From the Senate voting thread:


I stand by my support of [the Talossa Shall Choose its King Amendment], perhaps because I take a more pessimistic view of future support for the Monarchy than my conservative peers, from whom I have received some pushback. They didn't change my mind, but they did make me recognize that I cannot really claim to vigorously represent conservatives while at the same time supporting this amendment. I am also encouraged by my partymates' vision and do not want the LCC to become the "Ian Plätschisch Party." Finally, four consecutive Cosas as a party leader does make a person a bit tired of partisan politics, and I was already thinking of somewhat reducing my political involvement for the time being.

Therefore, I will be resigning as LCC party leader effective at the conclusion of the sixth Clark (I am remaining a member of it though, and I am definitely not resigning as MM Senator).

Do you like the fact that Talossa is a Monarchy? Do you support a bicameral legislature? Do you think the FreeDems needs some opposition to keep them in check? If so, the League of Centre Conservatives is the party for you.

The LCC will be holding an election April 12-19 to determine who will be leading the LCC into the 56th Cosa election (spoiler alert: it won't be me), so now is a great time to get involved. To do so, send me a message.

RZ21 - PER

I stand by my support of this amendment, perhaps because I take a more pessimistic view of future support for the Monarchy than my conservative peers, from whom I have received some pushback. They didn't change my mind, but they did make me recognize that I cannot really claim to vigorously represent conservatives while at the same time supporting this amendment. I am also encouraged by my partymates' vision and do not want the LCC to become the "Ian Plätschisch Party." Finally, four consecutive Cosas as a party leader does make a person a bit tired of partisan politics, and I was already thinking of somewhat reducing my political involvement for the time being.

Therefore, I will be resigning as LCC party leader effective at the conclusion of the sixth Clark (I am remaining a member of it though, and I am definitely not resigning as MM Senator).

RZ22 - PER
RZ23 - PER

RZ24 - AUS

It seems likely to me that this bill is going to get vetoed by the Regent, rendering my vote on this meaningless anyway.

Thanks for this! I must point out that I did not break the tie in the MM senate race: I resigned as GGS, then AD was elected and he broke it

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on March 30, 2021, 02:54:04 PM
The Leader of the Opposition expresses himself cautiously neutral.

I haven't commented up to now because I don't particularly care one way or the other. I think the Regent's concerns would be quite valid if Talossa were a country with a multitude of citizens that actually threw people in prison. Given we are really just a few dozen citizens who all pretty much know each other, with no enforcement capability, the possibility of a serious abuse of this law seems too remote for me to spend too long caring about.

I am abstaining.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on March 18, 2021, 07:21:29 PM
As of when the Convocation is called, I assume - Ián, have I got this right?

Yep

My reading of H.25.4 is only that Senators cannot use proxy votes at Living Cosas, not that they cannot hold living Senäts

PER on both.

Yeah, both of these things would be improvements.

Who would have thought that being in your last semester of college is time consuming?

I promise that there will be at least one more volume before I retire the project, but I can't say for certain when it will come out.

Quote from: Eðo Grischun on February 18, 2021, 12:30:46 AM
Can I ask the Leader of the Opposition for opinions on the other points in the Seneschal's post that haven't been touched on yet?  Specifically, the 6 year rule for conclave forming and the 7 year rule for automatic abdication.  Also are you ok with the Senior Justice chairing the assembly or do you envisage a conclave without a chair?  And, the bit about a Council of Regency as an emergency contingency?

All of that is fine with me. I don't see the chair of the conclave having any power other than performing admin duties like officially recognizing when eligible citizens claim their seats and setting the exact timetable for votes.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on February 16, 2021, 07:00:26 PM

Quote from: Dr. Txec Róibeard dal Nordselvă, Esq., O.SPM, SMM on February 16, 2021, 10:48:52 AM
What happens if one Talossan holds more than one of the 8 offices (such as myself as Secretary of State and Scribe of Abbavilla)?

I assume you only get one vote. Same as if a UC Justice is also an MC.

That is what I had in mind.

Quote from: Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial on February 15, 2021, 12:44:37 PM

Quote from: GV on February 14, 2021, 11:38:55 PM

Quote from: Ian Plätschisch on February 14, 2021, 01:24:34 PM
-Eight MCs, chosen by the parties in proportion to their Cosa seats (plus the Seneschal if not an MC or Senator)

Apportioning the MCs will be a close thing with close decimals.

Converting the 200 seat Cosă arrangement into an 8 seat arrangement would be pretty simple on paper, it's just that parties with less than 15 seats could end up with no representation in the 8 seat arrangement because of how the math turns out and there'd have to be a discussion beforehand whether that's acceptable or not.

The alternative is to hold a vote in the Cosa using some kind of multiple-member system; I didn't look into that very much, but I'd love to hear your ideas given you are the resident expert on this stuff.

Quote from: GV on February 14, 2021, 11:38:55 PM
As to the ten years requirement, is this 'ten years since original naturalization with no break in citizenship'?  This will force us to do something Ben Madison never wanted to do: keep exact records as to who renounced and when and who returned and when.

I thought we already did that

QuoteOne can be a provincial executive and a Senator, as I was in Fiova 2017-2018, and possibly in my Maricopa days.  Do they get two votes (hope not) or is the conclave deprived of a vote?  Multiple office-holding of all permutations must be taken into account. ...There should be a mechanism to keep the eligible voters at an exact multiple of three.

Also, what would be your requirements to be monarch?

Taking this into account wouldn't be so hard; nobody gets more than one seat regardless of the number of ways they qualify. This would make the number of seats in the Convocation variable, but that's OK; a threshold for a 2/3 majority can be calculated regardless.

I would not make any requirements to be King; I trust the Convocation to get it right.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on February 14, 2021, 04:11:03 PM

Quote from: Ian Plätschisch on February 14, 2021, 01:24:34 PM
Anyway, I've come up with a proposal to elect the King.

A convocation of the following people:
-Eight MCs, chosen by the parties in proportion to their Cosa seats (plus the Seneschal if not an MC or Senator)
-The eight Senators
-The Justices of the UC
-The eight provincial executives
-The eight officers of the Royal Civil Service
-All Talossans who have been a citizen for at least ten years

The King is elected from this group papal style; repeated single-preference votes until someone gets 2/3.

I have no objection in principle to this procedure, if that's what it takes to get a broad consensus, though I haven't asked other FreeDems. I debated whether to add a 2/3 majority in my proposal, but I worried that that might lead to endless deadlock. Does the Opposition have a real problem with the candidate chosen by this method being then ratified by a referendum of the whole nation?

I mean, there's a chance it could get deadlocked, but Popes have been elected this way for millenia and those elections have only gotten seriously deadlocked a few times.

With regard to the referendum, while I have no strong objection, I think that a level of indirection is appropriate for electing the King (I also have a hard time believing that someone who gets 2/3 of the Convocation could ever fail to get a simple majority in the referendum).