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Comment by d4ng | Hacker News Reader

Do we have any English lawyers here who can comment on whether it may actually be legal to nationalise Adele (the person) under English law? ChatGPT says it may be possible through an act of parliament, but I’m unsure whether I can trust ChatGPT in this case.

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Yes, Parliament has absolute and unlimited power (except binding future Parliaments, and maybe arguably some matters relating to Scotland): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentary_sovereignty_in_t...

(not a lawyer)

Indeed which is why "taking back sovereignty" as an argument by the pro-Brexit folks was a bit disingenuous (if I'm been kind).

It would also require us leaving a whole bunch of international treaties though since "Nationalising a pop singer" kinda breaches a few of them.

Not a Brit, not a lawyer...

The promise could be re-interpreted in some funny ways. For example, Count Binface didn't specify when nationalizing Adele would occur.

They could create another[0] special case in UK copyright law with a minor twist: Instead of eventually entering the public domain, the copyright of Adele's works would transfer to the UK government which would donate any proceeds to a charity that builds affordable homes.

Silly, but it'd mean two promises kept.

[0] https://neverlandofficial.com/discover/peter-pan-copyright/

Or which Adele he'd nationalize.

A simple bill of attainder would do it, but she'd have recourse to the ECHR to appeal it, which would in practice bind the UK. If we thought she wasn't going to be chill with it, we'd first need to withdraw from the ECHR. As it happens, withdrawing from the the ECHR is a prime Farage objective.

Human rights only apply to those what are willing to defend them.

What’s Europe going to do, send in a deal team to extract Adele?

Parliament theoretically has unlimited power, practically I think this stops short of reintroducing actual slavery. Lawyers would be busy arguing in international courts; but hopefully 50℅ of the electorate might actually bother to vote.

(Obviously the MP for Clacton has the power to talk sturnly to someone with actual power in the councel over the bin collection schedule; the is no plausable way to deliver any of their pledges)

What is 50c/o? That “℅” is not a percent sign.

It appears to be a high percentage of one though.

International courts? Who cares about those?

North Korea? China? Russia? Israel? Gaza? Iran? The USA?

What’s are international courts going to do about it? Gaol Britain? Apply sanctions?

if we want to be anal, UK cares a bit because of the GFA, North Ireland peace agreements. An international agreement is a part of those & also it's very important to the UK for various reasons, some even characterize it as de-facto a part of the UK's constitution. And it binds the UK to the ECHR.

Lawyer here.[0] Definitely possible.[1]

[0] not a lawyer [1] what does “nationalise” even mean?

Typically, the government takes over a company.

The shareholders or owners may or may not receive compensation.

Presumably a normal(?) interpretation would be that the British government uses whatever eminent domain law it has and it takes over Adels copyright on all her songs and gives her whatever the fair market value of the catalog is.

But because this is a joke candidate, could be anything.

Yes, exactly, yes.

Take into public ownership.

What does “take into public ownership” even mean?

Etc.

Every Briton is entitled to one lunch with Adele.

If we project her lifespan as 50 more years and assume the UK population stays stable at 70 millions, that works out at 3835 and a half lunches per day.

I seriously doubt as a public servant she'd be a beacon of efficiency so I don't think she'll do more than 2k a day if this happens.

Maybe she skips the main on every other lunch?

The most lunches I’ve ever eaten in a day was 7.

What's the biggest restaurant in UK? How many people can have lunch with Adele at the same time?

You’re paying…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demosioi , presumably.

Δημόσιοι υπάλληλοι

A joke on the goverment nationalising the railways and the debate around whether we should nationalise water companies.

Can water even be nationalised? Do you own the rain that falls on my roof? Can you charge me money if I use it to water my garden?

Generally water nationalisation means nationalising the companies which supply water to homes and businesses. Not, er, literally nationalising water as in the substance.

Your koi pond contains rainwater that ran off my roof, down my gutters and through my flowerbed. You owe me £100. Do not pass go.

Thanks for diluting the effluence with your runoff £100 is a bargain

Water companies used to be publicly owned until Thatcher privatised them. Unfortunately, as they are a natural monopoly (you cannot choose which company to supply your water services apart from moving to a different part of the country), the companies have basically been extracting as much money as possible from the public and not investing in the infrastructure. This has led to ridiculous bills for water and disastrous performance in terms of not pouring sewage into waterways. The classic example is Thames Water which is now saddled with incredible debts and is asking for yet more money to invest in infrastructure (which they didn't do all the other times they asked for more money).

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