Q. What do you call a Talossan politician who makes a habit of telling inflammatory falsehoods about his political opposition; recruits inactive citizens on the basis of those falsehoods; and then when this upsets people, lectures his opponents about "angry fights" and "the politics of hatred"?

A. If there's not a big turnaround in the election, you'll call him Seneschal.

Baron Davinescu keeps doing this because it works politically. If you wrap serious accusations of corruption and criminality in polite language, then you look like the good guy when your opponents get mad (for those who weren't paying attention). Ironic, because he recognizes the routine of victim-blaming ("my behaviour is not the problem, but your reaction is") when the Sex Pest party leader does it.

Anyway, ere are some historical memes of previous elections where Baron Davinescu he did exactly the same thing; found these when looking for something else.

Anyone remember this classic meme from three elections back?



It seems we're doing it again. The voters for the party associated with Talossa's infamous sex pest - never seen outside of election time! - are literally copy-pasting their votes.

The public ballot encourages this "Attack of the Clones" stuff, which degrades democracy. But the conservative tradition in Talossa has never really rated democracy so highly. They like things like the public ballot - and oppose things like party lists - because it's easier and more "fun" to take short-cuts around rigorous democratic practice.

Remember - before the ancestors of the URL came into the Kingdom and established democratic reforms like the secret ballot and the party list - these people ran Talossa for nine terms of absolute majority government, because these anti-democratic features favour the incumbent. They yearn to get back to those days.

We've got two parties coming out of the RUMP tradition that democracy doesn't matter because it's not "quirky and fun" enough; one anarchist party; and one absolute monarchist party. The URL are the only party in this election which rigorously supports democracy.

If I have seats in the next Ziu, I will campaign vigorously for universal secret ballot. We probably even need to bring back discussion of the Real Cosa and the unicameral Ziu again. As we've seen in the monarchy debate, you can't reach a compromise with the "democracy-optional" post-RUMP tendency. You have to defeat them fair and square.

a minor party debate between the Orthodox absolute monarchists represented by @Max Maltezos and the Anarcho-surrealists represented by @Garth Spencer .

Come on, guys. You know you want to. To sweeten the deal, we'll do like Canadian debates and have half the questions in Talossan.

The incumbent Túischac'h of the Cosa, @Munditenens Tresplet, was pretty much bullied out of active participation in Talossa by the Green Party leader, who has also seen fit to continue to calumniate him in recent campaign messages.

Cxhn. Tresplet reached out to me with the following comment, lightly edited by me to put the cusswords into Talossan:

QuoteI do not plan on returning to Talossa for the very long foreseeable future. If you'd like to relay a message, you can simply say that if I were running a party, it would be the Brenéir Can Kiss My Ciol party. But otherwise, do not expect to see me on Witt indefinitely.

The Green Party leader ruins people's fun in Talossa wherever he goes. It's good that the major parties in Talossa have formed a united front against sexual harassment, but the URL is determined to put the concept of regular harassment on the table.

Just so everyone knows, the Green Party leader is removing posts from their board which attempt to warn new citizens that the Green Party leader is a sexual harasser who was unanimously condemned by the Ziu and still thinks he did nothing wrong and he'll do it again. Luckily he has no power over this board.

It should go without saying that the Union of Free Reformists opposes, in the strongest terms, the attempt of unrepentant, legislatively-recognized sex pest Breneir Tzaracompradă to be re-elected to the Senäts.

However, we are also unable to endorse the incumbent, noted serial party-hopper and flip-flopper Mximo Carbonel. While we are sure the PA leadership will vouch for him, his record is not one that anyone should trust, including his current party.

The URL therefore encourages all citizens of Florenciă to a Write-In campaign for Literally Any Other Florencian. Yes, this includes the Duke of Lupul, the Baron Hooligan, and the entire Ventrútx clan. Thank you.

Part of the problem with the Chancery's decision to allow all parties to send out mailers a month before Balloting Day is that it caught my party, the Union of Free Reformists, on the hop, with our Seneschál candidate overseas for two weeks. This unfortunately allowed our opponents to get out to those parts of the nation who don't "live on Witt" early with what can only be described as rank dishonesty.

I would have liked to explain to my old friend @Françal I. Lux that what the Progressive Alliance discussed in its mailer about 61RZ27 bears no relation to Talossan reality, as I went into detail here. But my experience is that once someone's made a decision based on falsehoods, and made a public commitment to it, it's almost impossible to talk them out of it.

Telling a whole heap of falsehoods, very quickly, is an effective rhetorical technique. As a Talossan said elsewhere (lightly edited for anonymity):

QuoteIt's impressive how someone can simply make up talking points and issues out of thin air and have everyone take them seriously. Similarly, they can just discard issues that have outlived their political usefulness and everyone else just goes along with it.

Did you notice, they're really quiet about immigration as an existential problem that is all the fault of sitting governments fault now that we've had an immigration boom?

It forces you to acknowledge these issues as if they were real and develop counterarguments. If you didn't do that, you'd be ceding that point to them.

The Union of Free Reformists will proudly stand on the record of the outgoing government. I personally made a decision *not* to go "toe to toe" with the Davinescu Gallop because no-one can be bothered reading those huge, angry, threads. But simply disengaging is not politically effective - as shown by my old friend Françal getting recruited, and not even waiting to hear any counterarguments.

So, what is the new tactic?

(TO BE CONTINUED)

The Union of Free Reformists is very pleased to announce not one, but two candidates for the open Senäts seat in Maricopa: the incumbent Senator @Þon Txoteu É. Davinescu, O.SPM , and newer citizen @Pôl da Nordselva.

Ranked choice voting means that the voters can have a choice between two fine URL candidates. So the Party asks all citizens of Maricopa to either:

vote (1) Davinescu, (2) Nordselva!
or: (1) Nordselva, (2) Davinescu!

 in the order of your choice.

The Union of Free Reformists is very pleased to announce not one, but two candidates for the open Senäts seat in Maricopa: the incumbent Senator @Þon Txoteu É. Davinescu, O.SPM , and newer citizen @Pôl da Nordselva.

Ranked choice voting means that the voters can have a choice between two fine URL candidates. So the Party asks all citizens of Maricopa to either:

vote (1) Davinescu, (2) Nordselva!
or: (1) Nordselva, (2) Davinescu!

 in the order of your choice.

Let's just replay some of the opposition's greatest hits on this subject.

From exactly one month ago:

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on September 27, 2025, 06:59:20 PMIt seems to me like the Government is very reluctant to address the immigration issue, even though it's obviously a crisis.  We just had a span of four months with zero immigration, and in the entire term, there have been only two total immigrants.  The country is shrinking, and getting quieter.
...

we need the people who are in charge to act like they care about this.
...

(quote from a previous statement):

It seems to me like this should be the number-one, absolutely top priority of the Government.  ...
Would you guys please drop everything else and immediately switch to focusing on this issue above all others, tell us what exactly you plan to do, and let us know when those things are happening?

... the Government of the Kingdom of Talossa had watched immigration applications drop to zero for months, and they'd never bothered to check and see if the application was working.

To date, there has been no accountability for this failure.  No one resigned.  No one was reprimanded.

Now once more we have another immigration crisis, four months after the last one.  For another four-month span, there were no immigrants.  Immigration has plummeted, and we near the end of the term with two total immigrants.

So here we are again.  Maybe this isn't a surprise, since there were no consequences last time.
...
The Government does not want to discuss this.  They are slow-walking any attempts to identify a root cause or pattern...

This all brings me to my terpelaziun for the Seneschal:

Would the Seneschal please provide to this chamber a point-by-point description of the Government's plan to address this crisis?

One month later: the opposition admit that we're in a boom. And Sex Pest is in another thread desperately trying to find any excuse not to give the Government credit.

I have no hope for the Sex Pest, but the PA leader is honest - or at least he knows what honesty is. So he knows that an honest person can't be demanding resignations and apologies when it goes badly, but refuse to give plaudits and credit when it goes well.

A possible response might be "no credit to the Government. You didn't do anything! This is a coincidence!". But when I mildly suggested that there was no necessary connection between "government making an effort" and immigration levels, the PA leader sneered that this was an evasion of responsibility. That we had to do something NOW NOW NOW - and if we didn't, it was proof of negligence.

In fact, the main reason why I was reluctant to engage with this boisterous rhetoric was that I was quietly confident that the Government were doing the right thing; that changing tack wouldn't help; and that things would come right in their own time. I was right. (The subordinate reason, as said elsewhere, is that I'm tired of me butting heads with the Baron, and so is everyone else.)

So how about it, Alexandreu? Did the Government actually do something right? Does this mean we "cared" and stopped "slow-walking"? I get the weird feeling that, if the PA were to end up leading the next Government, and immigration levels were exactly the same, there would be a sudden conversion to the idea that perhaps "effort or even perceived effort <> results". That is, unless Baron Davinescu were honest.

Anyway, if you like the immigration boom, vote for @Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be and the Union of Free Reformists in the Cosa election. Don't mess with success.

(this post has been edited to tone down some intemperate language. sorry, but some of those accusations really grated on me.)

First things first. I agree that El Lexhatx E.5. gives too much discretion to the Immigration Minister to just "yoink" an immigration application at any time for any reason. I think the next Cosa should look at this topic again.

However, the Union of Free Reformists caucus decided to vote against 61RZ27 for the following reasons.

The established procedure of the Ministry of Immigration - which predates my own tenure of the role, and which was followed by my predecessor, now Senator from Cézembre - has been that an immigration application is not considered to be effective until the applicant has created a Wittenberg account, and obeyed the law in writing their application (eg. in giving evidence of their real identity, or under the new law, writing in English or Talossan). There is no recognition of this in the Clarked bill. As written, this would require Immigration to "process and post" immigration applications which are illegal and/or unserious.

Moreover, Baron Davinescu is very good, in other areas, about not wanting to pass laws which make more work for public officials without getting their input. In this case, however, he seemed to have no problems passing laws to give me, personally, a whole bunch of extra work without asking for my input. This seems to be because the whole motivation of this bill was to punish me, personally - for something he thought I might, potentially, do.

I have made a conscious decision in the current Cosa that no-one particularly wants to watch me butting heads with the Baron, and what's more, I just don't like doing it. So when he "goes off on one", as we say in the Antipodes, I find it easier just to ignore him if I don't have to engage. The argument which led up to this bill - the one where I expressed distaste about a particular citizenship application whose social media included some offensive material - included a lot of the Baron's usual party trick of accusing his political opponents of corruption, tyranny, even criminal behaviour unless he sees evidence otherwise. I'm old enough that at that point I just think, why bother engaging.

The Baron put the Public Process Bill in the Hopper at the height of his dudgeon on behalf of the said applicant (who, as it turned out, never followed through, so the whole thing was pointless). I made one snide comment, then more or less ignored it. I hoped he would calm down about it and it would go by the wayside; so I was disappointed that he took it to the CRL for the Sixth Clark. It was clearly too late by then to make further principled arguments against it. So, I just decided to lobby my party to vote against it.

It is also worth remembering in the last Clark of the 60th Cosa, the Ziu passed an Organic Law amendment over the strong objections of the Baron's party. The Baron mobilised and got that bill defeated by the people in referendum - and good on him for doing so. But he made a big to-do at the time about how the bill's sponsor, cxhn. Autófil, had just ignored the input of the bill's opponents. Well, sauce for the goose.

One reason why I've not been best pleased with the Chancery deciding to allow every party a mailer a week up to the election is that it opens the door for parties to bore potential voters senseless with rants about stuff that's not germane to their experience. But it's good that it's only one a week, because otherwise the Baron would have been blasting out his increasingly shrill communiqués on this issue (as posted on his party's forum) to the whole nation at a rate of one a day. I should tell the Baron that I just don't read stuff like that from him any more; and I doubt that a lot of other Talossans do, either. I'm not going to engage with a firehose of angry rhetoric when I don't have to; increasingly, it's clear that election campaigning on Witt does nothing.

So, this presumably well-intentioned bill went down to defeat because the Baron did not engage with me or my party respectfully in the leadup. As I keep telling the other, much worse, party leader, behaviour has consequences.

Once again: I don't know if I'll be in the next Ziu, but I assume the Union of Free Reformists will be pleased to work with the Progressive Alliance on reforming immigration applications to improve transparency and fairness, without making the job of Immigration Minister any more onerous than it is. The Baron will no doubt reply to this, but if it's a long, paragraph-by-paragraph "fisking", be warned I'm probably not going to read that either.

PS: I wrote this before I understood that the Baron has pledged to investigate and prosecute me after the fact if he gets into office. As mentioned above, I have acted at all times in accordance with what I have understood to be the law and the precedent of my predecessors in this role - and I'm pretty sure these threats of investigation won't apply to the Senator from Cézembre. But you had better believe that I would be renouncing my citizenship so fast my feet wouldn't touch the ground if Alexandreu somehow gets into power without resiling from such Trump-style threats, and he can then pass seven banishments on me in abstentia if he feels like it. Talossa can simply not function without the presumption of good faith, something which the Baron has always lacked with regard to his political opponents. The alternatives are noisy fights which everyone hates; passive resistance; or quitting.

WHEREAS the Government of Talossa is in receipt of legal opinion that certain sections of El Lexhatx which deal with the collection and issue of contact details for citizens may be in breach of European law and thus bring Talossa into conflict with the governments of much bigger and meaner countries than our own;

AND at the request of the Chancery, in the expectation that the question of collection and issue of contact details for citizens will be revisited by the Ziu after the election;

Under Articles VI.3-4 of the Organic Law, be it dictated that the following sections of El Lexhatx:

1. D.8.1.3., which currently reads:

QuoteLeaders of political parties may access some personal contact details as set out in D.8.5.

2. D.8.5, D.8.6, D.8.7 and D.8.8, which currently read:

Quote8.5. Information Available to Political Party Leaders

        8.5.1. An Electorate Database shall be made available to political party leaders.
        8.5.2. The Database shall only be accessible by leaders of parties which have been fully registered with the Chancery and provincial officers, provided the conditions in D.8.5. are met.
        8.5.3. The Database shall contain the following information on each of the Kingdom's Citizens only: Name, Province, E-Mail address.
        8.5.4. The E-Mail address of a citizen shall only be made available to party leaders if the citizen has opted-in to receive election communications
        8.5.5. Measures shall be taken to ensure that the database is kept non-public and can only be viewed by the audience intended.
        8.5.6. Additional information may be held upon the database against any given person ONLY if that person requests such information to be included. [367]
        8.5.7. Any citizen may request to opt-out of having their E-Mail address included in this database for any reason at any time by notifying the Chancery. [368]

    8.6. Information Available to Provincial Officers
        8.6.1. Provincial officers may have access to part of the electoral database established by D.8.5.[r 7], provided the following conditions are met:

            8.6.1.1. The provincial officer is (partly) responsible for the conduct of provincial elections and needs the information in the database for the conduct of these elections.
            8.6.1.2. Provincial law of the province for which the officer serves must actively allow the officer to have access to the information.
            8.6.1.3. The provincial officer must send a request to the SoS for access to the information. The SoS may refuse the request if the conditions in D.8.6. are not met.
            8.6.1.4. The provincial officer will only get access to the information about the citizens of the province for which he is conducting the elections
            8.6.1.5. The provincial officer may not share the information with anyone not entitled to the information.
            8.6.1.6. The provincial officer may use the information only for the conduct of provincial elections.

    8.7. Information Available to Presiding Officers

        8.7.1. Presiding officers of the Cosa, the Senate and all provincial legislatures may have access to part of the electoral database established by D.8.5.The following conditions apply:

            8.7.1.1. Provincial law of the province for which the officer serves must actively allow the officer to have access to the information.
            8.7.1.2. Provincial presiding officers must send a request to the SoS for access to the information. The SoS may refuse the request if the conditions in D.8.7.1.1. are not met.
            8.7.1.3. Each presiding officer shall only be given access to the contact informations of the members of the relevant legislature.
            8.7.1.4. Each presiding officer may not share the information with anyone not entitled to the information.
            8.7.1.5. Each presiding officer may use the information only for the conduct of parliamentary business.

    8.8 Information Available to All Citizens

        8.8.1. An Contact Information Database shall be made available to all citizens.
        8.8.2. The Database shall contain the following information on each of the Kingdom's Citizens only: Name, Province, E-Mail address.
        8.8.3. The E-Mail address of a citizen shall only be made available if the citizen has opted-in to receiving communications. Opting-in to the Electorate Database does not constitute opting-in to the Contact Information Database.
        8.8.4. Additional information may be held upon the database against any given person ONLY if that person requests such information to be included.
        8.8.5. Each electoral ballot and census shall ask if the citizen would like to opt-in to the Electoral Database and the Contact Information Database. Any citizen may request to opt-out of having their E-Mail address included in this database for any reason at any time by notifying the Chancery.-

are hereby DELETED WITHOUT REPLACEMENT.

The Government is pleased to announce that we have anticipated the Royal Commission on Immigration in moving to streamline the immigration application form, given recent legislative changes. We have cut down the number of questions by about 1/3 and added more flexibility.

Something I noted that I didn't realise before was that we are legally required to collect a prospective's phone number, which I'm not sure is appropriate in the modern era.

WHEREAS Terpelaziuns are necessary and proper for good government and accountability;

AND WHEREAS Terpelaziuns degenerating into long threads of mutual speechifying and political barbs not only does nothing for government accountability, but is unseemly, and is one of the reasons Talossan politics has become toxic, driving down public interest in politics and in Talossa in general;

AND WHEREAS members of the Cosa have queried whether Terpelaziun threads should be open for uninvolved parties to contribute to, and this should be allowed at the discretion of the presiding officers;

AND WHEREAS parliamentary debate in Talossa should be regulated by the presiding officers of the Houses of the Ziu, as in other civilised nations;

BE IT ENACTED that El Lexhatx H.1.2.3, which currently reads:

QuoteThe questioned Minister, or other applicable official as described above, must answer the Terpelaziun in the same thread as the original question, and the questioner may ask a reasonable number of supplementary questions, as determined by the presiding officer.

shall be amended to:

QuoteThe questioned Minister, or other applicable official as described above, must answer the Terpelaziun in the same thread as the original question, and the questioner or any other MC may, with the express permission of the presiding officer, ask one or more supplementary questions.

Okay, assuming that we don't mess around with the Constitution any more than we already are, I believe this is the algorithm for electing a new leadership:

- instead of electing a President and a Secretary separately like we did in the FreeDems, we elect a Committee and the Committee chooses those officers from among itself.

- This Convention electsthree people to the committee (using preferential voting if there are more than three nominations.

- also any Province with 3 or more members is entitled to elect a Provincial Representative.

Is all that right, @Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be ?

BTW, the provinces which would be entitled to a presentative are as follows:

Fiova: me, @GV, @Üc R. Tärfă , @Brad Higgs and @DNVercaria .
Vuode : @Eðo Grischun , @Chirbi Scherpa-Carriedo , @Bentxamì Puntmasleu .

¡Estimadas es estimats cuncitaxhiens, amici, es cunmembreux d'ár noua Uniun!

Just a few days ago, I was grieving the end of the journey of the Free Democrats of Talossa, our imagiNation's oldest and most successful political party.

What a wonderful experience it has been, then, to preside over this inaugural convention of the Union of Free Reformists, Talossa's newest and only real political party.

By "only real", I mean a political party as someone outside Talossa would see it. A group of individuals with different political ideologies, who through debate and discussion put together a political program and a leadership team to win public support.

That's historically not how political parties work in Talossa, though. They generally work as fan clubs. One dominant personality, and a following who more or less vote how he (and it is usually a he) tells them to.

When I confessed, a few years ago, that I was afraid of this happening in the Free Democrats, this was taken up and used as a "dunk" on me. Ironically, by one of the worst culprits of that kind of politics. But we'll get back to that.

But what we've seen over the last few weeks is actual debate. People with different opinions and different perspectives coming together to try to build something new, something greater than the sum of its Free Democrat and Reformista parts.

In that regard, we welcome @
M:sr Pôl dal Nordselvă, the first person to join the Union without being a member of its predecessor parties. The first of many to come, we hope.

Friends, compatriots and colleagues: unless an unforeseeable upheaval occurs in Talossan politics, the upcoming 62nd Cosa election will be a contest between The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

We're the Good, of course. Or rather, we hope to assume that virtue.

I don't want to spend too much time on The Ugly, because that is not a political issue. It is an issue of elementary sanitation. The need to take out the trash, as it were.

They say that lack of shame is a superpower. It is; but only to the extent that people allow it to be. If you expect shame and chiding to regulate bad behaviour, and a sufficiently shameless verpă and/or vesneir just acts like nothing happened; then you had better have some way to escalate, to effective ostracism or a cordon sanitaire. Otherwise, the aforementioned verpă is in fact correct.

The phenomenon of fan club politics makes it worse. As is being demonstrated in our Big Neighbour, voters who are in a political "fan club" don't want to know that their leader is sexually reprehensible. Or, if confronted with the evidence, simply ignore it. The only way to dislodge a "fanclub" member is if their leader personally offends them. In the Talossan sense, my party leader is a creep who makes other Talossans feel dirty: I sleep. My party leader doesn't give me enough seats in the Cosa: real miéidă. Long-standing Talossans will get the reference.

So you can't dislodge the fan club. It wouldn't matter if you could, because a vesneir can keep seats in the Cosă and make an asineu of themselves with Terpelaziuns with only their own vote. So again, it's not a political issue, but one which would have been settled in the olden days with the Charivari, or maybe the pillory.

Enough of that. Onto "the Bad". Well, that's mildly unfair. Certainly not bad people. But bad politics. In fact, and this is as I see it worse: no politics.

There was a phenomenon in French politics of the 20th century where, since conservative politics had a bad name from years of monarchy and dictatorship, even the Right-wing parties called themselves "left" or "radical" or some such. We seem to have that issue in this country, too. Thus the main conservative party calls itself "Progressive" (and I shudder to mention what the good name of Green politics has been subjected to).

I'm going to spill a bit of tea here, as the young people would say. A few weeks ago, a Cabinet minister was approached with an offer to join the main opposition party. Of course, I'm none too happy with that – as it would have effectively brought down the ¡Avant! government without waiting for an election. Totally legal, I hasten to add! Hardball politics, but not outside the bounds of acceptable conduct!

But here's the thing. The offer was not made on the basis of political principle. It was not made on an appeal to dissatisfaction with the Government's record or political stance. No, it was made on the basis that... the Progressive Alliance's internal culture was "fun". I believe the actual comparison was made to "how things used to be in the Talossan National Congress". Only, you know, without the verpă.

I realised that previously I referred to this party as "conservative". I did so on the basis that, whatever changes are suggested to Talossan institutions or structure, they're agin' it. But that's not actually the right word. The right word is apolitical.

This party is, as I see it, not a political party in the way our new URL is. They are not held together by shared politics, but by friendships, by its internal culture. In a party which is a "social club" writ large, it's not a surprise that the party should have no distinctive politics of its own - or rather, that its politics should "default" to the preferences of whoever its most confident member is.

And an "apolitical party" produces an "apolitical politics" for Talossa. Confused? What I mean is: a politics that essentially holds that Talossa should not have politics. That debate about different visions of Talossa's future, its raison d'être (sorry, raziun d'estar), its institutional nature, is divisive and unseemly - even that it "drives away prospectives" - and that elections should reduce partly to deciding a team of administrators for the next six months, and partly to one of those funny things that Talossans do to be quirky.

I believe a kind of politics which doesn't think that there should really be politics is a danger to our democracy. A few months ago, the effective leader of this party – not its "on paper" leader, but come off it, guys – wrote a thread discussing court action to declare party lists inorganic. In which he made an effective argument that a party vote should be a vote for a blank cheque for a leader to hand out seats to whoever puts their hand up after the votes are already in. Friends and colleagues, that is an appeal for "fan-club" politics in its purest form.

There still seem some who still seem to believe Talossa was pretty much perfect in 2011, before Reunision fouled everything, up by bringing in a group of Talossans with a different vision for the nation – that is, "real" politics. And may I say, if you wanted evidence of that, it's the discomfort of seeing our King wear the Sash of the Republic. To quote from the classics: the Republicans may have been on the losing side, but history is still out over whether it was the wrong one.

In contrast, the URL defends party lists in our current system as democratic. If the voters are to hold the legislature to account, every ballot should allow voters to know who they're putting in the Cosa (with some margin for flexibility, as in the current 1/3 of the seats). If our opponents got their way in going back to "blank cheque/fan club" voting, would the secret ballot be next on the chopping board?

You don't need to necessarily agree with URL's formal politics – our support for democratic reforms, "min-monarchism" and the rule of law – to appreciate our stance that there should be real politics in Talossa. That a country where politically indistinguishable "clubs" or "teams" compete on the same level as high-school cliques would be boring and annoying.

And as a formal demonstration that the URL is a political party, and not a fan club, we are going to nominate our candidate for Seneschal right here, in our convention, by a vote. And I am going to nominate my good friend and colleague @Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be  as that candidate.

I'm old, I'm tired, I'm admittedly running out of inspiration. I need a break. I need to hand over responsibility for political leadership to a younger, enthusiastic Talossan, with a bit of fire in his belly. Someone who hasn't been ground down by years of the same arguments again and again with the same people.

Will Mic'haglh be able to command the political loyalty of the old Free Democrat base? Which is, in part, a base made up of my personal fan club – or at least my old friends from decades past, going back to the days of the Republic, who don't really pay much attention but will vote more or less how I advise them?

He'd better. I'm tired of trying to maintain a political majority which doesn't rely primarily on active Talossans. Maybe the other parties are fan clubs who don't care but will vote how their old friend asks them to; we should be better than that.

We are going to go out there, friends and colleagues, not just to sell Mic'haglh for Seneschal. Even though he deserves it! He works as hard as any Talossan I know, has celebrated victories and accepted defeats with good grace, and has never had a harsh word to say to even his worst opponents in public, as far as I know.

But we are selling an honest politics. For example, we are selling an attitude to immigration which says – sure, we would massively benefit from an influx of new citizens. But to do so we have to look honestly at Talossa-as-it-is and answer: would you invite your friends to immigrate? Your family members?

The de facto opposition leader seems to think even asking these questions is somehow talking down Talossa. Again, their stance is essentially anti-political: Talossa is the political status quo of its institutions, which are not to be meddled with. If the migrants aren't flooding in, it must be the Government not "selling" it properly. Or even worse, the Government must be wicked and want Talossa to depopulate and fail.

I mean, you don't really need to believe that (for example) reforming the Senäts to make it less a sclerotic mess and a waste of citizen time and energy would bring the prospectives in. But less bureaucracy means more energy for productive efforts. And let's face it, you know what really would bring more citizens in? If we could honestly go out there and tell people that sexual harassment was effectively sanctioned. Not that sex pests get a slap on the wrists and they continue to big-belly their way around, behaving like nothing really happened. (Because until they change their ways, or remove themselves, it didn't.)

The Union of Free Reformists – the URL, or simply our Union – is a vote for more than a leader or a leadership team. It's a vote for a vision. It's a vote for a way of doing politics which is actually "political" in the good sense, that is based on principle and debate. And at the same time tries to minimise "politics" in the bad sense, meaning thuggish, bruising, personalised "team sports".

We are the party of freedom and democratic reform. We uphold the banner of the liberal/reformist traditions in Talossa, including the history of the Talossan Republic, going all the way back to Danihél Laurier and the other brave reformers of the pre-Internet period. And a party which is capable of real leadership transition – that is, not just a different front man propped up to wave to the masses while Svengali makes all the decisions from behind the throne – is the only party which can embody that tradition.

I therefore call upon you, members of our new and beautiful Union of Free Reformists, to rise as one and endorse my nomination of Mic'haglh Autofíl as the next Seneschal of the Kingdom of Talossa.

¡Så vivadra Talossa! ¡Så vivadra Talossa democrätic! ¡Ja pevar din 'n Uniun!

All right, check this out.

When this was being drafted pre-merger, we discussed whether we should make a more explicit commitment to including Republican strains of thought. Not that anyone here thinks His Majesty Txec isn't doing a great job! But he might do an equally good job as President Nordselva? Anyway, the idea would not to be become the Republican party, but become the party of "less political monarchy", which was the old ZRT position.

I mean, is anyone in here actually a committed monarchist? Possibly the King's brother :D

A broader question is that I think the program should be minimalist to focus on principles before concrete policies, so that it can have a longer "shelf life" and allow Party leadership to be flexible in concrete policy.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC on May 25, 2025, 04:59:37 PMI. A Party of Principles

Free Reformists place progress, democracy, and liberty as their guiding political principles. These mean that every citizen should be able to:

• Take part in a political system that addresses the needs of Talossa's population;
• Campaign for alterations when that system does not address the nation's needs;
• Serve the nation without getting involved in politics;
• Enjoy the Talossan experience as a private citizen; and
• Enjoy a civil and peaceful Talossan life.

II. Talossa's Constitution

Free Reformists believe that political systems must suit the population as opposed to the reverse. We will always support reforms intended to ensure that the structure of the state promotes democracy, liberty, and Talossanity.

Free Reformists support a constitutional model that promotes an active head of state who is accountable to the citizenry, puts the national interest ahead of personal interests, and serves the nation, as opposed to acting as its owner.

Free Reformists believe that the role of Talossa's head of state is to act as a promoter of national unity and our face to the world. In this regard, we support a smaller political role for the King and open-ended discussion on whether a lifetime monarchy is our best option.

Free Reformists support a Senäts elected at-large, preferably by Single Transferable Vote. In conjunction with this, we support reforms to ensure some measure of provincial representation in the Cosӑ.

Free Reformists support efforts to revitalize provincial activity, including supporting provincial mergers where sensible.

III. Talossan Law

To best support Talossan democracy, our laws must be simple enough for all citizens to understand them; this enables as many as possible to engage with and serve in Talossa's state institutions. On the other hand, tasks which require technical expertise should be reserved for the strictly apolitical Royal Civil Service.

No political office should require technical expertise to hold; these aspects of administration should instead be overseen by Civil Service officers to assist.

Civil Service roles should be well-documented in order to provide a smooth transition between holders.
Both generally and especially concerning the Civil Service, Talossa's Honours system should be used to incentivize public service and recognize achievement.

Clear rules should be in place to prevent political and apolitical roles from interfering for those who wish to hold both.

Free Reformists advocate an incremental approach to reform, keeping each change measurable to determine its impact.

Free Reformists support efforts to broaden Talossa's international relations with other micronations, provided these nations align with our national values of liberal democracy and respect for human rights.

IV. Culture and Talossan Life

Free Reformists support a culture that grows organically, without interference or direction from the state. The Ministry of Culture should work with citizens and private organizations to encourage the growth of Talossan culture; while this may involve grants from the Ministry's budget, it should never place cultural growth under Government direction.

'N naziun sanc glheþ, c'è 'n naziun sanc coraziun. The Talossan Language is one of our hallmarks of national identity, which separates us from all other nations and national projects. We envision a Talossa in which all citizens learn and use the national language to some extent, and support Government efforts to encourage greater proficiency in our nation's most valuable cultural facets.

Free Reformists recognize that one of the chief ways in which Talossans are excluded from activity is by bullying and harassment from their fellow citizens. While we cannot (and should not) criminalize this behavior, we support empowering Wittenberg moderators to more effectively uphold the rules of "Wittiquette" without themselves becoming targets of such behavior. We support treating all Talossans, both within and outside the political sphere, with dignity and respect, and advocate for taking "the high road" wherever possible.

So once again for everyone's information, here is the draft Constitution which was endorsed by the final conventions of the Free Democrats and the PdR:

Constituziun dal Uniun dels Reformistaes Livereschti

The Uniun dels Reformistaes Livereschti (Free Reformists' Union), a political party in the Kingdom of Talossa, adopts this Constituziun as the basis for our Party's internal governance.

ARTICLE I. MEMBERSHIP
A. Membership in the URL shall be open to all Talossan citizens in good standing who are not already members of another political party, who agree to abide by this Constituziun and Party policy, and who endorse the Party's platform. However, the right of any Party member in good standing to seek changes to this Constitution or other Party policy in accordance with this Constitution shall never be infringed.
B. Application to the Presedint or Secretar shall be considered sufficient application for Party membership.
C. Prospective members shall provide contact information as reasonably requested by the Presedint or Secretar in order to ensure they may be reached. This information shall be kept secure and confidential, and is only to be used by Party leadership for official Party business.
D. The Secretar shall be entitled, no more than once a year, to conduct a Census of all Party members to ensure they wish to maintain Party membership and to confirm their contact information is up to date. A Party member who does not reply to this Census within 30 days shall be deemed to have offered their resignation, which shall be accepted at the discretion of the Secretar.
E. A three-fifths vote of Party membership, held on a secret ballot, may pass a motion to censure another member, temporarily revoking their good standing with the Party. This may be proposed due to violations of this Constituziun, publicly voting for or joining another nationally-registered party, or bringing the Party into disrepute in some specified manner. The member in question shall not be permitted to cast a vote on such a motion.

• A successful vote to censure, the justification for it, and the provisions for lifting said censure shall be communicated to the censured member as soon as possible and through all possible means of communication. A censured member's rights under this Constituziun shall cease to apply during their censure, including the right to participate in Party discussion forums.
• This censure expires at the conclusion of the next Party Convention, but may also be repealed prematurely by simple majority. Censure may also be extended at one Convention to the next by majority of a secret-ballot vote.

F. A two-thirds vote of Party membership, held on a secret ballot, may pass a motion to expel members from the Party for violations of Organic Law or other Talossan statute law, as well as gross violations of general standards of decorum. The member in question shall not be permitted to cast a vote on such a motion.

• In the event of a Party member's loss of citizenship, this vote may be omitted and their membership immediately revoked.
• Any member expelled from the Party shall be permitted to rejoin after two General Elections.

ARTICLE II. LEADERSHIP
A. The Party shall elect from its membership the Comità Esecutorxheu (Executive Committee), to serve as the Party's governing body.

• The Comità shall consist of three members chosen by the Party membership at-large by Single Transferable Vote, as well as any Fosteglhen Provinciais.
• From among themselves. members of the Comità will elect a Presedint by Instant-Runoff (a.k.a. Ranked-Choice) Vote. The Presedint serves as the Party's national leader and presiding officer, the presiding officer of the Comità, and is responsible for distribution of Cosӑ seats.
• Also from among themselves, the members of the Comità will elect a Secretar, who will be responsible for conducting elections internal to the party, preparing important party documents for publishing, and providing the parliamentary party with any assistance it might need. The Secretar shall serve as Acting Presedint in the event the Presedint communicates a temporary leave of absence; should the office of Presedint be vacant, the Secretar shall become Presedint.
• No member shall be entitled to hold both offices of Presedint and Secretar except on an acting basis.
• Should the office of Secretar fall vacant between Conventions, the Presedint shall be entitled to appoint a Secretar from among the members of the Comità.
• For any Province with three or more Party members assigned thereto, the members from that Province shall be entitled to elect a Fosteglhӑ Provincial (Provincial Chair) by Instant-Runoff Vote.
• Fosteglhen Provinciais are responsible for the distribution of seats within their provincial legislature, taking into account advice from Party members in said province. If there is no Fosteglhӑ Provincial, or they do not complete this duty in time, the Party President shall do so in their stead.
• The list of candidates for a Cosӑ election shall be determined by the Comità, and upon the request of any Party member, shall be ratified by a secret-ballot vote of all members in good standing, carried out by the Secretar.
• The Presedint and Secretar may be removed from their office by a two-thirds vote of the Comità, ratified by a majority of Party membership.

B. Members of the Comità Esecutorxheu (including Fosteglhen Provinciais), the Presedint, and the Secretar shall be elected at each Convention, regular or Extraordinary. The term of office of all incumbents ends with the election of their successor.
C. Fourteen days' notice should be given prior to leadership elections being held on the forum used for conducting Party business, and the floor shall be considered open to nominations when this notice is given.
D. There is no limit on the number of terms one may serve in any position.

ARTICLE III. BUSINESS
A. The Party shall hold a yearly Convention, to take place at membership's earliest convenience in the period from December to March, inclusive. At the petition of two-thirds of Party members, or a majority of the Comità Esecutorxheu, an Extraordinary Convention may be called outside this period, though no more than one Extraordinary Convention may be called between the regularly-scheduled Convention.
B. In addition to elections to Party leadership positions, each Convention shall also be open to amendments to this Constituziun as well as any other Party policy.
C. All motions must receive a second before proceeding to debate. All motions shall be subject to a debate period of forty-eight hours, following which voting shall run for seventy-two hours.
D. Amendments to this Constituziun shall pass by a two-thirds majority; all other changes to Party policies shall pass by simple majority.
E. Only members in good standing (i.e. those not currently censured) are permitted to vote on any motion or in an election for any position within the Party.
F. Party members are free to organize themselves into caucuses within the Party. Caucuses shall annually provide to the Secretar a point of contact, a statement of the caucus' purpose, and an organizing document. The Secretar shall keep a list of all registered caucuses.
G. For the purposes of this section, the "Caucus" comprises all Senators and MCs who are members of the Party.

• If the Presedint considers a certain Bill on the Clark to be especially important for the enactment of the Party's policy and principles, they may declare this bill to be subject to a "whipped vote", indicating that all members of the Caucus are expected to vote in accordance with the Presedint's recommendation or otherwise abstain. The opposite of a whipped vote is a "free vote".
• A declaration of a whipped vote, and any bill on which there is a whipped vote, shall specify precisely which plank of the party's policy or principle is involved.
• A declaration of a whipped vote may be overridden by a simple majority of the Caucus members.
• All Votes of Confidence shall be considered to be whipped unless the Presedint or a majority of the Caucus specifically state otherwise.
• A member of the Caucus who votes contrary to a declaration of a whipped vote ("defies the whip") on two separate occasions within a single Cosӑ term may be subject to censure by declaration of the Presedint.
• H. Candidates for Senäts elections shall be chosen by a vote of all members residing in the Province in question, and the successful candidate announced by the Fosteglhӑ Provincial. With the consent of the  Comità, the Folsteglhӑ may choose to allow non-Party members residing in the Province in question to participate in such a vote. In the case of a contested nomination, an Instant-Runoff Vote shall be carried out by secret ballot. If there is no Fosteglhӑ Provincial, the Presedint shall perform this function.

I. In cases of emergency such as by-elections, resignations or impending deadlines, such that no time is left to conduct a vote as above, the Presedint may amend the Cosӑ list, and a Fosteglhӑ Provincial may nominate a Senäts candidate.

¡Azul i toct ár cüncitaxhiens es cünpartisaes!

As endorsed by the final conventions of both the Free Democrats of Talossa and el Parti da Reformaziun, the inaugural convention of l'Uniun dels Reformistaes Livereschtis (URL, Union of Free Reformists) is hereby brought to order.

I will chair the Convention unless anyone has any better suggestions.

PROVISIONAL AGENDA:

• Greetings from members and well-wishers
• Debate on the URL Constitution - draft version here
• Debate on the URL Platform - draft version here
• Debate on URL symbols and branding.
• Debate on URL candidate for Seneschal.
• Election of the inaugural leadership of the URL.
• Closing speeches

For this purpose, I would like to hereby summon all the inaugural members of the URL: @Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be @Iac Éovard Valadeir @Antaglha Xhenerös Somelieir @GV @mpf @Açafat del Val @Üc R. Tärfă @Þon Txoteu É. Davinescu, O.SPM @C.d.I. Nouacastra-Läxhirescu, MSC @Chirbi Scherpa-Carriedo @Eðo Grischun @Iason Taiwos @Bentxamì Puntmasleu @DNVercaria

After a lot of deliberation, the Ministry of Immigration has decided reluctantly to accept @Iac Éovard Valadeir 's resignation as Deputy Minister in charge of greeting new prospectives.

But it gives us great pleasure to announce that @Barclamïu da Miéletz will be taking over that role, leaving his current role as Deputy Culture.

Questions? Comments?

Estimat Túischac'h, in accordance with the 61st Cosa Budget, I would like to give two weeks notice to the Burgermeister of Internal Revenue to disburse $US75 to Baron A. Davinescu for provision of three Talossan-language lessons.

ATTENTION ALL FREE DEMOCRATS: here is the *draft* constitution for a merged party that I have worked out with Parti da Reformaziun leadership. I am publishing it here for completely open public comment (from party members, people from outside the party can publish their responses elsewhere).

Let's have a good read of this so we can get finicky details out of the way ASAP. That way, we can have a final draft ready for July 15 and the merger conference, so we and the PdR can vote on the same document. Again, Mic'haglh pretty much drafted this as a mash-up of the existing party constitutions.

===

Constituziun dal Uniun dels Reformistaes Livereschti

The Uniun dels Reformistaes Livereschti (Free Reformists' Union), a political party in the Kingdom of Talossa, adopts this Constituziun as the basis for our Party's internal governance.

ARTICLE I. MEMBERSHIP
A. Membership in the URL shall be open to all Talossan citizens in good standing who are not already members of another political party, who agree to abide by this Constituziun and Party policy, and who endorse the Party's platform. However, the right of any Party member in good standing to seek changes to this Constitution or other Party policy in accordance with this Constitution shall never be infringed.
B. Application to the Presedint or Secretar shall be considered sufficient application for Party membership.
C. Prospective members shall provide contact information as reasonably requested by the Presedint or Secretar in order to ensure they may be reached. This information shall be kept secure and confidential, and is only to be used by Party leadership for official Party business.
D. The Secretar shall be entitled, no more than once a year, to conduct a Census of all Party members to ensure they wish to maintain Party membership and to confirm their contact information is up to date. A Party member who does not reply to this Census within 30 days shall be deemed to have offered their resignation, which shall be accepted at the discretion of the Secretar.
E. A three-fifths vote of Party membership, held on a secret ballot, may pass a motion to censure another member, temporarily revoking their good standing with the Party. This may be proposed due to violations of this Constituziun, publicly voting for or joining another nationally-registered party, or bringing the Party into disrepute in some specified manner. The member in question shall not be permitted to cast a vote on such a motion.

• A successful vote to censure, the justification for it, and the provisions for lifting said censure shall be communicated to the censured member as soon as possible and through all possible means of communication. A censured member's rights under this Constituziun shall cease to apply during their censure, including the right to participate in Party discussion forums.
• This censure expires at the conclusion of the next Party Convention, but may also be repealed prematurely by simple majority. Censure may also be extended at one Convention to the next by majority of a secret-ballot vote.

F. A two-thirds vote of Party membership, held on a secret ballot, may pass a motion to expel members from the Party for violations of Organic Law or other Talossan statute law, as well as gross violations of general standards of decorum. The member in question shall not be permitted to cast a vote on such a motion.

• In the event of a Party member's loss of citizenship, this vote may be omitted and their membership immediately revoked.
• Any member expelled from the Party shall be permitted to rejoin after two General Elections.

ARTICLE II. LEADERSHIP
A. The Party shall elect from its membership the Comità Esecutorxheu (Executive Committee), to serve as the Party's governing body.

• The Comità shall consist of three members chosen by the Party membership at-large by Single Transferable Vote, as well as any Fosteglhen Provinciais.
• From among themselves. members of the Comità will elect a Presedint by Instant-Runoff (a.k.a. Ranked-Choice) Vote. The Presedint serves as the Party's national leader and presiding officer, the presiding officer of the Comità, and is responsible for distribution of Cosӑ seats.
• Also from among themselves, the members of the Comità will elect a Secretar, who will be responsible for conducting elections internal to the party, preparing important party documents for publishing, and providing the parliamentary party with any assistance it might need. The Secretar shall serve as Acting Presedint in the event the Presedint communicates a temporary leave of absence; should the office of Presedint be vacant, the Secretar shall become Presedint.
• No member shall be entitled to hold both offices of Presedint and Secretar except on an acting basis.
• Should the office of Secretar fall vacant between Conventions, the Presedint shall be entitled to appoint a Secretar from among the members of the Comità.
• For any Province with three or more Party members assigned thereto, the members from that Province shall be entitled to elect a Fosteglhӑ Provincial (Provincial Chair) by Instant-Runoff Vote.
• Fosteglhen Provinciais are responsible for the distribution of seats within their provincial legislature, taking into account advice from Party members in said province. If there is no Fosteglhӑ Provincial, or they do not complete this duty in time, the Party President shall do so in their stead.
• The list of candidates for a Cosӑ election shall be determined by the Comità, and upon the request of any Party member, shall be ratified by a secret-ballot vote of all members in good standing, carried out by the Secretar.
• The Presedint and Secretar may be removed from their office by a two-thirds vote of the Comità, ratified by a majority of Party membership.

B. Members of the Comità Esecutorxheu (including Fosteglhen Provinciais), the Presedint, and the Secretar shall be elected at each Convention, regular or Extraordinary. The term of office of all incumbents ends with the election of their successor.
C. Fourteen days' notice should be given prior to leadership elections being held on the forum used for conducting Party business, and the floor shall be considered open to nominations when this notice is given.
D. There is no limit on the number of terms one may serve in any position.

ARTICLE III. BUSINESS
A. The Party shall hold a yearly Convention, to take place at membership's earliest convenience in the period from December to March, inclusive. At the petition of two-thirds of Party members, or a majority of the Comità Esecutorxheu, an Extraordinary Convention may be called outside this period, though no more than one Extraordinary Convention may be called between the regularly-scheduled Convention.
B. In addition to elections to Party leadership positions, each Convention shall also be open to amendments to this Constituziun as well as any other Party policy.
C. All motions must receive a second before proceeding to debate. All motions shall be subject to a debate period of forty-eight hours, following which voting shall run for seventy-two hours.
D. Amendments to this Constituziun shall pass by a two-thirds majority; all other changes to Party policies shall pass by simple majority.
E. Only members in good standing (i.e. those not currently censured) are permitted to vote on any motion or in an election for any position within the Party.
F. Party members are free to organize themselves into caucuses within the Party. Caucuses shall annually provide to the Secretar a point of contact, a statement of the caucus' purpose, and an organizing document. The Secretar shall keep a list of all registered caucuses.
G. For the purposes of this section, the "Caucus" comprises all Senators and MCs who are members of the Party.

• If the Presedint considers a certain Bill on the Clark to be especially important for the enactment of the Party's policy and principles, they may declare this bill to be subject to a "whipped vote", indicating that all members of the Caucus are expected to vote in accordance with the Presedint's recommendation or otherwise abstain. The opposite of a whipped vote is a "free vote".
• A declaration of a whipped vote, and any bill on which there is a whipped vote, shall specify precisely which plank of the party's policy or principle is involved.
• A declaration of a whipped vote may be overridden by a simple majority of the Caucus members.
• All Votes of Confidence shall be considered to be whipped unless the Presedint or a majority of the Caucus specifically state otherwise.
• A member of the Caucus who votes contrary to a declaration of a whipped vote ("defies the whip") on two separate occasions within a single Cosӑ term may be subject to censure by declaration of the Presedint.
• H. Candidates for Senäts elections shall be chosen by a vote of all members residing in the Province in question, and the successful candidate announced by the Fosteglhӑ Provincial. With the consent of the  Comità, the Folsteglhӑ may choose to allow non-Party members residing in the Province in question to participate in such a vote. In the case of a contested nomination, an Instant-Runoff Vote shall be carried out by secret ballot. If there is no Fosteglhӑ Provincial, the Presedint shall perform this function.

I. In cases of emergency such as by-elections, resignations or impending deadlines, such that no time is left to conduct a vote as above, the Presedint may amend the Cosӑ list, and a Fosteglhӑ Provincial may nominate a Senäts candidate.

I have been in discussion with the Túischac'h, @Munditenens Tresplet , who - in light of recent events - has asked for more clarification of his role in administering Terps.

Here are the Túischac'h's comments:

QuoteI don't want to put any limits on what can be asked... What if we allow the Leader of the Opposition to ask unlimited questions per month, but limited backbenchers to just 3 max?

Next, I want to remove the section on MCs and Senators being able to "chime in" and ask their own follow-ups after the original submitter has completed supplementary questions. This to my mind hasn't ever happened, or when it did it happened on a more informal basis. I'm fine with threads continuing, but we don't need to make other party's questions their own semi enforceable Terps.

Removing that section allows for easier enforcement and makes it easier to excuse the Minister. As it stands, I think my locking the threads is on somewhat shaky ground, albeit one that may not be challenged.

Finally, the only reference to decorum is that questions should be asked "politely" and there is no reference to enforcement really, other than the presiding officer can suggest Contempt if a minister doesn't answer a proper question, for which an "impolite" question wouldn't be proper. I'm fine keeping the word polite, but decorum references should be throughout, and enforcement of decorum up to, say, ending further discussion should be clearer.

Our trusty and well-beloved Defence and STUFF Minister @Bråneu Excelsio, UrN is currently overloaded with other responsibilities, and apparently struggles with Mexican internet utilities, and has asked for his workload to be lightened somewhat.

Thus, I have requested @King Txec to appoint @Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be to the portfolio of Minister of STUFF. Cxhn. Excelsio will continue to serve, not only in Cabinet as Defence Minister, but as Deputy Minister of STUFF in the Propaganda sub-portfolio, with oversight of the National Website, our social media accounts, and publication of La C'hronică. All this is of course provisional in view of a proposed top-to-bottom legislative reorganisation of the frankly bloated STUFF portfolio.

tHaNk YoU fOr ThIs AtTeNtIoN tO tHiS mAtTeR!!!

Twenty-one years ago today, Tamoran dal Navă, Mic'haglh Popeu, @GV, @Gjermund Higraff and seven others Dared Something Worthy and struck the first major blow for a democratic Talossa, which led us to where we are today.

We honour their tenacity and their sacrifice, and the traditions of the Republic which they founded, still embodied in the Free Province of Fiovă today.

As the Speech from the Throne said, the "require more detail in essays" provision seems to have flopped because they just plug something into ChatGPT that tells us what we want to hear. And "poking" prospectives to rewrite wasn't as successful as I've hoped. (I wonder whether you guys noticed that I've more or less stopped trying, lol.)

So I think there's just going to have to be a better screen, which I provisionally want to be a small (5-10?) multiple choice question test which can be answered by reading talossa.com.

And: I'm going to suggest a basic screen should be fill out your application in English or Talossan. Some AI is good and free, for example, Google Translate.

ATTENTION ALL FREE DEMOCRATS: here is the *draft* platform for a merged party that I have worked out with Parti da Reformaziun leadership. I am publishing it here for completely open public comment (from party members, people from outside the party can publish their responses elsewhere).

If we are going to do this, we will want to have agreement on the broad outlines very soon, so we can go on to create a merged party Constitution and vote on it at a Final Free Democrats Convention before the 61st Cosa ends.

==

I. The name of the Party is l'Uniun dels Reformistaes Livereschti (URL, Union of Free Reformists).

II. A Party of Principles

Free Reformists place progress, democracy, and liberty as their guiding political principles. These mean that every citizen should be able to:

• Take part in a political system that addresses the needs of Talossa's population;
• Campaign for alterations when that system does not address the nation's needs;
• Serve the nation without getting involved in politics;
• Enjoy the Talossan experience as a private citizen; and
• Enjoy a civil and peaceful Talossan life.

III. Talossa's Constitution

Free Reformists believe that political systems must suit the population as opposed to the reverse. We will always support reforms intended to ensure that the structure of the state promotes democracy, liberty, and Talossanity.

Free Reformists support a constitutional model that promotes an active head of state who is accountable to the citizenry, puts the national interest ahead of personal interests, and serves the nation, as opposed to acting as its owner.

Free Reformists believe that the role of Talossa's head of state is to act as a promoter of national unity and our face to the world. In this regard, we support a smaller political role for the King and open-ended discussion on whether a lifetime monarchy is our best option.

Free Reformists support a Senäts elected at-large, preferably by Single Transferable Vote. In conjunction with this, we support reforms to ensure some measure of provincial representation in the Cosӑ.

Free Reformists support efforts to revitalize provincial activity, including supporting provincial mergers where sensible.

IV. Talossan Law

To best support Talossan democracy, our laws must be simple enough for all citizens to understand them; this enables as many as possible to engage with and serve in Talossa's state institutions. On the other hand, tasks which require technical expertise should be reserved for the strictly apolitical Royal Civil Service.

No political office should require technical expertise to hold; these aspects of administration should instead be overseen by Civil Service officers to assist.

Civil Service roles should be well-documented in order to provide a smooth transition between holders.
Both generally and especially concerning the Civil Service, Talossa's Honours system should be used to incentivize public service and recognize achievement.

Clear rules should be in place to prevent political and apolitical roles from interfering for those who wish to hold both.

Free Reformists advocate an incremental approach to reform, keeping each change measurable to determine its impact.

Free Reformists support efforts to broaden Talossa's international relations with other micronations, provided these nations align with our national values of liberal democracy and respect for human rights.

V. Culture and Talossan Life

Free Reformists support a culture that grows organically, without interference or direction from the state. The Ministry of Culture should work with citizens and private organizations to encourage the growth of Talossan culture; while this may involve grants from the Ministry's budget, it should never place cultural growth under Government direction.

'N naziun sanc glheþ, c'è 'n naziun sanc coraziun. The Talossan Language is one of our hallmarks of national identity, which separates us from all other nations and national projects. We envision a Talossa in which all citizens learn and use the national language to some extent, and support Government efforts to encourage greater proficiency in our nation's most valuable cultural facets.

Free Reformists recognize that one of the chief ways in which Talossans are excluded from activity is by bullying and harassment from their fellow citizens. While we cannot (and should not) criminalize this behavior, we support empowering Wittenberg moderators to more effectively uphold the rules of "Wittiquette" without themselves becoming targets of such behavior. We support treating all Talossans, both within and outside the political sphere, with dignity and respect, and advocate for taking "the high road" wherever possible.

I'm the Prime Minister of Talossa. Ask me anything.

Estimat Túischac'h, I notice that a series of seven identical Terpelaziuns have been submitted. In my capacity as Seneschal to substitute for any Minister, I give them all seven the identical response: that the Government's plans for every portfolio have been set out, as is right and proper, in the Speech from the Throne at the State Opening of the Ziu.

Quote from: El Lexhatxh H.1.11.1. Following each General Election, an official State Opening of the Ziu shall take place for the purpose of inaugurating the incoming Ziu and Government.

    1.1.1. The State Opening shall be organized and conducted by the Túischac'h and Mençei, working in coordination and cooperation with each other. They shall jointly set the place and time for the meeting to take place. The meeting may take place in person, using video conferencing tools, or on Wittenberg.

I urge our newly elected presidents of the Houses of the Ziu, @Munditenens Tresplet and @þerxh Sant-Enogat , to put their heads together quickly to make the state opening happen!