Join the new world

Before we start, a little listening music for you while you read. Even if you've never heard this song before, you may recognise the title.

As I mentioned in my previous article, I will be putting my cabinet to work keeping the people of our nation informed. The buzzword is information, and I want you to have a good helping of it.

However, this means I am going to need people to help. Being President is not a one man job. Except for the fact that literally one man gets the job, but whatever. If I am to improve the quality of eLife in this nation, I’m going to need your help doing so. In this article, I’ll outline the different roles my team will be performing - all with an aim to make life in the eUK more interesing and enjoyable for all our citizens - and if you feel you can contribute this this, you should apply.

Applying is the easiest thing in the world. All you gotta* do is talk to me. Message me in game, find me on IRC (HINT: look in #eUK on Rizon) or message me on the eUK forums, whatever is best for you. You talk to me about what you want to do, I’ll talk to you about what I want you to do, and next thing you know, you’re a Minister of something, helping to make the eUK a better place. It’s that easy. The only requirement is to be dedicated to the job.



Ministry of Defence

My current role in Richard Feist’s cabinet, so one I take a particular interest in.The MoD’s job will be to bring information to our fighters. You will make sure that the latest battle orders are kept up to date and brought to our fighters on three points on contact - the #MoD IRC channel, the eUK Forums, and the MoD Newspaper. The last of which will also include a brief explanation of why we are fighting in that battle. It’s not enough to just shout FIGHT HERE, I want to explain why.
I also want the MoD to keep in contact with the Commanders of the UK’s Military Units - in particular, those of the Armed Forces Group - keeping them informed of the latest developments, as well as future plans and prospects, and maintaining the MU league, in order to give every unit in the country a reason to better themselves - because who doesn’t like going “Na na, nana na, We’re better than you!”?

You will also be working closely with TWO alliance HQ, assessing and addressing the military needs of our allies, and approaching them for assistance as and when the UK needs it.


Ministry of Foreign Affairs

It’s a big old world, and a lot of things happen in it. But when was the last time you, the humble British newspaper reader heard about any of it? How much did you know about Macedonia relocating to the UAE? Does the phrase “Operation Gangnam Style” mean anything to you? Did you hear the good news that the UK and it’s allies in TWO and CoT denied congress elections to dozens of enemy countries this month? Well, if you did, you certainly didn’t hear it from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and their popular in-game newspaper.

I intend to fix that, same way I've fixed the MoD over the last month - by bringing back it’s media presence.

By applying for a position with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, you’ll be responsible for keeping the nation informed of developments around the world. You’ll write news articles for publication in the MoFA paper, so that the entire nation can be kept informed of developments around the world, as well as dossiers, history and information about our allies and neighbours - much like the recent article written by the Bulgarian Ambassador, which only graced our newspapers because THEY took the time to make it happen. We are all players in an international game, and we should be informed as such.

As well as this, the MoFA will be responsible for keeping in contact with our allies, and should seek possibilities for military exercises with our neighbours.



Minister of Education
Also known as Minister of Home Affairs

You know that bit above about the MoFA bringing information to the people? Well, replace The words “Foreign Affairs” with “Education” and the words “International News” with “Guides for the benefit of our players, especially the new ones”, and you can see where I’m going with this. This is something that NEEDS to happen. Anyone can recruit to the game - after all, the UK alone sees dozens of new players joining every day. The problem is for every new player that joins, another leaves the game because they find it boring. Forget recruitment, we need retention.

In order to rectify this, I want regular guides to be published, so that new players can easily learn more about the game, which is the first step towards keeping them playing. Sure, there is already a wealth of information on the forums, Kravenn’s award winning tutorial, the library project, the wiki... but I want to bring these excellent sources to the front page, with an article in the MoHA newspaper.

I also want guides to be targeted - for example, if there is a training ground upgrade sale, I want an article released immediately explaining that upgrading your training ground is the best investment you can make. This means as an MoHA staff member, you may need to pre-write articles for future publication.


Minister of Finance

Guess the theme of this role. If you guessed more information, you win the prize! I will bring you regularly published articles of the nation’s income and expenses, because Congress cannot make informed decisions about our tax rates without information - both about what our income was, and what it’s changed to after the latest tax changes. This will result in us having empirical data about what is the best tax system, and hopefully put an end to the current string of proposals constantly destabilising our income.




Minister of Immigration

A couple of months ago, I spent some time in Ireland. It’s a lovely country. People who disagree - often quite strongly - on political matters still work together for the national interest. It’s full of friendly people, they’ve got a strong national military - all in all, quite a pleasant experience.


ZOMG Traitorfag!

When I applied for Irish citizenship in-game, I was soon contacted by MR. HANK SCORPIO, Ireland’s Minister of Immigration. We had a chat about who I was and why I was coming to Ireland. He explained the history between our nations that meant my application might be rejected. He asked for references, and I gave him the names of the then outgoing CPs of the UK and Ireland, both of whom I’d get to know quite well recently. He then decided to approve my application, and asked an Irish congress member to accept me - which happen not soon after. There were no gdoc forms, no forum applications, and yet they were still able to keep their eye on applications from what was - until not too long ago - an enemy country.

And that’s the system I want to bring to the UK. My Minister of Immigration will talk to applicants, man-to-man. If there are no objections, he will ask a congress member to approve them. People who we don’t want to come into the country, or people who don’t reply to the friendly invitation of a chat with the MoI just get left alone. Their applications expire, and the world keeps on turning.

I understand and accept that not every congress member will want to listen to their Minister of Immigration - a national representative with a government mandate. Some people may not agree with the decisions they make. Others may just stubbornly not want to be told what to do. I know, I can’t get them to follow our advice, but I will ask of all of them, that they at least try. If we can work together as a nation on this, it’s the start of cooperation that can heal the divide, bring us closer together, have all our wheels turning in concert and other such clichés.




You may have noticed a common government role - the MoLA - is conspicuous by it’s absence. That’s because I want my Ministers to actually work for the nation, and I don’t see the need for an MoLA when all their traditional jobs - advice on citizenship, informing congress about MPPs, Taxes etc - are being done by the rest of the cabinet. More so, they’re not just keeping Congress informed, but keeping the nation informed.


So, I hope you like what you've seen here, and more importantly, I hope that you would like to be a part of it. If you do, just talk to me. Ingame, on IRC, or on the eUK forums, just find me, have a chat, and that’s all there is to it.

~Blue And Evil


*I originally wrote that sentence as “All you've got to do” and spellcheck offered to change it to “you gotta”. What.