Britain's Queen Elizabeth II is taking steps to curb the privileges enjoyed by the royal family in a bid to restore the monarchy's discredited and battered image, a Sunday newspaper reported.
The Sunday Times said the Queen, worried by indications that a tide of republicanism was beginning to wash over the nation, had decided to restrict royal spending."The concern is to make sure that public money is used in a proper, responsible way," a royal source told the newspaper.
Friday the queen used a scheduled train service to travel to an engagement outside London rather than taking the special royal train, and sources at Buckingham Palace told the newspaper that such trips would become more common in the future.
She also stripped the right of free postage enjoyed by the Duchess of York, the former Sarah Ferguson, estranged wife of Prince Andrew.
In 1992 the queen broke with centuries of tradition by agreeing to pay income tax and cutting the number of royals who received money from public coffers from eight to three.