[ACroc4CP] Firm Foundations, part one

Day 1,985, 00:45 • Published in United Kingdom United Kingdom • by Ayame Crocodile

Edit:Click for Part Two

Hey everyone,

I'm sorry to say it’s that time of the month again where presidential hopefuls start plaguing the media with their lofty ideas and party members of all natures come up with slogans packed with buzz words, yup that's right it's CP campaign time. And this month one of those candidates filled with ideals and plans is none other than myself.

Yes, you heard it right, I Monsieur Crocodile am running for the esteemed more trouble than it's probably worth position of Country President, or as I'll be referring to it from here on out (and as it should be called by all right thinking members of the eUK) Prime Minister.

So yes, you will be seeing plenty of articles from me over this next week, and in keeping with one of the tenets of my campaign and possible tenure they will be filled with explanations, reasoning and hopefully a little understanding too whilst keeping the usual buzz words to a minimum.

However if you aren't one for Wordy articles and lets be honest this is a game so who can blame you, there will be a final round up article a few days before the campaign. I'll also try and summarise as best I can at the end of each article as well.

For those of you who haven’t yet had a chance to read my basic policies list, it’s available here: http://www.tinyurl.com/acroc4cpbasicpolicies

Right then, that's enough rambling from me, onto the actual content of this article!

For my first article it seemed logical to explain the general setup and nature of an ACroc lead government. However I should preface this article with the fact that there is a lot of interconnectivity and knock on effects of many of these proposals and so there will no doubt be some crossover between this article and those that will follow it, that said you're probably already screaming at your screen that I should get on with it.



A lot of what I am proposing stems from my own experiences in multiple administrations, I've seen almost every administration of the last 7 months from the get go. And it's these experiences, what works, what slows things down, what leads to headless chickens, that many of my proposed policies are inspired from. Not least this very basic starting point.



Seems like simple common sense right? Well yes it does and that's because it ruddy is!

However too many times I've seen people given roles without having any real understanding of what that role entails. How many people can say they know what a deputy minister of home affairs should be doing from day one? How many know what the procedures are in adding new members to and supplying the NHS each day?

Sure most people hopefully have a rough idea of the general area or responsibilities of each ministry... But that doesn't mean any government, any minister or any CP should just expect that they can give a chance to a new player and that they'll know what to do and when they should be doing it.

This is of course a very simple thing to solve but it's overlooked on so many occasions.

And so the very first thing I will do as Prime minister is to send a prepared and detailed description of the task and jobs of each role to the respective person. Be they MoFA or an NHS staff member.

Simple, effective and without doubt the best way to hit the ground running.



Another thing I've felt rather acutely since getting involved again in governments over the last several months is that the role of deputies seems to be incredibly skewed.

That is to say that whilst it's understood that a deputy is a lesser experienced player who is trying to get more involved those who know this are soon to forget that and begin acting and passing on tasks as though the deputy is the dogs body of the minister.

By all means give tasks to deputies that the minister may not have time for, but far more importantly deputies should be given a chance to take on the role of a minister.

I'd like to see the role of deputies as more of a sharp learning curve but with a much lesser level of responsibility than the minister. The minister is there to oversee everything and aid the deputy in learning the ropes.

This doesn't mean the minister is there only as a teacher, but that they should treat their deputy as a partner rather than a helper.



We all want to make the eUK the best it can be, Ensuring we have a well versed large pool of able ministers is the cheapest and most effective way of doing that.

Not only does it mean we can be sure of a strong and talented government each term but it also means that we have knowledgeable outsiders who can hold the government to account fairly and provide quality and useful critique.

Which leads me nicely onto my next point



Again a simple common sense notion that is very rarely taken into account.

While it isn't easy to tell what weak or strong points of character someone possesses without a good personal knowledge of the person, it is easy to find out when someone finds it most convenient to get online and take part in work for the eUK government.



This isn't to say that ministers won't be chosen according to their abilities, it should go without saying that first and foremost any position should go to the most capable individual who applies for it. But that the times when they are available should also be a factor. The same goes for deputies and they should both cover each other as well as have times when both will be on as much as possible.



I have to say that when it was first proposed by both Jimbo and Apron that they'd like to split the MoHA into several smaller roles that I wasn't entirely convinced about the whole idea. But I've since become a convert.



A few months back we had a rather bloated Ministry of Home Affairs with several ministers each trying to do several tasks and with a lot of overlapping responsibilities. Sometimes this might work, some individuals form great teams and divy tasks brilliantly amongst themselves, but more often than not people stumble over each other. They each think the other is doing a task when in fact neither is.

This is known as the Bystander Effect, an example of which can be found when someone is in need of help. The busier the street, the less likely they are to receive aid, because everyone thinks everyone else will help and in the end no one does.

Now to resolve this is again rather easy and straightforward and harks back to my earlier point.



I won't go into too much depth with exactly how this will be achieved as it comes down to the tailored messages to each individual involved in the government that I spoke of earlier. But I will give a quick example by way of the MoH.

The Deputy of the MoH will take on for the majority of their term the day to day running of the NHS, this frees up the Minister to start really getting involved in a far more focused version of mentoring. However as I said before I want deputies to take on the same tasks and thus the first fortnight will be this way around whilst the Minister gets to grips with the improved mentoring system I want to get in place, before passing what they have learnt on to the deputy who can then try their hand as both swap places.



Well I think it’s probably best I wrap this first article up, As I have said in both my Basic Policy/Manifesto document here: http://www.tinyurl.com/acroc4cpbasicpolicies I want a real focus this month on the sharing of information so everyone can have an understanding of why decisions have been taken. This is why I have gone from the very very basics in as much depth as I can, It’s not to bore you to death (lets leave that to plato ay?) but it is to show that I am not just spouting rhetoric or buzz words. I want to show that it’s the job of the CP to lead by example.

I hope this has at least been somewhat insightful and that you will come back to read more tomorrow as I release my second article, which will quickly wrap up with the basics of my proposed government set up and outlook and head on to my domestic proposals.

Update
You can now apply to for a role within my cabinet here:


Thank you again for your time and I’m looking forward to getting out of the basics and showing some of my real ideas tomorrow,

See you soon,

Ayame Crocodile
ps. Sorry for the underpar graphics, I have a lot of writing to get on with, and the first thing to suffer from that is my time for graphics, hope it didn’t hurt your eyes too much