Eat up, the Queen's picking up the tab

Greedy guests are eating an average of 14 items of food including cakes, scones and icecreams at Buckingham Palace garden parties.

Mayors, charity workers and members of the armed forces are among those invited to Buckingham Palace every summer as a reward for their work. More than 8000 people attend.

The royal finances published last week showed the cost of staging the parties last summer came to 500,000 ($1.278 million) for staffing, food and tents.

Tickets for the events are jealously sought for the chance to meet the Queen and other members of the Royal family.

However, officials were alarmed to discover from a value-for-money study of the catering that each guest managed to consume on average 14 items of food.

"It is not easy to get the costs down if people are going to eat that much."

The quantity of food consumed could be due to people taking food home as a souvenir, or wastage. But the officials ruled out introducing garden party police to stop greedy guests piling up their plates. "It just shows what value for money they are getting out of the monarchy at 61p ($1.56) a year," said an official.

- INDEPENDENT