Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Who owns Parliament?

whoownsengland.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 210 posts

Re: Who owns Parliament?

#21

Post by throw2597 »

simonh wrote: post #13
kcartlidge wrote: post #6

Here in the UK we're one day into a two day extra 'bank holiday' for the Queen's jubilee (70 years). Seems a good time to remind people of great sites like these, places that take the time to gather the evidence that reveals the truth behind royalty - descendants of thieves and murderers still profiting off the proceeds of their ancestral crimes, with their only 'qualification' being an accident of birth . We've neve…

We could get rid of the monarchy tomorrow and ordinary britons would notice zero change in our political and democratic freedoms. They are politically irrelevant, a few completely peripheral procedural and technical issues aside that make no real difference in the grand scheme of things. I'm not sure if that's an argument for or against keeping the monarchy to be honest. They're a historical vestigial appendage of th…

There are very real issues that would be solved, not abstract ones like in the article above. See, for example, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/series/queens-consent

Re: Who owns Parliament?

#22

Post by plonk »

Angostura wrote: post #15

We’re a constitutional monarchy AND a democracy. The monarch is the disabled root account of the nation. The government is the sudoers

Sounds like the system would be simpler if we removed root and gave capabilities to the sudoers instead.

Edit: why does the disabled root account allocate so much RAM?

Re: Who owns Parliament?

#23

Post by dane-pgp »

simonh wrote: post #13
kcartlidge wrote: post #6

Here in the UK we're one day into a two day extra 'bank holiday' for the Queen's jubilee (70 years). Seems a good time to remind people of great sites like these, places that take the time to gather the evidence that reveals the truth behind royalty - descendants of thieves and murderers still profiting off the proceeds of their ancestral crimes, with their only 'qualification' being an accident of birth . We've neve…

We could get rid of the monarchy tomorrow and ordinary britons would notice zero change in our political and democratic freedoms. They are politically irrelevant, a few completely peripheral procedural and technical issues aside that make no real difference in the grand scheme of things. I'm not sure if that's an argument for or against keeping the monarchy to be honest. They're a historical vestigial appendage of th…

> ordinary britons would notice zero change

But that only proves that what we have now is an elective dictatorship where the Prime Minister of the day effectively exercises all the powers of the sovereign, without any real accountability or separation of powers.

Removing powers from the Queen (or even just codifying them in a written constitution) would be the first step towards fixing this democratic deficit and allowing the people to choose someone more suitable to hold those powers, with a proper mandate to support them.

The particular reform I propose is introducing a "Governor General" role for the UK, who has the power to veto laws, treaties, and wars, but remains nominally answerable to the Queen just as the Prime Minister pretends to be. To be eligible for the role, candidates would need to be nominated by 20% of MPs, and they would be elected in a national election using the Supplementary Vote method.

Re: Who owns Parliament?

#24

Post by ThrowawayTestr »

plonk wrote: post #22
Angostura wrote: post #15

We’re a constitutional monarchy AND a democracy. The monarch is the disabled root account of the nation. The government is the sudoers

Sounds like the system would be simpler if we removed root and gave capabilities to the sudoers instead. Edit: why does the disabled root account allocate so much RAM?

No post body was provided.

Re: Who owns Parliament?

#25

Post by plonk »

vasco wrote: post #16
simonh wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We could get rid of the monarchy tomorrow and ordinary britons would notice zero change in our political and democratic freedoms. They are politically irrelevant, a few completely peripheral procedural and technical issues aside that make no real difference in the grand scheme of things. I'm not sure if that's an argument for or against keeping the monarchy to be honest. They're a historical vestigial appendage of th…

They are not irrelevant in the sense that they are a declaration of the nation that there are special people by birth. In a society so worried about equality, it is appaling that multiple countries in europe not only have populations that leave under monarchy, but that they seem to be in favor.

Seems like their special status is more of a burden today.

Re: Who owns Parliament?

#26

Post by Teever »

plonk wrote: post #22
Angostura wrote: post #15

We’re a constitutional monarchy AND a democracy. The monarch is the disabled root account of the nation. The government is the sudoers

Sounds like the system would be simpler if we removed root and gave capabilities to the sudoers instead. Edit: why does the disabled root account allocate so much RAM?

Can you do that without rebooting? Rebooting nations tends to be a messy affair. Just ask France.

Re: Who owns Parliament?

#27

Post by plonk »

ThrowawayTestr wrote: post #24
plonk wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like the system would be simpler if we removed root and gave capabilities to the sudoers instead. Edit: why does the disabled root account allocate so much RAM?

Quoted post unavailable.

You could allocate only "software update" capability to one group, "execution" to another, and have a permission system for deciding who can do what.

Re: Who owns Parliament?

#28

Post by plonk »

Teever wrote: post #26
plonk wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like the system would be simpler if we removed root and gave capabilities to the sudoers instead. Edit: why does the disabled root account allocate so much RAM?

Can you do that without rebooting? Rebooting nations tends to be a messy affair. Just ask France.

"Every operating system then, and every threat model, naturally expires at the end of 19 years. If it be deployed longer, it is legacy tech, and should be deprecated." - Thomas Jefferson

Re: Who owns Parliament?

#29

Post by etothepii »

kcartlidge wrote: post #6

Here in the UK we're one day into a two day extra 'bank holiday' for the Queen's jubilee (70 years). Seems a good time to remind people of great sites like these, places that take the time to gather the evidence that reveals the truth behind royalty - descendants of thieves and murderers still profiting off the proceeds of their ancestral crimes, with their only 'qualification' being an accident of birth . We've neve…

Of course it's underserved. But the person of the sovereign in the British system can be a unifying figure impossible with an elected Head of State.

Don't agree? Just look at how the red half of the US talk about Obama and the Blue half talk about Trump.

Re: Who owns Parliament?

#30

Post by kcartlidge »

simonh wrote: post #13
kcartlidge wrote: post #6

Here in the UK we're one day into a two day extra 'bank holiday' for the Queen's jubilee (70 years). Seems a good time to remind people of great sites like these, places that take the time to gather the evidence that reveals the truth behind royalty - descendants of thieves and murderers still profiting off the proceeds of their ancestral crimes, with their only 'qualification' being an accident of birth . We've neve…

We could get rid of the monarchy tomorrow and ordinary britons would notice zero change in our political and democratic freedoms. They are politically irrelevant, a few completely peripheral procedural and technical issues aside that make no real difference in the grand scheme of things. I'm not sure if that's an argument for or against keeping the monarchy to be honest. They're a historical vestigial appendage of th…

> They are politically irrelevant, a few completely peripheral procedural and technical issues aside that make no real difference in the grand scheme of things.

At the very least they own huge parts of the country, and the Queen has (and exercises as per recent Guardian stories) vetos and opt-outs of the laws the rest of us must follow.

Regardless of that, even as a basic principle our country reeks of deference and class.

Post reply on HN