We are pleased to announce that, due to the sterling and very timely work of @Baron Alexandreu Davinescu, we appear to have restored functioning on the Immigration form.

The even better news is that at least one of the "lost" immigration applications has confirmed that they still want their application to continue.

The Government of Talossa sincerely apologises to the nation for this technical disaster. I will work with the Minister of Technology and other interested parties to produce a full report of why this happened, and the steps we are taking to make sure it never happens again.

In accordance with El Lexhatx C.3.1, I give notice that when the resignation of Sir Txec becomes effective, I will be advising the King to appoint @Sir Lüc as Secretary of State.

This will mean, as provided in El Lexh C.5, that Sir Lüc will resign his seats in the Cosa and - at his own request - from Cabinet.

I thank the member for his question.

I did notice, and I did care, that immigration applications had ceased. It was something of a relief to finally discover that it was due to a technical SNAFU, because Cabinet discussions on the subject had found us stumped as to what we might be doing wrong. But perhaps it was because of the presumption - shared, it seems by the Opposition - that it was due to bad government policy that no-one thought to check whether the website was b0rked until two days ago.

I confess myself puzzled as how the member expects me to "address the nation", and what he feels the content of such an address should be. I feel that my replies to various Terpelaziuns have been full and frank.

I thank the member for his question.

The staff of the Ministry of Technology are poking around in the backend of the Wordpress setup that controls talossa.com to try to find out why it stopped sending out emails sometime in early August. Until we find that out, the Ministry of Immigration is manually checking the "innards" of the Immigration form every so often to look for new applications. We know that it's not a problem with email per se: "immigration@talossa.com" is perfectly functioning for receiving and sending emails.

The wider issue here seems to have been a problem with the handover from the previous Government. The previous Minister of Technology - who became the new Permanent Secretary of Backend Admin - informs us that he was never in charge of the Wordpress backend, and he knows nothing about it. Apparently other members of the previous Government were dealing with the Wordpress backend on an "informal basis" - something which was improper given the authorising legislation, and which led to a disastrous "dropping of the ball" when the Government changed. We implore anyone associated with the previous Government who can straighten this out to contact us ASAP.

For that reason also, the new Minister of Technology was never given access to the Wordpress backend. The only way we found out about any of this is that I, personally, still had valid credentials, and checked the backend based purely on a "hunch" two days ago. ¡Dïeulaudas! that my old credential still worked.

As previously announced, I have personally written to all the 40 or so applications who were caught in this SNAFU, offering my apologies and begging them to renew their applications.

The Immigration Ministry has the grim task of provisionally confirming that the talossa.com immigration form seems to have simply not forwarded any emails to anyone since August 2 this year. Looking in the files, there appear to be something like forty (40) immigration applications which have been stuck in the "bit bucket" for most of my Government's term.

This is a failure of the STUFF/Backend part of the Government which I am chasing up with urgent haste. However, I am pleased to note that this is not a failure of the Immigration part of the Government.

I have emailed every single one of these applicants personally and invited them to renew their applications.

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on November 18, 2024, 09:15:01 AMWould you guys please drop everything else

No, we won't do that, if only because there's a list of at least 20 things that the Open Society party will scream about if we stop doing them.

EDITED TO ADD: There is a small chance that the immigration form on talossa.com has simply ceased to work, or at least has ceased to forward immigration applications to the Immigration webmails. That would explain a lot. The Tech boys have been alerted.

I thank the Member for his question, with the note that some things are better dealt with informally rather through the structures of the Ziu.

Work which the Cabinet is dealing with, in addition to helping cxhn. Autofil with the details of his OrgLaw reform proposals, include

- helping the Chancery with the impending changeover of Secretary of State - which will, parenthetically, also mean a replacement of Finance Minister;
- the ongoing project to replace the National Database, which is an extremely technical project.
- the question of ID cards;
- issuing La C'hronica, which has been delayed;
- continued work on the Bureau of Home Affairs strategic plan;
- an alternative proposal for the reform/replacement of the CRL;
- and obviously, the schedule of work of the Foreign Ministry, about which the Member has been very concerned in other Terpelaziuns.

I refer the member to this Government's incoming statement, which still applies:

QuoteFinally, we want to impress on the nation that this Government intends to maintain a sustainable work schedule. No-one, since King Robert I left, can be Talossan full time. All of us have work, study or family commitments outside of the Kingdom. Therefore we will keep sensible and sustainable "office hours" in Talossa. If Ministers need to "take a break", they will; we expect that they will inform the Seneschál, and the Seneschál will inform the nation as and when necessary, and adjust our objectives as necessary. We are not Stakhanovites, or if you prefer, Boxer from Animal Farm.

The Government is successfully doing everything that is necessary; it is important that we preserve our human resources so that we can do everything that we promised.

I thank the Member for his question. No. If we need a new Foreign Minister, I'll tell you.

As authorised by Organic Law IV.8, and with the advice and consent of Cabinet, I am declaring a Month of Recess for December XLV/2024. That is, there will be no Clark next month.

This is to enable (a) the Cabinet to have some extra time to grapple with a backlog of work; (b) to enable proper debate and discussion of the current Organic Law reform proposal, and probably one more to come.

This would also be an excellent time, being Independence Day, for the King to abdicate, hint hint.

I thank the Member for his question. The Foreign Minister is indisposed. That is, he is around but not in a position to carry out his duties at the moment. Address all inquiries in the Foreign portfolio to myself until you hear otherwise.

Quote from: Barclamïu da Miéletz on November 11, 2024, 02:24:24 PMnone countries didn't exist for as long as Poland.

*stares in Irish*

I will jump in here to exercise my right as Seneschal to answer Terpelaziuns on behalf of absent ministers.

I think the answer to the Member's question is "no updates".

I thank the Member for his question. This project has taken a back seat as SIGN has recently prioritised the Essay Contest. Speaking of which, we should do something to spark more interest in that. I wonder if the Member would like to contribute an entry?

I thank the member for his question. The Government is certainly aware that the immigration pipeline has closed off altogether since the rush from the Argentinian YouTuber ended, and this is an issue which has concerned me in particular. One suggestion I keep raising is for a Landing Pier on Wittenberg, open to "interested parties" (on pain of ruthless moderation) who might not be ready for citizenship yet - the technical people in the back room have got it on their to-do list down the line.

We know from previous Governments that Google Ads are a waste of money and we are not aware of any other means of paid promotion - so we would have to rely on what they call "earned media". The best means towards that is our social media outreach, which has unfortunately been hampered due to the respective Minister's extra-Talossan commitments. But this is, at the moment, our Government's "best bet" on the issue.

I thank the member for his question. The Chancery has given me no updates in this regard. I've taken this prompt to remind them.