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You don't have to look far to find scathing criticism of the government these days - articles heavily critical of the UK's largest political party, the PCP, are sprayed across the e-broadsheets as readily as beer in a pub fight. His current term as President of the UK coming to an end, I spoke with KIA Sneak to get his view on how the UK is doing and to discuss whether the government, under his presidency, is taking us in the right direction or whether it might be time to give someone else a turn at the wheel.

- State of play -

Confidence is certainly no issue; "As a government we are doing great", he begins. "All the ministers are doing their jobs (or their under-secretaries are) and the country is running smoothly and efficiently". Despite this positive attitude, he freely admits the UK is far from some utopic vision, with work still to be done. His outlook for the nation is refreshingly positive, however, "I’m not saying there aren’t problems - we still have quite high unemployment (well higher then we want anyway) but this is something that is being solved. [...] Unemployment is going down, productivity is going up, population is growing, our gold reserves are growing and there are a lot of good members out there which are climbing the ranks".

His view on the current industrial issues the nation faces was also optimistic. While he acknowledged that oversupply was a problem for every industry, that was nothing that every other nation didn't also have to address. "We are also looking into sorting export options and trade deals", he told me when discussing possible solutions that could put the UK ahead of the game.

- Foreign affairs -

The political landscape is quite divided when it comes to foreign policy - talks of export and trade deals go down well with moderates such as KIA Sneak, who strongly advocates a defensive policy. "Many people say we need a war and this could be true but it’s true to every other country. WE must be patient and stick to our principles. War will come and we will be there but on the right side", he explained.

Such platitudes do nothing to silence those in favour of invasion. Surely occupying foreign countries would give the UK a boost, in terms of additional labour and potential future resources? "Occupying countries will never be easy and even if you do the local population has a habit of either dying out or making life difficult." He went on to cite the example of the UK merger with Belgium, "The Belgians wanted the merger and even try and help the UK, but there are still occasional hostilities between us." One does not have to look too far into foreign wars to verify the kernel of truth behind these statements, although war proponents insist that the benefits outweigh the risks.

- The Home front -

On domestic matters, KIA Sneak was generally positive about the public's contribution to the economy and was not critical of the bad press his party has received. "I would prefer not to have to read 4/5 articles a day that slag of PCP but I don’t think the entire public can be blamed on that one.", he told me, adding that "I should promote a few things the general public could help us by doing.". His recommendations were:

"Sign up to the forum. It’s a great place to meet some of the erep players and an even better place to get more involved with this game.

http://forum.erepublik.co.uk/forum.htm

Join the reserves/Paras We need to strengthen our army and that means we need you!

http://www.erepublik.com/article-555302.html

Join the unions. Meet up with others in your industry and make a difference.

http://forum.erepublik.co.uk/forum.htm "

- Trouble ahead? -

Despite his obvious enthusiasm for the role, KIA Sneak has a bleak outlook of his own political future. "I can see myself losing [the presidential elections]", he says, adding "I do know a lot don’t want me in power just because I am from the PCP". This last point seemed to be particularly sore for him, since he went on to say "Unfortunately the fact that as a president unbiased towards the parties when listening to congress or acting on their decisions seems to of slipped their minds".

He finally added "I ask the UK population to vote for me because they like how I run the country and not to vote the other way just because they don’t like the way I vote. I will always be a congressman but I need your votes to be a president". Only time will tell whether his allegiance to the PCP will be his undoing as President, but for now he is happy to be getting on with the job in hand. Bring on the elections!

- Reader's Questions -

A few oddball questions can make or break a politician, but KIA Sneak is evidently not one to back down from the press. After confirming his choice of boxers or briefs (boxers - thanks to Guessed for that one) and that, yes, he is single and looking (in response to our female reader base - now's your chance, ladies!), he still went on to give a decent answer to our most random question (inspired by the name of the paper, no doubt); does he prefer the idea of a round or a flat Earth? KIA Sneak confirmed many people's suspicions that "In a game of risk such as this a flat Earth would only be good if you’re in the corner. So round earth all the way."

Thanks to KIA Sneak for his quick response and comprehensive answers. I wish him the best of luck in the upcoming elections.

Next time from Mattrix's Corner: The UK from the top down; the mayors of the most prominent UK regions give me their response to the same questions I put to our President. Is the UK really united, or do party politics still prevent us from moving forward as a nation?

Article by guest reporter Mattrix