Get Woldy - The Manifesto!

Day 2,019, 06:30 • Published in United Kingdom United Kingdom • by Mr Woldy


Up All Night to Get Woldy - The Manifesto!

Hello all! You may have read my previous article outlining my intent to run for the office of President, and encouraging the Great British public to participate in a survey.

I have constructed my Presidential manifesto based on my own ideas for how we can heal and progress, drawn upon the hundreds of response you gave me and tailored around the needs that you have all highlighted - as well as engaging with the feedback many of you offered.

The resulting article therefore, is the culmination of our combined efforts in offering the country direction, spiced up with a few ideas I hope you will find innovative and plausible. Rather than splitting up my manifesto into various different articles padded with filler, I aim to offer you a more concise, straightforward and down to earth doctrine of change, fun and community.


Military and Foreign Affairs

I thought given the size of this article, I would begin with the most exciting part first.

Ministry wise, I want to see the Ministry of Foreign Affairs take on more apprentices and an under-minister with the explicit task of seeking out information on the goings ons of various countries, this can be done by reviewing their media or through such activities as fishing through mibbit logs to find out what’s going on in the world, and is something various individuals in the eUK do on an informal basis for the eUK. Hopefully by encouraging the MoFA to seek out such info, we can anticipate shifts and changes in the international theatre before they happen, and caution our allies on any potential threats.

Foreign affairs wise, I would like to think it goes without saying that as a member of TWO we shall continue to aid our allies and draw upon the alliances combined strength in all battles foreign and domestic. This isn’t a case of blindly following HQ, only realising that our own interests are best achieved should we maintain our great standing with both TWO and ACT. We shall therefore pursue not only our own conflicts with the best of our ability, but aid our allies as best we can too. In return, you can bet your bottom dollar they will aid us. Furthermore, I agree with much of the public that we shouldn’t sign a peace treaty with Ireland. If our Congress receives terms that they see fit, peace can be had and then so be it. But I myself have no qualms with holding on to Irish regions for the time being - and although as I write this they are pushing with their allies in RW’s, I look forward to what should be a fun month sparring with them.


Artists interpretation

But what is the best of our ability? There has been a degree of anxiety over our military performance over the past month and during this turbulent period, I have been developing a plan for a National Military. With divisions developing between MU’s and the World caving in around us, I feel it is vital that we organise our militia’s into a cohesive national force directed by the government. The eUK used to run an MU, but competition and dwindling members soon saw it come to an end, and after that an MU was given the status of official eUK MU, but that too passed.

What I propose sidesteps all the issues we have to come to expect when organising a national force. I intend to invite any and all MU’s to be entered into a government held list. When the eUK finds itself in a direct war or our allies are in great need of assistance, the Government can contact the commanders and begin to subsidise parts of their costs in return for a degree of effective command - that is to say, to join in the control of orders and coordination of troops, in order to push for greater efficiency, cooperation and mobility. This will effectively be a National Military of Federalised MU’s, and has a number of advantages, some already outlined. Obviously, this raises many questions, and some finer points are as follows:

- We can afford to subsidise MU’s, we have oodles of cash reserves and I feel spending it on a national military is a darned good way to spend it.
- The amount subsidised will depend on how many troops fight. Soldiers can be tracked via eGov, with an amount being subsidised should people reach their attendance targets targets, and a reduced amount if they don’t (encouraging commanders to ensure people are affective fighters).
- The Federalised Military offers a official national military for the United Kingdom, as well as providing a sense of meaning and legitimacy to those involved.
- Anyone can take part - the more the merrier whether political or not - emphasising the need for unity, with civil behaviour being policed by the MoD.
- Cash can be distributed to fighters as the MU sees fit, returning money or guns straight to fighters or providing for more supplies.
- MU’s can enter or exit the scheme at any time, and the Government need only subsidise them in return for a command role (never complete control, that stays with the Commanders and the MU’s infrastructure) in times of need.
- The Commanders of all Units involved will form an advisory board, known as the General Staff, under the Minister for Defence to discuss matters of war with the CP.
- We aren't taking control of MU's, just orders and sociability 😉

In other words, the plan works on the framework already existing around MU’s and serves to unite them as a national force, representing and fighting for the United Kingdom with a centralised command which can be adopted when and where the Government sees fit. If I am elected, it is likely that this plan will hit the ground running, and I am quite excited to implement and develop it for a stronger UK. Something we need during this war - especially with the Irish rallying forces against us.

Like the other candidate, I too wish to offer loans for training ground upgrades, however I am not comfortable with handing out what could potentially be a lot of cash to people who may vanish. Therefore I would prefer to offer such loans as an incentive - people who actively fight for us and follow orders in #MoD for a week will be offered a gold loan. Furthermore, if they stay active, we will knock a small sum of gold off their repayment. This creates an incentive for people to fight smart and to maintain a good standard of activity and participation, whilst making our fighters stronger. Their progress will be tracked on a gdoc.



Finances

Now briefly onto fiscal matters; I do not agree with my ‘rival’ and his views on our economy outlined in his manifesto. In fact, relative to our size and regions, the eUK’s economy is great. Because of the lowering of taxes which I as a congressman was in favour of, our markets are now truly competitive and a brief check of the markets shows as such. I also recognise however, that it is not the place of the CP to dictate tax changes to Congress, so shall respect their decisions; however I myself cannot endorse any alteration in taxes when our markets are now competing with those of the eWorld’s largest countries. This is a view not only purported by myself, but by other esteemed economists - including the current Chancellor of the Exchequer (MoF), Butjam.

One change I would like to see is in the lending of orgs. Currently, orgs are loaned to people for economic ventures (such as playing the money markets) and in return, the government takes a cut of their profits (anything in the range of %25 to %50). There are two changes I wish to make here, firstly this scheme needs to be promoted a lot more, to increase the number of people doing it, and secondly I feel we would be better of charging people a fixed rate for org usage (per month) rather than taking a cut. I believe this will increase the attractiveness of the scheme, but also free up orgs from those with less business acumen if they can’t pay the fee. In short, more communication and tutorials on everything financial needs to be provided to the public, as well as more details and updates of the goings on in the Ministry of Finance.

Apart from that, simply pumping more wealth back into the community, through prizes and other schemes is something that is important. We have a strong economy and good mechanisms for controlling it, as well as large reserves. Sometimes the consumer can be caught short, so offering guns through the ministry of defence and continueing to give out food is an important part of cutting up the slack for the people - we just have to be sure that the public utilises our giveaways, which takes us to my next point.



Domestics

The military module isn’t the be all and end all of the game, and I personally have spent a lot of my time triumphing what you may term ‘domestic’ politics here in the eUK. They are all about fun, recruitment, games, prizes, handouts and free stuff and are organised by the Ministry of Home Affairs. One thing that has been made very clear from your responses is that you don’t feel well enough informed and there is a multitude of ways I feel we can combat this. First and foremost is almost a flashback to some of my earlier tenures as MoHA, which is mass messaging the public with updates and information about the eUK and it’s government at least every week. Due to the work involved, this hasn’t been done over the past months, but I feel that it is quite plausible for a team of no more than ten to message the majority of the populace within an hour, and so see no reason why we shouldn’t re-establish that vital link between the public and the government. A further key element in informing the public is the forums, which has somewhat fallen out of vogue over the past few months. I feel that the forums offer a truly enlightening discourse, and will be encouraging everyone to use it - regardless of whether or not parties wish to use them, meeting and talking to fellow eUK’ers is a great way to learn the ropes and we should really be doing our best to get people using them. For those who don’t, regular updates will of course be published ingame.

Games and guides, the two G’s, could do with some looking at. With the enhanced communications I have proposed above, I am hopeful that the range and scale of games can increase; forum games for prizes are always popular, and I would love to see enthusiastic players running more games, and I would be more than happy to offer small parcels of prize money to encourage it. I would also like to see multi platform gaming, we all own computers - why don’t we use them! Just today I was discussing a Civ 5 tournament, and other such tournaments have proven popular in the past. So, in order to give you all a chance to beat me silly at a multitude of PC games, I shall work with my Ministers to organise a wide range of different games to play, both erep/forum based, other browser game based and even on steam. There is much fun to be had - we are after all a community, and playing games only reinforces that notion. (Plus we are a great gaming community anyway - search for the eUK group on steam!). I would also like to see various guides published on a range of topics, as has been done in the past. However, I would also like to see eRepublik for Newbies circulated amongst our citizens (again, through messaging) and advertised in our papers.



Congress

I have decided to include a short part on Congress, because as you may know around three months ago I published an article about Congress roles and duties which has in part been put into effect. We now have a speaker and no longer need a MoLA as Congress is self managing. The Current Speaker is doing a cracking job, but I am still interested in getting Congress working with the government, so in the future they can begin to take over some of the domestic roles from the executive, as outlined in the above article. However! Babysteps are often needed, and different CP’s may want to do different things with Congress. I am, as I say, keen on getting them involved with the government so that they have a good idea of what’s going on and gain some experience.

The first thing I want Congress to get involved in is Recruitment. In effect, I want Congress to select amongst themselves a ‘Minister’ for Recruitment, to head up and organise plans for getting more players into the eUK alongside my MoHA, which can then be enacted by Congress and members of the public who want to help. I have chosen this area because over the past few weeks certain Congressmen have shown great enthusiasm for working towards a babyboom, and I think encouraging them to help organise and orchestrate recruitment is a great way to give them an idea of what government work is like, as well as giving them something to actually do - ie. extra responsibility.

Citizenship is also a troubling issue, and rather than set up a scheme where we deal with whether people were right or wrong after they have granted citizenship I am far more in favour of a system that processes applications and eliminates threats before they are given citizenship here in the eUK. What system that is I shall leave to Congress as it is their choice, but I am willing to put the resources of the government at their disposal.

A final area I want Congress to more involved in is the Ministry of Health, as the funding and food offered by the NHS is something often discussed by Congress, I am eager to encourage them to participate in its running to really get an idea of how it works; beyond the figures handed out in reports. An experienced Congress is very important as they hold the executive to account, so getting them working in such ways is something I feel would be great for their collective task.


Cabinet

This brings me onto the Cabinet. I am more in favour of a slimmer Cabinet, with clearly defined roles and people enthusiastic enough to really take the bull by the horns. As such I will have a meeting with all Cabinet members the day before results are announced, so that if I do win we can hit the ground running. The main positions are as follows:

MoD. (Defence)
MoF. (Finance)
MoFA. (Foreign Affairs)
MoHA. (Home Affairs)

With the MoHA seeking under-ministers to head up the departments of entertainment, messaging/communications and health, and the Minister of Recruitment explained above will also work with the MoHA. I have decided to put these back into the MoHA as it provides a central point from which communications can be sent about the activity of all these branches of government - splitting them up often crosses wires and inhibits the ability of the government to get domestic news out efficiently.



As you can see, I have no vCP listed. I don’t usually take one as I have high activity, though on the application doc you will see that the vCP option exists - this is to see who applies, as if they can offer something unique I may decide to adopt one. Every applicant will be considered based on merit and what they can offer - not on party or support.

If you would like to apply click here! Anyone can apply, I really want to see some new blood this month!


Thanks,
HM Woldy I,

OBE, KCVS, MC, HRH.






To apply for the ‘Woldy’s Young Achievers’ Scheme, simply pop your name in this thread on our external forums:
http://tinyurl.com/RoyalWelcomes

Up all night to get Woldy
It’s very tl;dr, but there will be a summary published shortly - check the images for roundups o/