The eUK should consider merging with another nation
Day 4,152, 00:26
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Published in United Kingdom 
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by
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by Mr Woldy
The eUK should consider merging with another nation
Citizens,
It’s been a long time since I wrote my last article, but was encouraged to offer some thoughts on what I see as a pragmatic means to help the eUK find its second wind. I think it could prove an effective way for us to participate in and bolster an active community, to contribute to a larger military force, and to engage in an active and diverse politics. However my main intention here is to at least start a conversation. Treat it as a thought experiment, but one which should be taken seriously!
Basically... the more I think about merging with Ireland, the more sense it makes.
If we consider the status of the eUK today through three broad categories, community, security and politics then there are several reasons why the thought of merging with another nation such as Ireland is worth entertaining.
Firstly, community. We continue to witness a gradual decline of our community – the media remains disparate and unengaging, community spirits have largely retreated into parochial party groups and there is only a small trickle of new players signing up. In short, we’ve gotten stagnant, and it doesn’t feel like our community is growing.
The following charts show the gradual decline this year, and the steep decline over the past 6 years that we have seen in voter turnout. Although not a perfect gauge of activity (sometimes I don’t vote) those lines ain’t going up.
Congress and CP voter turnout March 2018 – March 2019
Congress and CP voter turnout in March each year
We’ve spent over a year hovering around the 110 – 120 mark, and of those voters the number who you might describe as being active in politics is shockingly low. How many different CP candidates have we had this year? Can you count them on your fingers? It doesn’t bode well, and it doesn’t stand to improve.
If we had a magic button to press to double the size of our community, increase engagement and dialogue and to have an active media, we would press it. The point of this article is to suggest that we might achieve this by merging with another nation.
Secondly, security. We are a small nation, vulnerable to hostile attack or political take overs. It goes without saying that if we combine our power with friends and allies on the battlefield, we make more of an impact then we otherwise would. Could this be done on a permanent basis? Could we form an agreement with another nation to combine our efforts, or indeed if we merged into another nation could we participate as one force?
If our regions were occupied by a partner, no congress could be elected in the UK, and we could bolster our partner’s politics by diluting any interfering bodies. Likewise if we occupied the regions of a partner they’re elections would be secure (ie, they couldn’t elect button wielding congressmen) and their electorate would widen, diminishing the influence of any potential PTO. In a world with superpowers taking what they please, and disparate bands numbering more than entire nations seeking to find new homes, it makes perfect sense for small nations to reach such agreements.
The only consideration is our foreign relations, who we consider allies and who we consider enemies, and if a partner exists in the world who largely agrees with us on the goodies and baddies of the eWorld. I would argue that a) allies and enemies get shuffled every six months or so, so it’s not a massive concern b) Not very many people care and c) the potential benefits of entering any such agreement outweigh dropping a couple of MPP’s (it’d safe money) and we’d only gain the equivalent to what we may lose from whomever our partner may be.
Lastly, political. This has largely been covered by the above, but there are further points to make on our political situation in the eUK. We have long been at the point where there has been little activity in Congress, but we have also reached the point where the CP position has little impact on the goings on in the eUK. The party or person occupying the role occasionally changes, though when it does it is easy not to notice. Governments often feel like caretaker governments. This isn’t a particular failing on any one party or person, but that there is little interest within the eUK itself for politics.
We rarely find ourselves in a position where internal or external forces encourage political debate, or even where different parties or groups have room to hold vastly different opinions. The opportunity to expand our political class on our own terms should be seized upon, even if it means pairing with another nation. To expand our electorate and to enter a political sphere where different opinions and parties still function should make the political process more interesting. It would hopefully give people a case to feel some vested interest in politics, which would hopefully drive activity.
The cons. Some consideration would have to be given to our long term security. If we were to be occupied by a partner, it would be great if those wishing to participate in politics could take up citizenship. However, it would be necessary for a sensible proportion of voters to retain UK citizenship, to avoid any factions within the eUK from unilaterally taking over by liberating a region around election times, which could see those who’ve kept UK citizenship as part of a smaller electorate more susceptible to PTO activity.
A lot of work would have to be put into the domestic front to keep the citizenry in the know about what was going on, so as to avoid people thinking we were under long term occupation, or being confused when they signed up. Welcome messages and PM’s should mediate this effectively, and frankly there’s little to indicate when you’re in an occupied nation so it should have relatively little effect in economic/social terms.
UK potentially off the map. If we decided to be the occupied partner, this might be of a concern to some people, but hopefully the benefits would outweigh the possible emotional baggage.
Summary of pro’s. More people! A wider community, a more active politics and a larger military output. Less susceptible to invasion or PTO, easy TW’s through liberation wars (careful though) and a social experiment that may hopefully drive interest in eRep and the eUK.
Why Ireland? I’ve tried to word much of this to suggest it could be any nation we merged with – and indeed it could. However, in my mind Ireland is the best fit. Historically we have merged with Belgium before, and took on much of the Netherlands at one point in a sort of merger (or did I dream that?). However, Ireland share a language with us, and have an active and vibrant community compared to many of the smaller nations in eRep. Our relations with Ireland have often been up and down - but if anything that makes it more interesting. Oh and, they have good craic.
To any Irish readers, your thoughts would be welcome on this suggestion. Needless to say, nor I or the UK could compel you to agree to it, but I’m sure you’d agree many of the benefits outlined above would apply equally to both nations.
Hopefully Congress and the nation begin to put serious thought into proposals such as this. It’s a clear way to widen our political and social communities whilst broadening our military output and overall activity as a nation. Our long period of stagnation demands some radical thought, and this could be a quick win rather than occasionally trying the same old attempts at drumming up interest. At the very least, it's something apart from the norm.
...discuss!
Thanks for reading,
Mr Woldy
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Since being appointed King of the eUK I've ran a few charity schemes to encourage newer players to get involved. Feel free to message me for some free stuff if you are level 1-25 and meet any of the following criteria:
Woldy's Urban Achievers - Food and guns rewarded for: Publishing an article; being elected into any position; being awarded any medal; posting on forums.
Royal Writers: 150 GBP for publishing an article and an extra 300 GBP for any article you write that reaches 15 votes. Just message me your article links.
Woldy's Warriors: Start up kit of Guns and food for anyone who feels like they don't pack a big enough punch. Simply message and ask for some boomsticks.
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Comments
Chew Chew Shoe approves
Make Banana Great Again
Interesting point of view, but due the game mechanics impossible to implement.
What would be the name of this new country?
IRUK or UKIR?
😉
Why would someone want to quit its sovereignty (British) to become something else.
I wouldn't be able to understand.
eUk was once and a big a great country in eRepublik, as I remember it, but it isn't anymore, but who cares.
We are here (in UK) and we are staying and it is what it is.
North-Western European Union
Northern Western non-Balcanic EU.
lol
Totally achievable within IG mechs! One partner just conquers the other!
The eUK had chosen a Dictator for itself and that lasted over a year until it was decided to go back to a democracy, if that can be done peacefully and through consent than so too can this
You are actually suggesting implementation of the Dictatorship, but nowadays the Dictatorship is rather expensive as it is related to the incomes of the country in question.
I'm not sure you caught the point I was making there friend. A 'merge' is one country taking over another by consent. I referred to the past arrangements in the eUK where we had a Dictator by consent as a means of demonstrating that these things can happen by arrangement rather than force. You had to be there I suppose...
Greater Britain 😉
one question might be 'why' are we such a small player? IF E life mirrors the outside world, then given our RL nation and the potential size of the gaming population how come eUK has so few players yet other countries even in Europe seem to be surviving ok? what is it about Erepublik that doesn't attract UK players ( or that has lost them..) ?
dynamic of entire game...
eRepublik itself has been in a decline for a while which isn't too much of a supprise. The eUK players that I know who no longer play just lost the want to play or do anything on here.
first world problems.
We conquered the world in Real Life, we don't feel the need to do it on a browser game,
Other countries have RL frustrations that they try to fix in this game. Also from my time here I noticed that the RL British people in the eUK are not that much war like, mostly, tbh they couldn't care less about conquering France or Ireland, compared to the relations of Balkan countries for example...
The wind that shakes the barley is all I got to say , no surrender to the IRA.
This comment was pretty predictable 😛 We're all playing a game that affords us open mindedness and freedom to do things such as this - you've commented in other articles this week saying it's all about community and you don't mind who you're playing with... is that or isn't that the case? What is different in this instance?
Nice article Mr Woldy, definately agree.
BTW. Can you alter the nhs link to the updatedone?
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfVZAFmyDIj_VzBTGvkmAukGo5BmU4J5se8GTAPdCOyRx-Y8g/viewform
Voted commented.
Done
Wouldn't work. Dictatorship worked because meta was created to ensure things were still being run by a democratically elected group with you as a trusted figurehead (a la our real life constitutional monarchy). At some point there'd be a perception that the UK was being ruled by Ireland, or Ireland was being ruled by the UK, and it would all fall apart.
Plus I can't even bring myself to leave the PCP even though its dead, there's no way I could leave the eUK which has real life as well as in-game attachment for me...
I'd be confident those perceptions could be mediated, and don't forget the remarks I've made on arranging with Ireland to allow some of our folks citizenship so as to be represented through elections rather than meta
;0
Of course it'll fall apart eventually. But it would be a damn sight more interesting then what we currently have on offer in the eUK.
Merge with Germany. Or Sweden.
or Estonia
The Union of Great Britain and Ireland sounds good.
Why have they never implemented the local government module with mayors and city councillors? That would surely stimulate more interest in the political aspects of the game. Each city has by now accumulated a sizeable local budget (Scotland has over 134k) which I assume the mayor and councillors would, in theory, allocate to improve things for the residents. It would actually, finally, an incentive to get involved in local politics.
cuz it's erep...
Judging by that map, you want to give Northern Ireland to Poland.
It's as good an idea as any of the others.
It wouldn't be plain sailing, arguments, differences and paranoia would reign supreme and that's where the fun and interest lies.
Those suggesting it couldn't work only have to look at Germark… would actually be worth having a word with the Krauts to be honest.
So what we're saying is, we'll probably speed along Ireland's demise. Huh, thought they were doing alright, must be proper bored to throw it all away for our lolz.
If they bring the Guiness and Jamersons I'll supply the pickled eggs!
Horice ✌🏻️
Novel, the king suggests dissolving the country. Hmm, don't think this'll work out as some people expect.
I support the idea of a joint Western-Northern Europe (uk, belgium, netherlands, sweden, norway and denmark). I came into this game when the eUNL was a thing but only got active when it came to an end. But it works. but those are many congress seats to fill!
What's in this for the average player? Will they get more gold/cc/prestige points?
Other than disenfranchising the majority of eUK players who are outside of politics there is nothing here for the player who is quietly working towards their own personal goals
If they want moar gold, cc and prestige points, eUK is a bad choice. You can make plenty more CC and gold, which in turn could be put towards earning more Prestige Points.
How would it disenfranchise those outside of politics? They probably wouldn't even notice bar an increase in production and a change of battles. The only argument people have is 'muh eUK'.
Increase in production? No, if they retain eUK citizenship and their cities are under Irish occupation then they won't be able to work as manager, so a decrease in earnings will be what happens.
Such a shame you've become part of the establishment
Only if we have an active NE, would you not be able to work.
Again, if it's more resources you are after, eUK is a terrible choice of country. The only argument people have against the idea is 'muh eUK' and that's a strong one. This is our eHome and always has been. I wouldn't want to leave. It's the same with my account, even though the Wayne account is now absolutely useless I still couldn't bare to leave it for a stronger one. Still doesn't mean that I can't see a good game play when it appears.
Well seeing it was me that suggested that Woldy expand on his throwaway comment in an interview article, I guess that makes the establishment has now become a part of me.
You could just take Irish citizenship and leave the entity known as eUK to whomever wants to use it.
That sounds a really good. give them a job in irish politics and just rename a couple of parties for them.they can feel safe then.
Sad thing is only like 10 people in the uk has commented, where are all the other players, cough cough I mean multis.
I would love to see this applied in the game mechanics...allowing countries to form commonwealths or unions with each other, something that could be voted by of both sides (Bit like a peace agreement/natural enemy) This would still allow for people to still have their national identity but make us more unified in global decisions/general elections.
Doesn't work, game mechanics wise. All it would entail is all the active/old guard moving to Ireland. Most of the 'normal' citizens would remain behind. So we'd slightly boost Ireland's numbers, that's all. And the now-vulnerable UK would end up PTO'd, and then breaking the union.
[removed]
My heart say "not just no but hell no". I'll admit to cringing at the thought - but then, I came too close a few times to IRA bombs in real life, living in London did nothing to endear the Irish to me.
My head says that it could be the only thing left to try.
My preference would be for Plato and his new owners to get their acts together and bring back something interesting in this game. I like the idea of the city modules - but do we even have enough active people to fill three seats in each city? I doubt it.
No we need Woldtatorship again