One way of keeping ahead of rising prices is to give yourself a pay rise that’s four times the rate of inflation - Vladimir McTavish

It would be impossible to be unaware that we are all living through a cost-of-living crisis. The media mentions it on a daily basis, and many newspapers run features on how to cope with rising prices, offering handy tips on how to manage your household budget. Much of this aimed at older readers.

King Charles III is to receive a 45 per cent pay rise from the UK taxpayer (Picture: Daniel Leal/PA)

Want to heat your home cheaper? Instead of expensive wood, why not burn old copies copy of the Daily Express in your log burning stove? Want to save money on toilet paper? Wipe your bum with the Daily Express. Want to save a pound a day on unnecessary spending? Don’t buy the Daily Express in the first place.

BBC News now have a correspondent dedicated solely to covering the cost-of-living crisis. However, most of the media appear to have missed one uplifting story on how a man in his seventies is coping with rising costs, although it was reported in The Guardian.

King Charles has come up with a novel plan to stretch his household budget by awarding himself a 45 per cent pay rise over the next two years. That’s one way of keeping ahead of rising prices. Give yourself a pay rise that’s four times the rate of inflation.

When I say he has awarded himself this huge wage hike, that’s not strictly true. It was awarded to him by Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt, without needing approval from Parliament. There was no lengthy negotiation process, and no need to go to an independent pay review body.

This news emerged in the same week that junior hospital doctors in England are taking strike action because the same Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt are refusing to give them a pay rise which might just keep up with inflation. Nurses, teachers and rail workers have all had to take industrial action in the past few months. We constantly hear stories of in-work poverty where essential workers in the NHS are having to visit foodbanks in order to feed their families.

Yet one employee in the public sector can be awarded a 45 per cent pay rise. The BBC’s cost-of living crisis correspondent failed to pick up that story, strangely enough. So why is he getting this huge increase in salary? It’s not as if there’s been any marked increase in productivity since he came into the job last year. And if I remember correctly, he talked much at the time about “slimming down” the Royal Family.

If Charles hadn’t got his pay rise, would he have gone on strike? The fact is nobody would notice if he did. Royalists are always trotting out the tired old cliche that the King and his family bring millions of pounds into the economy through tourism. This is possibly true, but Americans will take photographs of Buckingham Palace whether he’s inside the building or not.

The only day anyone would have twigged that he’d withdrawn his labour was the coronation. In other words, one day in his entire life. Of course, if enough Royals went on so that Prince Andrew took up the throne, even the most diehard republican would reckon it was worth paying up to avoid the somewhat obese creepy brother becoming Monarch. King Andrew? That would hardly represent a “slimmed down” Royal Family.