals are being prudent with public money. What utter hogwash. They even have the cheek to suggest that Charles is being generous because he only takes 12% of the income of the Crown Estate. Reality check: the Crown Estate has in effect been a public body since 1760, and until 2011, 100% of its profits went to the Treasury to pay for schools, hospitals, defence and,