Britain is ejecting hereditary nobles from Parliament after 700 years • Hacker News Board

Re: Britain is ejecting hereditary nobles from Parliament after 700 years

#411

Post by keybored » Wed, Mar 18, 2026, 3:43 PM UTC

theodric wrote: post #372

keybored wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The usual elitist slop. Every single citizen has a skin in the game of their country. They live there.

Your fortunes are not inextricably tied to your country any more than mine are. I've lived in four countries; am now a citizen of two. I have no passive incomes or sociolegal status which is tied to an estate or a title in a country that must continue to prosper or that status and wealth will diminish. If I see shit going sour, I'll sell my farm in Ireland for twice what I paid for it, move somewhere else, and still…

Sorry about the aggressive initial response.

It’s difficult for me to respond to these comments. I have to argue against the idea that there is virtue to setting up a hereditary parasite (passive income) who can do good for his/her country because they have, well, passive income.

Why can’t we just not do that? People, i.e. commoners, already have a stake in their country by virtue of living there. Even outlier globetrotters like you do.

Re: Britain is ejecting hereditary nobles from Parliament after 700 years

#412

Post by cuuupid » Wed, Mar 18, 2026, 9:24 PM UTC

klelatti wrote: post #162

cuuupid wrote: post #77

Some years ago I, an American citizen and resident, studied abroad briefly and was asked by the House of Lords to speak to them about what GDPR (a UK law!) was, how it worked, and the impact it could have. Further than ejecting nobles, they really should just overhaul the entire chamber, which is surely doing more harm than good if they need a foreign national to explain their own laws to them.

You don’t think it’s a strength that they have the courage to seek views from as wide a range of perspectives as possible, including from outside the UK?

That's not what this was about at all, literally just needed GDPR explained to them

Re: Britain is ejecting hereditary nobles from Parliament after 700 years

#413

Post by cuuupid » Wed, Mar 18, 2026, 9:31 PM UTC

fc417fc802 wrote: post #93

cuuupid wrote: post #77

Some years ago I, an American citizen and resident, studied abroad briefly and was asked by the House of Lords to speak to them about what GDPR (a UK law!) was, how it worked, and the impact it could have. Further than ejecting nobles, they really should just overhaul the entire chamber, which is surely doing more harm than good if they need a foreign national to explain their own laws to them.

Did they _need_ you or were they seeking the perspective of someone they considered well informed or valued for some other reason? What's the context here?

They wanted someone knowledgeable about GDPR to explain it to them as they didn't understand it. I was a freshman in undergrad who had no knowledge of it other than some stuff I saw on LinkedIn, just had a bunch of LinkedIn connections I guess, so I turned it down.