Lord Browne, or Lord anyone for that matter… everytime I hear it, it really annoys me for some reason! I think it’s an innate hatred of aristocracy and people being ‘born into’ something (when my wife and I visit a palace or country manor somewhere, I get similarily pissed off!)… just jealousy I guess? Anyhoo, it annoys me… does it you?

I do.

Think its my communist upbringing.

How’s the weight loss going?

I thought lord Browne worked hard for his peerage, pronably cost a fair whack in donations to the labour party.

Not really.

Surely most ‘Lords’ in the news are simply appointed members of the upper house doing a political job?

Usually those feelings of frustration and anger at other people are more often external representations of things that you are uncomfortable about yourself, usually feelings of insecurity or inadequacy.

OK now before you bite, that’s a serious point and I would say that EVERYONE has those feelings to a greater or lesser degree, so this isn’t a troll or a dig but a genuine point.

The difference is that some people are aware of those feelings, have worked through them in their own mind and got a point where they are OK with it and, perhaps most importantly, the choices they’ve made about their life.

I get angry in the same sort of way but not with the same group of people you describe. Usually it’s with union and lefty types 😛

There’s two types of Lords;

1) Those who’s ancestors bought a peerage centuries ago via money or deedas

2) Those who bought a peerage in their own lifetimes via money or deeds

I tend to have more respect for the former – at least their families have a track record for not **** up too badly whereas some nouveau Lord really has no history to protect for the nect generation.

psychle – your chip is on the wrong shoulder 😉

You’re confusing hereditary titles (duke, marquess, viscount etc etc) with life titles (Lord etc)

Lord Browne was granted his peerage under the last government until he crokes. And anyway, given that he’s not a breeder, it would never have been a hereditary title anyway 😉

Lol @ Stoner

Prince, Princess and Queen annoy me more…

I thought this was going to be about gel wrappers. How disappointing.

Lord Voldemort is a bad man 🙁

The word ‘Lord’ though, it just pisses me off! I think in my mind it has so many implied messages/inferances (not all correct it would seem), eg. I’m a Lord and I have to let everyone know that I am a Lord (not just John Smith or Mr Smith), why is that? Is it part of the deal that you have to be known/announced as Lord So&So in all dealings?? Boils my goat for some reason…

wwaswas that seems a bit backward, you would respect some feckless idiot* whose great great great grandad was a successful businessman more than you respect a current live successful businessman person?

*not saying hereditary peers are, just an example 🙂

It’s because you’re a colonial, and value highly the anonymous contributions to society of Murdoch, Packer etc. 😆

So, is it that these people have bigger houses than you, or that they’re titled that pisses you off?
Don’t forget, many of the places you visit have little or no current connection with the historic owners.

I don’t begrudge the successful, it’s not jealousy in that sense (I don’t think?) and even the word ‘Sir’ doesn’t bother me that much, but ‘Lord’ for some reason really does… weird eh?

Could be my colonial upbringing, egalitarian society and all that…

You do know you don’t actually have to treat them any differently from any other person don’t you? It’s not like you have to bow and scrape any more…

but it’s the implication isn’t it?

Personally I’d quite like to see someone from the feckless poor being appointed to reveiw the taxation of the wealthy….. in the big society surely this would be an entirely reasonable thing, using the gentry to judge how the less well off should be treated and conversely the less well off how the wealthy get taxed. Should be able to sort that deficit out really quickly that way eh??

Just had a read of wikipedia regarding peers and hereditary peers. Quite enlightening, especially the article on hereditary peers.

A read of it might give you some idea of who to focus your ire on.

The whole hereditary title thing pisses me right off, right up to the level of the queen, why should someone be considered better than me by an accident of birth?
In fact I hate the royal family and minor royals, why is prince edward (for instance) given every break in life when if he wasn’t a royal no one would look at him twice? Do you think will sachs-oburg would have got to fly helicopters like his buffoon of an uncle before him if he wasn’t heir to the throne?
All their money should be taken off them and given to the poor, then they should be torn apart by an angry mob and their mutilated corpses dragged through the street, that freeloading zenophobic greek first.
The only thing I felt sadness about when Princess diana died was that it wasn’t a fifty two seater luxury coach packed with the upper echelons of the royal family that crashed and not just one of the inbred bstards.

So yes, I do get an irrational anger response! I’d feel different if I was one of them right enough, so it’s probably just jealousy.

The word ‘Lord’ though, it just pisses me off! I think in my mind it has so many implied messages/inferances (not all correct it would seem), eg. I’m a Lord and I have to let everyone know that I am a Lord (not just John Smith or Mr Smith)

A bit like Sir, Doctor, Professor, Reverend etc?

Perhaps the point is that they are not just John Smith.
Personally if I’d worked all my life to achieve such a level then I’d feel a bit pissed off if people kept calling me Mr out of some strange misplaced class jealously.

So was it Lord Vader first then Darth Vader, not sure?

Vader have some serious “till”, hes got his own star albeit a Death one.

But does a Lord or His Majesty actually earn it? Sir, Doctor, Professor, Reverend etc do, don’t they?

But does a Lord or His Majesty actually earn it?

Well looking at his wiki:
Lord Browne joined BP as an apprentice in 1966, by 1984 he was Group Treasurer and Chief Executive of BP Finance, by 1995 he was Group Chief Executive of BP, by 1998 he was knighted.

He has a first in Physics from Cambridge, an MS in Business from Stanford, is a fellow of about a dozen different societies and institutions and has honorary degrees from 18 different universities.

He was nominated for his peerage by the House of Lords Appointments Commission. He didn’t inherit it or win it in a raffle.

The “Lord of the Dance” angers me…..

Contempt, rather than annoyance…

Cheers for spaceman and gets ready for some french style revolution

Graham good point [ despite my heartfelt sarccy ish reply] if it was true meritocracy – like say the Noble prize or mann- winner prize but it is not. For each lord you can show who is deserving and worthy I will show you two who are accidents of birth or undeserving political figures so I give you Ian Paisley and Mandy as my starters for 10.

so I give you Ian Paisley and Mandy as my starters

if thats just for starters then i’m off

The only time the word ‘Lord’ has me grinding my teeth with anger is when it has the word ‘Mandelsson’ following.
I have no issues with royalty or anything like that, as you only have to look at the spendthrift way presidents of other countries live, and it’s worth pointing out that the properties used by the royal family by and large belong to the nation; that’s us, the people who live here. The suggestion that you could take the money away from such people and ‘give it to the poor’ is so simplistic it’s laughable. Just how much, exactly, d’you imagine each ‘poor’ person would get? Bugger all. Millions of pounds spread around millions of people. It’s amazing that anyone can continue to hold onto idealistic communist beliefs when you can see clearly what happens in communist countries like Romania, North Korea, Albania, the Soviet Union, China, Cambodia, under the rule of enlightened leaders like Pol Pot, Mao, Stalin, Kim Il Jun, etc. Given a choice between Britain with the Queen as titular leader and Korea with ‘Dear Leader’? Well not difficult to choose, really.
I’m sure the usual suspects will gang up and flame me for my view, but I couldn’t give a toss.

two who are accidents of birth or undeserving political figures so I give you Ian Paisley and Mandy as my starters for 10.

Ian Paisley: son of a baptist pastor who went on to be co-founder and leader of the DUP? He’s certainly done plenty on politics.

Mandy: a TV producer at LWT, that was then appointed by Kinnock as Labour’s Director of Communications in 1985 and worked his way up from there.

Dislikeable as these two may be, they didn’t have it handed to them by “accident of birth”.

Spaceman that is a cracking rant. 10/10

I think it’s an innate hatred of aristocracy and people being ‘born into’ something

😆 What! Like Lord Prescot?? 😆 😆 😆

Like him, if this honour was bestowed upon you, you’d forget your principles and accept the title thus joining this elitist group.

What you should really take issue is who decides who is worthy of such “honour”.

It’s a bit of a two tier system where some get title by birth right, others get awarded it, supposedly on merit. I reckon many honours are well deserved, but who are we to question these descisions that are made on high?

I’m sure someone in here will enlighten us as the the workings of this mechanism.

Personally I’d quite like to see someone from the feckless poor being appointed to reveiw the taxation of the wealthy

Oooh! Oooh! Me me me!

(Holds hand up, jumps up and down)

Lord Brown made BP very successful by cost cutting – look where that led to

Dislikeable as these two may be, they didn’t have it handed to them by “accident of birth”.

who are accidents of birth or undeserving political figures so I give you Ian Paisley and Mandy as my starters for 10.

you can have archer as well
I look fwd to your defence of this deserving trio 😉
I think oddly enough Paisley may be the most deserving honest if unpleasant- see views on gays for example.

properties used by the royal family by and large belong to the nation; that’s us, the people who live here.

what the ones we have to pay to fix and then pay to visit or the ones we cant visit? yes they are ours just the royals will live there for ever rent free whilst we fox them as they are ours. I want a council house like theirs

The only thing I felt sadness about when Princess diana died was that it wasn’t a fifty two seater luxury coach packed with the upper echelons of the royal family that crashed and not just one of the inbred bstards.

Chapeau my good man, outstanding stuff!

As a non-ugly Glaswegian, I had cause to look back upon that event with belated gratitude the following May when the Celtic stopped Rangers winning an unthinkable ten league titles in a row. The first Celtic-Huns game of the season was meant to be played on the Sunday and they would have wiped the floor with us at that point in the season – game gets postponed, Celtic get their act together, draw the rearranged game then go on to win the league on the last day of the season. Gawd bless er I say!

I don’t get too irate at the whole Lord thing – in political terms the house of Lords can often be a sane voice of reason in the face the more out there parliamentary bills. I hear they even let women and ethnic minorities in now.

Disgusting.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGZ15IHN2_Q[/video]

2tyred – Member

The only thing I felt sadness about when Princess diana died was that it wasn’t a fifty two seater luxury coach packed with the upper echelons of the royal family that crashed and not just one of the inbred bstards.

Chapeau my good man, outstanding stuff!

As a non-ugly Glaswegian, I had cause to look back upon that event with belated gratitude the following May when the Celtic stopped Rangers winning an unthinkable ten league titles in a row. The first Celtic-Huns game of the season was meant to be played on the Sunday and they would have wiped the floor with us at that point in the season – game gets postponed, Celtic get their act together, draw the rearranged game then go on to win the league on the last day of the season. Gawd bless er I say!
….

LOL, I was at the rearranged game, we drew 1-1 with an Alan Stubbs goal in the last minute iirc. I hadn’t thought to give thanks to diana for the stopping ten in a row until now, well pointed out. Maybe her death wasn’t a pointless tragedy after all.

I’m a great believer in having an aristocrat as head of state.

Preferably on a pike at the city gates. 🙂