Updates from the House!
Mr Woldy
Happy Sunday Citizens!
No Congress stats from me this month, wasn’t sure if it would have been met with opprobrium post-speakership. However I thought I would offer some updates and views from the Congress-front instead. It wouldn’t be like me to not keep in touch!
It has been a quieter month in Congress, which as always has picked up slightly toward election day. There hasn’t been as much an abundance of individual proposals as in previous months so do feel free to add any thoughts to the comments of what we did take forward in the next term.
I thought I would highlight some of the more interesting discussions to give my view as a Cabinet Member and Congressmen (the duality of man) and to outline what I think have been some positive steps taken this month.
Parliament*
Budget proposals!
For e-UK politics nerds the budget proposal at the top of the month was a bigger deal than most citizens may imagine. Whereas some nations have Congress set top line budgets, and some make each donation take the form of the CP asking for cash, the eUK had been in ‘don’t ask questions’ mode regarding the donations made by Congress. The budget was a really good example of active Congress members working with the Cabinet to produce a roadmap of when the Government was asking payments to be made, how much they wanted, and what it was for.
On a personal note I was very pleased to see various TRS members and Cabinet members come together with the President to produce the proposal. It gained Congress backing further showing we can all pull in the same direction on the topic of debates. We have also sent the funds to dedicated orgs so its purpose (and balance) is clear to anyone who might want to casually check. This is definitely a positive change and begins to put proper budgeting into practise - being one of the authors of the money flow transparency recommendations I met this approach with enthusiasm and was pleased to be able to design it from Cabinet end and trumpet it from the Congress side too.
New Player Message
Basically independently of one another Betafoxtrot and Artela raised the New Player Message this month. It had been something that I vaguely knew we should update but it has been a daunting and occasionally controversial topic in the past. Beta, Huey and I have drafted a new wording which is being discussed by Congress, who will ultimately vote on it in-game as they do donations. Our approach has been to keep it succinct, sing the praises of eRep and the eUK, and direct people to the eUK Portal.
The Portal itself (as well as a great many other wiki pages) was very out of date, but is definitely preferable to sending people to articles because the wiki can be updated in perpetuity. I have spent my perpetuity doing exactly that and, although it isn’t yet finished it should now be a useful resource for new players with some more up to date information in it. The wiki overhaul continues - if you are an editor with some time then drop me a line and I can point you at any specific parts that need doing, or just go over your own page/party page/MU page and check it is up to date. That would be nifty!
’God-king’ versus Democracy
One of the more curious discussions to be initiated was raised by Certacito of UKRP, who has suggested we move to a “God Emperor system where the CP just runs the country”. I am personally opposed to this. eRepublik gives different mechanical powers to Congress than it does the President, and members are elected to consider and agree how to use those powers. The Government works well with an active Congress and the budget proposal has shown what happens when people work across parties at effecting change. The ‘turning off’ of Congress reflects a position that various Congresspeople from TUP, UKRP, and WRP have all mentioned over the past few months, although I don’t believe it has been adopted as formal party policy.
Dissolving Congress, in my view, short-changes the public and the Government as a whole. A system of checks and balances exists for a reason and Congresspeople should not run without expecting to participate in constructive debates. At best it aims to have a system that is totally unenforceable in-game. At worst it is disingenuous to run Congresspeople and ask for votes if they hold views that Congress should not be doing anything. This month, over a quarter of Congressmen did not participate in discussions at all (including ones from every party, mine included), and we should all be doing our best to make sure Congress is actively engaged in its proceedings and any other other business it should appropriately be discussing. I would go even further and say that people who don’t want or think Congress should be doing anything are not the best candidates to run for Congress.
Recycled pic because it took me too long to make to use only once
Speaking of … it is Congress Election day on Tuesday! The Ministry of Home Affairs will be running another ‘Vote-Today-Giveaway’, this time with a little bit more of a 80’s TV edge. Make sure you are subscribed to eUK Home Office News and check out the article on election day to try and win a prize.
Broadly speaking we have seen a little dip in turnout and activity over the past few weeks, so let's see if we can turn it around and get a good number of voters out. As our political dialogue develops we are seeing that these elections do count, so get out there and be counted. You know who I want you to vote for, and hopefully the above demonstrates the impact of our active and collaborative Congresspeople. So make sure you bring your voter-ID (you do not need your ballot card!) and VOTE!
I’ll see you outside the polling station with my big spam-pink rosette on. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Thanks for reading,
Mr Woldy.
*in CANADA. Gotcha!
Comments
oh matron
Yes!
This experiment in democracy has clearly failed; the sooner we recognise Huey's word as law and being above any earthly power, the better
Tbf, game mechanics provide a path to this and if Huey wants it then he can easily have a go at a coup
Spamicans vs RAF et all would be an interesting fight
Would liven the place up at least
They're too scared to install an official dictator due to game mechanics allowing for their proper and final removal 🙂 (It's all talk and no trousers as usual)
dunno why we'd bother if we're still winning elections tbf
SHA, we all know the only reason you all haven't installed him as a dictator is that a supermajority in congress could then remove him from the job entirely LOL
I'm not really sure how to approach that logic when Huey is, even despite fine imports like yourself, still winning elections
Bizarre game mechanics that allows Would-be Dictator Huey to mount a military coup against Democratically elected Huey
SHA - because your "coalition" may be able to pull off last minute extra votes for a CP, but it does NOT have the majority in Congress.
I think would Huey would need to pull several pages from my book to realistically have a supermajority threaten him though
There's also the minor point that outside TRS it seems folk think he's doing a good job and a providing service to the eUK we don't particularly want to lose
SHA - there is a difference between "think he is doing a good job" and "are too damned lazy and are happy to let someone else do all the work". TUKWRP seem to fall into the later camp - you're all damned lazy medal farmers.
'Some of you are trying to drive things to be "just as bad as the eUSA".'
SHA - yes you are. It's sickening and sad.
[removed]
v + c
I was not invited to join the congress MIK is blocked by me
If I knew when to do it I would have temp unblocked and 'friend' him
MIK is not fit to be Speaker if he makes no effort to include a congress member in the discussions
I am not as some have said boycotting the congress thread I have been excluded
You’ve had plenty of opportunity to be included. You can unblock and friend him at any point in the last thirty days and he could have reopened the thread. The fact of the matter is you’d rather use it as a political point when in reality it stems from your refusal to cooperate.
Well you tell me that now, but I have not heard that from the 'speaker' as I said I would have done that if I had been told that by him. It's not a political point it is more personal. He made no effort to include me and he is glad I am not in the thread. So I have on the contrary been given no opportunity to be included. He is unfit to be speaker.
Where is he supposed to have told you if you’ve been blocked?
He has said it in wall posts and made it clear in wall posts that if you don’t have him as a friend you won’t be included.
Did you want a whole article published inviting you to participate?
You blocked him so he can't contact you, then complain he didn't contact you to unblock him?
What in the twisted logic is this?
Keith, you wanted a personal mail from someone YOU have blocked in game from sending you personal mails? He did put information into the public feed that people who wanted to be included should do what was needed to be included (and blocks do not affect the public feed so that was visible to you and others), so you should have taken that as your opportunity to act. There's no point acting all butthurt now that the term is over as a way to try and score political points when the situation was all of your own making.
He could have posted on the wall which he did not bother to do clearly he was not unhappy that I was not in the thread.. I am entitle to block people if I want to
Yes, you're entitled to block people. But don't then complain when your blocking stops them from being able to contact you.
The threads are hardly a secret. You clearly know how they work. If you'd cared about being included, you could have unblocked him the day the election results were released.
As far as I'm aware he DID post on the wall for those that had not yet friended him to do so to get included into the congress email. The fact that you chose to ignore it is on you.
tbh I'm surprised the exclusion of the 2nd largest partys' president wasn't met with more outrage
then I remembered it was TUP
Keith had plenty of opportunity to unblock MIK and get added to the in-game mail thread. It was publicised on the public wall for everyone to see so that they could friend the speaker and get added to the mail thread. Keith chose not to do that. This is therefore on Keith, no-one else. He is the one who let his hatred of one person get in the way of proper participation in the congress discussions for the month. Don't forget that this is because Keith would not unblock MIK, not the other way about!
keith has every right to block MIK and complain angrily about not being added to the mongress mail
All debates have been represented on the national feeds where anyone can participate 🙂
SHA - yes, he has every absolute right to make himself look dumb for complaining about a situation he caused himself if he wants to... that he's attempting to use it for political gain though is comical LOL
contrarily I'd argue it's an excellent post-modernist protest in support of UKRP's proposal to return to Autocracy
Spoken like someone who isn't sure what post-modernism is 😛
dunno, was going by this - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism
Also a bit of a contentious play there Wolders given AMD didn't know what the Identity of Indiscernibles was
I don't really see what AMD's familiarity with anything has to do with me pointing out when you're attempts at teasing people don't make sense!
Postmodernism is a fairly basic concept of skepticism to modernism so not sure what I was misunderstanding in terms of Keith's principled abstention/simultaneous enragement
In terms of AMD he refused to even comphrehend what I was saying which I'm surprised you didn't take an equally measured response attempting to correct
What's your read on postmodernism?
You’re obsessed with me man get a life
Bro respect your own block please; the 'I don't have to respond' line just gets increasingly embarrassing the more you defy it
I don't track down AMDs comments to judge whether he seems to discussing epistemology correctly, soz 😛
More than happy to discuss postmodernism though, if you are actually interested. There's a few french philosophers spinning in their grave at your suggestion that it is a basic concept though
and it brings me no end of joy
You have an unhealthy obsession with me apples. It’s a problem. I suggest some yoga and some breathing exercises.
The day I start doing yoga is the day you become CP again AMD
Anyway, correct me if I'm wrong here - but who's supposed to be blocking who? Should I send you a friend request at this point?
Again you’re obsessed with me running for CP 😂 you really need to take a long hard look at yourself because this is stalkerish behaviour.
Given you have a block function I'm respecting I dunno who'se being the stalker at this point
will sell nudes for ~Huw Edwards rate of 30k
Unfortunately Keith if you wish to be an elected representative then no, you are NOT entitled to block people if you “want to”. You have a responsibility to the voters which you have failed to meet.
I'm surprised this has become a debate amongst players who all have 10+ years experience especially considering a 'disclaimer' was always issued to players before the Huey days.
When co-ordinating messages, private messages were sent out in advance to players who weren't 'friends' explaining the rules and likewise to those who were friends but might change their minds.
Basically...
Scenario 1..."Please accept my friend request so you can be included in 'x' message thread. You can delete me afterwards blablabla.
Scenario 2..."You are a part of a message, but don't want to be a part of it...then report it blablabla"
I could go on but has this seriously not been going on at all over the past couple of years?
Depressingly it has Chaz. Keith is just being purposefully difficult.