Office of GM Foucaulf - POLICY AGENDA POSTED

[Oakvale]

Frankly the best dystopia is America right after Atlasia collapses.

[Oakvale]

That map is terrific, Hash. I love this idea.

I'll take the Paraguay seat, although I hope we can come up with better names than just the names of the nation for those ones.

[Oakvale]

Okay, here's the deal with the first election. I thought it would be a good idea to have everyone in the game run for a seat, but I'm an idiot. That would just lead to everyone voting for themselves.

The plan I raised in IRC was this: for our first election, we just run a national party list. It still has the same problem as everyone voting for themselves, but the intrigue that matters is the list order. In other words, people need to join parties and figure out who should get elected and who shouldn't.

We can "apportion" out the constituencies once the election's over. Party list leaders have priority in choosing a seat. Registration by constituency for all will also be available.

Thoughts?

I think would work great, at least until we have the membership to sustain a "proper" election game. It might actually even be better.

[Oakvale]

I was actually thinking that since 11 seats are required for a majority that the Cabinet should be smaller specifically to allow for competition for Cabinet spots and for resentment - and intrigue  - from those on the backbenches.

I also quite like the slightly archaic UK names so I'd propose -

Prime Minister
Chancellor of the Exchequer - muh money
Foreign Secretary - muh foreign affairs. Could appoint an Ambassador to Atlasia.
Home Secretary - Responsible for justice and prosecutions etc.
Infrastructure Secretary - for every Atlasian's favourite thing - muh roads and bridges
Social Protection Secretary - health, welfare, education

Positions like Ambassador to Atlasia or maybe an attorney general for the Cabinet could be sub-Cabinet "consolation prizes".

[Oakvale]

Not the place but as I've suggested I think Parliament should be increased from 20 to 21 - or reduced to 19 but I assume we want to go bigger when possible - so that we'd avoid 50/50 splits and could have the fun of a government's majority hinging on a single seat in a 11-10 split rather than a 11-9.

Secondly, I think we could do with a formal Speaker position, but I'd suggest that we allow - maybe even encourage - that the position be filed by a non-MP.

I'd also advise against formal Shadow ministers, both because if/when we get a wiki it'd be a bit of pain to add the various portfolios an MP could hold and more importantly because it'd add another element of surprise and intrigue as to who the PM appoints to the Cabinet.

[Oakvale]

I'm open to it, but those positions seem way too Atlasian... if that makes sense. I remember there was even a proposal to rename the SoIA, SoEA, and AG back in the day to those positions.

That's a reasonable concern but I think those positions actually have better names than Minister for X, which is, I think, actually far more evocative of SECRETARY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS

[Oakvale]

Opposition parties can have their own spokesmen for this or that issue without making it official. I would suggest at all points that we learn from the failures of Fantasyland and avoid constructing a gilded tomb.

This, exactly.

[Oakvale]

That method for replacing an MP makes the most sense - it unfortunately deprives us of by-elections but those would be utterly boring without constituencies and as indicated by Xahar et al constituencies would be a bad idea at this juncture.