Life has been quite good for James Nicholas Bethell in the 56 years that he’s been on this mortal realm. The fifth Baron of Bethell – a title which he has purely due to an accident of birth – allows him a hereditary position in Britain’s House of Lords.

But then again, perhaps it’s just as well. Bethell tried to get himself elected in 2005 at the ballot box to the House of Commons – the lower house in Britain’s parliament. His attempt ended in failure – and in 2009, he failed to convince his own Conservative Party to field him as a candidate in a different constituency.

Nonetheless, Bethell isn’t a man who allows failure to dictate his life – his hereditary position in the House of Lords allows him the privileged life of politics without the drudgery of ever having to convince people to vote for him. Before that, Bethell founded the PR firm Westbourne Communications – and going back even further, he was the managing director at London’s Ministry of Sound in the 1990s.

One might imagine, therefore, that Bethell’s tolerance level for noise would be quite high. Not just from his work at a PR firm, but literally from his time at one of Britain’s first ever superclubs. Not quite – when leaving the Houses of Parliament in the early hours of Thursday morning, he had this to say…

He is, of course, referring to the ongoing war at the Gaza Strip between the state of Israel and Hamas – officially known as the Islamic Resistance Movement. Pro-Palestine protests have become a common theme in cities around the world over the past few weeks – and with the conflict showing no sign of ending, such shows of dissent are likely to continue.

Now, Ears To The House supports the right of people to protest peacefully – but all the same, we’re surprised to see Bethell isn’t so keen. After all, isn’t the point of democracy that people are entitled to express their views? Have the unelected heights thar Bethell’s reached blinded him to this reality?

One source who knew him back in his Ministry of Sound days, however, is unsurprised by his stance. He told us “Jim spent most of his time in the office. He was an okay managing director, if a little hands off. You hardly ever saw him coming down to see what was going on himself in the club, and on the rare occasions he did, he only really listened to the stuff that interested him. His response to this protest explains a lot of stuff from back in the day.”

Oh, and one final point to his Lordship – X, formerly Twitter, dropped its 140-character limit many years ago. Indeed, a verified profile – such as yours seems to be – can go on and on for 4000 characters, so you don’t need to shorten “please” down to “pls” on the platform. You’re welcome, James…