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Dear Friends,

I was wondering how long into Karacticus' term it would be before some troll decided it was time to criticise our President for the same thing everyone uninformed criticises Presidents for. Activity. I remember back in the day of Woldy's first Presidency, when many pro-GLaDOS supporters criticised him openly and in private for being an inactive President.

“He's never in #eUK!”

“Our allies don't know who he is!”

“He isn't attacking anyone, this is boring!”

Well I don't know if you noticed, but after giving him a chance that new, inexperienced President rose to become Deputy Secretary General of Phoenix and led the UK into the domestic United States. In the end, even his firm opponents had to acknowledge Woldy's brilliance.

I logged in today and thought I was having a bit of deja vu. As I skim read this article I couldn't help but laugh. Here's the thing- every President makes a few mistakes. But if you're going to write an article trolling them and bringing up those mistakes, at least try and do it from the moral high ground.

“As a citizen of the UK, it pains me to bring this in to the public domain, but I simply cannot sit idly by and let this continue.” ~ Polio, citizen of eBrazil

Some of you may wonder why Polio is in Brazil with Brazilian citizenship if he is so loyal to the UK? Well you can read all about it here. Basically this is (in my opinion) the last humble thing Polio has ever done. Let me quote you from this article:

“I'll start off by saying I'm still a noob and don't understand the situation as well as Dishmcds, Glados or Woldy probably do.”

This was the last time I've seen any humility from the man. His rage-quit was based on the decision of the then-President Dishmcds to end the war. I am saying this because no doubt one of the big arguments against Karacticus is “he isn't like Dish”, but it appears Polio just doesn't think anyone is any good. So instead of quietly resigning in private, giving himself time to hand over to a successor, he decided to rage-quit and leave the UK in the lurch. Combined with the resignation of other Ministers this made a massive hole in cabinet that forced everyone else to work twice as hard.

I think “standing idly by and letting [bad stuff] continue” is something Polio has a proven track record in. Fortunately those who stepped up to the challenge managed to pull together and make things work.

After his resignation many members of foreign nations wrote to Polio congratulating him for deserting the UK government and siding against it publicly. Personally, I think the new-found fame went to his head, and since then I've not seen him do anything constructive. I used to think he was one of the UK's up and coming stars: another one of the modern navy generation success stories. However I now have my doubts.




The simple thing about the situation is this: Dishmcds was President, and as such he called the shots. It was our job to make it work as well as possible. And Polio quit. Is he really a concerned citizen, or is he just another e😜at back-seat driver who should learn not to throw stones in glass houses?

Karacticus made a couple of mistakes as outlined in that article. Perhaps it would have been better had he maintained those MPPs thus holding the wars open. However Karacticus has made brave decisions this term on a whole host of issues, especially on economic matters. The opening of the Ministry of Profit, the expansion of the BoE into banking, the stimulus plan which he boldly agreed to implement show him to be a man who can make big decisions. None of these things were guaranteed to succeed, but he took a risk and once again the UK leads the way in financial innovation, attracting global interest from countries as far flung as Turkey, China and Australia.


Leadership, it has Maor Lionz

I also don't think we should forget the tireless work done by the Ministry of Defence this term, reorganising and doing what every previous MoD has failed to do- integrating the Paras and the Royal Marines into the Special Forces Support Group. I myself have in the past had serious concerns about joining the Special Forces, but the work done this term has convinced me and many others that the modern SF is something I can be proud to be part of.

I'm not sure if Karacticus wants to run again, I haven't spoken to him about it. Most of you will have realised by now that James is having fun pushing buttons, and that despite the heart-warming support of three parties I probably won't be running for the Presidency (the probably is there mainly to keep GlaDOS guessing). If Karacticus chooses to run again, we should consider him based on the achievements he has made and the plans he has for the future. A candidate shouldn't be judged on a couple of mistakes, but instead on their plans and ambitions.

Those of you who are older will remember the aborted UK invasion of Norway during GlaDOS' term as Country President. It was a disaster, cost us loads of gold for very little war and resulted in activated Romanian MPPs which were very useful during the invasion of the UK some months later. However come the next CP election I will be reading and judging GlaDOS on his vision, not on the mistakes he made all those months ago. Because if you want someone who can sign MPPs and be online 24 hours a day you might as well have a bot for president. What we need is a leader, and Karacticus is a leader when he needs to be. Remember also, as a last comment on Kara, that it's much harder to shine during the daytime. Now we're in a recovery period post war and during an economic depression, there isn't the same scope for Churchillian leadership like we've had in the past.

Lastly I'd like to comment on the comments about Phoenix private channels. Like our counterparts in EDEN Phoenix has several layers of security in their IRC. This develops over time- PEACE was a warren of IRC channels by the end. We have the public room, #phoenix.public where all of you are welcome. We have a kind of common room which most senior cabinet members and a few ex-cabinet members have access on the whim of the current Secretary General. Then we have various other layers of IRC rooms for various different purposes which I'm not going to go into, but I'm sure you can imagine. Before you trumpet criticism about how little people are contributing, ask yourself two questions:
Can I not see this because my access isn't high enough?
What are you comparing his activity to?
Because ultimately Karacticus is as active as most Presidents in Phoenix. And finally, I'd advise that you don't try and use your priveleged access to Phoenix channels to discredit a Phoenix President again, especially as a citizen of an allied country. It's bad show old boy.

Best wishes,

Iain