WHEREAS Cunstaváis serve for an indefinite term, which encourages a do-nothing attitude:

BE IT ENACTED that Organic Law XI.4 be amended from the current:

QuoteThe King shall appoint a Cunstavál (or Constable) for each Province. Until such time as the King or Cunstavál proclaims a provincial constitution providing otherwise, a Province's Cunstavál shall serve as Military Governor and may exercise all the powers of the provincial government. No Cunstavál shall proclaim any provincial constitution, nor shall any province pass a constitutional amendment, which conflicts with any provision of this Organic Law or with any other national law, or grants to the Cunstavál royal powers less extensive than those granted to the King on the national level (except that the provincial royal powers need not include a right of dissolution if provincial elections are held concurrently with Cosâ elections). No Cunstavál shall proclaim any provincial constitution which has not been approved by a referendum in which at least either a majority of all citizens of the province or a two-thirds majority of votes actually cast is in favor of the constitution. No person shall be at the same time Cunstavál of one province and the leader of the provincial government of another province.

to read in its entirety as follows:

Quote1. Every royal power that the King possesses as granted by this Organic Law shall also apply to the provincial governments; with the exception that the provincial royal powers need not include a right of dissolution if provincial elections are held concurrently with Cosâ elections.

2. The King may appoint a Cunstavál (or Constable) for any Province to exercise these powers on his behalf, for a term not exceeding three years. The King may reappoint a Cunstavál. The terms of existing Cunstaváis shall expire no later than three years after the adoption of this amendment.

3. Until such time as the King or Cunstavál proclaims a provincial constitution providing otherwise, the King or Cunstavál shall serve as Military Governor and may exercise all the powers of the provincial government.

4. The King or Cunstavál shall not proclaim any provincial constitution, nor shall any province pass a constitutional amendment, which conflicts with any provision of this Organic Law or with any other national law.

5. The King or Cunstavál shall not proclaim any provincial constitution which has not been approved by a referendum in which at least either a majority of all citizens of the province or a two-thirds majority of votes actually cast is in favor of the constitution.

6. No person shall be at the same time Cunstavál of one province and the leader of the provincial government of another province.

BE IT ENACTED yadda yadda yadda that, in conformity with international best practice, El Lexhatx B.14.7 shall be amended to read as follows:

Quote14.7. If, after any iteration, there are two or more candidates with the fewest ballots assigned to them, the candidate with the fewest first preferences assigned to him shall be eliminated.

14.7.1. If these candidates all have the same number of first preferences assigned to them, then B.14.7 and this paragraph shall be applied to each preceding count until one candidate is excluded.

    14.7.2. If no such distinction can be made between these candidates under the above 2 paragraphs, the remaining iterations shall be conducted under multiple scenarios. Each scenario shall eliminate one of the tied candidates.

        14.7.2.1 If the different scenarios described by B.14.7.2 result in the same winner of the election overall, the winning candidate shall become the Senator.
        14.7.2.2 If the different scenarios described by B.14.7.2. result in different winners of the election overall, the result will be considered a tie between the winners of the different scenarios and will be resolved in accordance with the Organic Law.

When we went into this election, we assumed that the TNC would campaign on their generally competent administration of the Government over the last term; while the Free Democrats would campaign on defending the Organic Law from partisan power grabs.

What we've found strange and disturbing about the latest TNC campaign email is that they apparently don't agree with us that what they've actually done over the last term is creditable enough - that they (or should I say - the person who writes their campaign email) feel the need to make stuff up. Or at least, take credit for others' achievements.

To wit:

Free Democrats did that, dude. Or rather - the FreeDem led government did that, with myself and @Mic'haglh Autófil doing the heavy lifting. But much worse than that is the number of Talossans who haven't even received these ID cards! The previous government also had problems with the mailout, of course. But doing a victory lap when you haven't finished the race yet is unseemly.

As to this one:



I suppose "partial credit". The social media is good. But if by "working website" you mean talossa.com, again, the previous Free Dems government did that. And if you mean talossan.com, the TNC government actively lost that one!

It's like the author of that "pupil-dilating" campaign email just can't stop himself making stuff up, even when he doesn't need to. It's quite obvious that the author wasn't the TNC Seneschal candidate, who is - as far as I can tell - an honourable and honest person who really wants to cut down the partisan nonsense in this country. Sadly, Bråneu still has to answer to what his party colleagues do in his name.

I just wanted to close by noting something:

QuoteHere at the TNC, we stay positive and focus on just doing fun stuff.  So we're not going to be attacking our opponents.  Instead, we're offering more ideas and more energy and more fun.  Don't go back to another five years of Free Democrats in power -- honour us with more time to keep working for you.

First reaction: lol, lmao.
Second reaction:

In the last election the Free Democrats argued that the "Infoteca" project would be of marginal value since whatever numbers it came up with would be (a) essentially irrelevant to the real health of Talossa, and (b) too easy to "cheat" with for political benefit. And the TNC have just proven we were right about the second part, at least, to wit:

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on September 12, 2023, 09:22:25 AMUnder the Talossan National Congress, when your government tells you that immigration has positively erupted, you don't need to wonder if that's true, or spend an hour doing research to try to figure it out.  You can just look at the public data and see the good news!

Note that these are Immigration Applications, not actual new citizens. As the Free Democrats pointed out in a Terpelaziun. It's just too easy to speak miéida da toro.

Nonetheless, please answer the poll!

The title pretty much says it all. I wonder whether the new TNC leader - or the TNC Seneschal-designate - would like to meet a representative of the Free Democrats of Talossa to discuss possible futures for Talossa's monarchy.

In previous elections, the TNC have earned a reputation for simply refusing to debate, as if they thought other parties were beneath their notice - or as if the members of other party were contemptible, corrupt, wicked or criminal. Dare I say, pouring vitriol on their opponents. I wonder if this will change under the new leadership.

Within the last week, the leadership of the Free Democrats of Talossa received a request from a party member for an urgent debate on the party's platform and leadership in the run-up to the 59th Cosa election.

The FreeDems leadership have decided by majority vote, under Article 9 of the Party Constitution, to accede to this request. Given the impending election, this Extraordinary Convention will be held as quickly as possible, from September 1 to September 8 - i.e. starting tomorrow Talossan time.

The FreeDems leadership have also decided, unusually, that this Convention will be held entirely open to public observation, on the FreeDems board on Wittenberg.

Anyone wishing to join Talossa's strongest challengers to the incumbent government are encouraged to inform @the Party Secretary or myself ASAP.

Quote from: Carlüs Éovart Vilaçafat on July 27, 2023, 08:07:14 AM

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on July 27, 2023, 01:08:13 AMSadly there are no "private enterprise" newspapers functioning, but the Government-issued monthly La C'hronica fills the gap: https://talossa.com/lchronica/

(Incidentally, attention Minister of STUFF: LC doesn't appear to have been posted on the National Website since March?!)

I was not aware, thank you for bringing this to my attention!

You weren't aware? Can I ask who's responsible for maintaining the website on a day-to-day basis? I.e., since it's a MinSTUFF responsibility, who was delegated to upload La C'hronica?

While I'm at it - the Twitter feed on the front page doesn't seem to be working, though our Twitter account is going fine. (Sorry, I'll be deep in the cold cold ground before I call it X.)

Estimat Túischac'h, my question is for the Minister of Technology.

Given that:

• el Lexhtax D.2.8.4.1. states:
  

  Quote2.8.4.1 The Ziu hereby authorizes the annual and ongoing expenditure of 60 louis by the Burgermeister of Internal Revenue for the specific and sole purpose of paying for the annual domain name registration of talossa.com and for associated webhosting services as selected by the Seneschal or their designated representative. All payments made under direction of this authority should be reported as according to normal procedure by the Burgermeister.

• and that el Lexhatx D.2.9.2 states:
  
  

  QuoteThe Government shall own the domain name talossa.com, and may purchase and maintain any other Talossa-related domain names as they see fit, following normal budgetary procedures. These domain names and their associated webhosting shall be administered by the Ministry of Technology

• and that el Lexhatx D.2.9.3 states:
  
  

  QuoteThere shall exist within the Ministry of Technology an officer to be known as The Talossan Web Registrant who shall act as the domain name registrant for the domains stated in D.2.9.2. and any other government operated domains as required. The Talossan Web Registrant shall be appointed and dismissed by the Minister of Technology. The Talossan Web Registrant shall inform the government of any payments due or made towards domain registration and hosting of any government operated websites and domains and shall be reimbursed for any payments made as soon as is practicably possible and in accordance with all law relating to the governmental budget.

• and that on March 9 of this year, the Minister of Technology named himself as the new Talossan Web Registrant, replacing the previous incumbent, the Secretary of State;
• and that on April 29 of this year, the Minister of Technology announced, among other things, that the domain name talossan.com would be preserved by the Government;
• and that on July 3 this year, registration for talossan.com was allowed to lapse, after a month or two of erratic functioning;
• and that the currently-due bill for the continued registration of talossa.com arrived a few days ago with the former TWR, rather than his replacement;
• and given that, on July 13 this year, the Minister of Technology opened a support ticket with DoRoyal enquiring about the grace period on the lapse of domain names, indicating that he was fully aware that there were some issues with domain names;

My questions to the Minister of Technology are as follows:

• Was the Government aware that the domain name talossan.com would lapse on July 3; and if so, why was it not renewed?
• Was the Government aware that the bill for the domain name talossa.com was coming due?
• Why were the responsibilities of Talossan Web Registrant under El Lex D.2.9.3. not practically transferred - that is, why has the current TWR (the Minister of Technology) not been registered with DoRoyal Servers as our contact person/registrar of domain names, so that the former incumbent is still receiving the bills? We note that a previous change of TWR - from Istefan Perþonest to the SoS - was performed with very little drama last year.
• Why was the Seneschal so rude and evasive when this question was raised in public forums, and how does this square with the current Government's championing of "open government"?

Estimat Túischac'h, I rise to deliver a Terpelaziun to the Minister of Immigration, as authorised by El Lexhatx H.2

Noting the following segment in the current La C'hronica:

QuoteDuring Gün XLIV we received 18 (the NEW second highest in recorded Talossan history!) immigration applications from:

    Muslim Nabi
    Michael H Glyn
    Ralph Dean VanLoton Jr.
    Abhishek Kaul
    Jason Allan Clark
    Joseph P Specht Jr
    Elder Nathaniel Ndukwe
    Kathy H. Armstrong
    George Edward Sandler
    Safwaan Sharief
    Daniel Ferreira da Silva
    Petro Storozhuk
    Huynh Thi Mong Trinh
    Paul Eugene Fegan
    Alex Huynh
    Dana Prakoso Eka Saputra
    Samantha Stewart
    Ahmad Mufid Marhaen

  Unfortunately we did not welcome any new citaxhiéns this month.

...is the Government taking responsibility for why prospective citizens are signing up to check out Talossa under their watch, and just saying "no thanks"?

Two issues that I want the Ziu to consider consequent to my experience as Public Defender in this case:

- should we have more explicit instruction on how to conduct "trials in absentia", i.e. on how to preserve the rights of the accused?

- should we explicitly introduce a plea of nolo contendere - or, in other words, a plea of "I do not admit guilt but I'm not going to offer a defence"? I still think that's the only ethical thing for a Public Defender to do when the State's case is overwhelming

And a broader issue based on the original case:

- whether the offence of "abuse of trust" should be codified into Talossan law, with whatever alterations might be necessary given Talossa's different situation from England and Wales; and whether, more widely, a nation where full political rights are available at age 14 would benefit from an "age of consent".

I was talking to s:reu Tafial the other day and I realised the absolute generation gap between us when he told me he'd never seen a "Teach Yourself" (self-study) language book. Before Duolingo and its idiot cousins, that's how we ancient wanna-be polyglots used to fool ourselves into thinking we were learning new languages. :D

Anyway, now we're keen to try to create something similar for ár glheþ. This is actually something which I tried to do back during the National Schism; but when I posted my first trial dialogues, Sir Tomás popped into tell me I'd got the language all wrong, and I was so ashamed I stopped. Anyway, here they are for historical purposes (note ancient 1990s-era orthography):

QuoteEnsegñetz-Së Talossán, Capitél Viêns: Cunfavelaziuns
Ián: Azul! Va nôminâ, c'è Ián. ¿És la voastra?
Juliâ: Azul! Eu sînt Juliâ. Eś qi estetz-voi?
Tomás:  Eu sînt Tomás.
Ián: Méirçi. À revidarë!
Juliâ: À revidarë.

Ián: Eu sînt citaxhiên del Regipäts Talossán. ¿Daduve vetz?
Juliâ: Eu véu dàl Repúblicâ Talossán.
Ián: Tomás, ¿estez-voi Talossán?
Tomás: Non, eu non sînt Talossán. Voi embù estetz Talossáes, ¿oi?
Juliâ és Ián: Üc, noi embù sînt Talossáes.

Carlostâ: Escusetz-me, siôridâ!
Juliâ: ¿Üc...?
Carlostâ: ¿Parletz-voi Talossán!
Juliâ: Üc. Eu parleu Talossán és Angleascâ.
Carlostâ: Grült! Voi parletz ocså Tschec, ¿oi?
Juliâ: Non, va c'hupâ. Eu non parleu Tschec.

Nôminâs dels Glheþen

Talossán; Svensc'heu; Tütsch; Tschec; Francál
Ôirësch; Norvexhán; Talián; Angleascâ; Castetxán


Ensegñhistà: Bunâ ziuâ, siôridâ Juliâ.
Juliâ: Bunâ ziuâ, estimat ensegñhistà. ¿Com'estetz-Voi?
Ensegñhistà: Ben, méirçi. És voi?
Juliâ: Tréi ben, méirçi.
Ensegñistà : Voi vidarhéu crái! À revidarë!
Juliâ : À revidarë, estimat ensegñistà.

Come si zïa în Talossán?

Can I sneak this in for your approval to get on the Fourth Clark?

https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=2436.0

WHEREAS there is now a vacancy on the Uppermost Cort;

AND WHEREAS throughout most of Talossan history, the Uppermost Cort was set at 3 members;

AND WHEREAS that tradition was broken at the time the old Magistrate's Cort was folded into the CpI;

AND WHEREAS we now have a chance to restore this tradition;

AND WHEREAS the effect of this bill will be to confirm the CpI at its current size of one Senior Judge and two Puisne Judges, as foreseen in OrgLaw VIII.3;

AND WHEREAS under the provisions of OrgLaw VIII.3, this resizing will have to be approved by a 2/3 majority of the Cosa, and then approved by the same margin again in the next Cosa;

BE IT ENACTED by the King, Cosa and Senäts of Talossa in Ziu assembled that El Lexhatx G.1.1 is deleted.

WHEREAS El Lexhatx H.2.6, dealing with Terpelaziuns, reads as follows:

Quote2.6. The Minister must answer the question in the same thread or its equivalent as the original question and the questioner may ask a reasonable number of supplementary questions (as determined by the presiding officer), in which the provisions of H.2.[r 14] apply, with the seven days starting from the date each supplementary question is asked. [709]

AND WHEREAS it may actually be beneficial to full and frank debate in the Ziu to allow other members to "chime in" with supplemental questions in a single thread;

AND WHEREAS this is the practice in other Parliamentary systems, with the condition that the original questioner gets "first go";

THEREFORE El Lexhatx H.2.6. to be amended as follows:

Quote2.6. The Minister must answer the question in the same thread or its equivalent as the original question and the questioner may ask a reasonable number of supplementary questions (as determined by the presiding officer), in which the provisions of H.2.[r 14] apply, with the seven days starting from the date each supplementary question is asked. [709]

2.6.1. If the questioner does not ask a supplementary question within 24 hours, or waives their right to ask a supplementary question, any other Member of the Ziu may raise a supplementary question on the original topic, under the same conditions. The Túischac'h shall be the sole judge of "on topic".

Estimat Túischac'h, I rise to deliver a Terpelaziun to the Minister of Technology, as authorized by El Lexhatx H.2., in regards to his recent announcement re: the website talossa.com. I would have preferred this to ask this as a Supplemental to the recent TERP by my party colleague Üc Tärfa MC, but the Túischac'h has confirmed that we can't do that.

My questions:

1. Given that talossan.com has always been a privately owned and operated website, albeit using a domain name owned by the Kingdom, how is the Ministry in a position to "delegate the administration of the website and server of Talossan.com"? How can the Government delegate something it never owned?

2. What advice did the Minister of Culture, responsible for oversight of language issues, give to the Minister of Technology before making this decision?

3. The Government is aware that the information contained on talossan.com is outdated, incorrect and misleading. We know the Government is aware because the Ladintsch Naziunal / convenor of SIGN has explained this in detail on the national Discord and elsewhere, in conversations involving the Distáin.

Given this, and given the Minister's reply to point 6 of cxhn. Tärfa's recent Terpelaziun: what reason does the Minister have for continuing to allow use of this domain name by s:reu Ventrutx, a less active citizen who is not actually a Talossan-langauge speaker, rather than handing the domain name over to el Bureu del Glheþ, or SIGN, to set up an accurate website?

4. If the Government is determined to keep talossan.com in the private hands of cxhn. Ventrutx with the Distain acting as his de facto webmaster - which would be keeping with the current Government's seeming determination to have everything under the personal control of their leaders and their political allies, rather than accountable to legislative oversight - I therefore amplify the question raised by cxhn. Tafial MC:

QuoteWhat can or will the Minister do to ensure that the contents of the website are factual and useful for learners and scholars, living up to the tagline that he gave it in the Delegation of Website administration notice?

===

I thank the Minister in response for his answer. I understand that he "likes to stay away from the Ziu", but unfortunately being politically responsible for decisions is the fundamental part of a Cabinet Minister's job, and I would suggest that if he doesn't like being hassled with Terps, he could take up a purely administrative role and pass the Ministerial portfolio on.

Estimat Túischac'h, I rise to deliver a Terpelaziun to the Minister of Defence.

1. Does the Minister recall the TNC opposition in the previous Cosa absolutely hammering the Government of the time about not having "done anything" with the Royal Zuavs?

2. Given the above, does the Minister have a long list of all the things that the new Government has done to make the Zuavs active as a primary goal to share with the Ziu?

3. Given that he's doing everything else, is Brenéir Tzaracomprada also known as "Miss Rabbit" going to be named Captain of the Zuavs as well?

Estimat Túischac'h, I rise to deliver a Terpelaziun to the Seneschál, the Immigration Minister, the Deputy Minister of Culture, the Deputy Minister of Stuff, the Scribe of Abbavilla and the incoming BHAID administrator, as authorised by El Lexhatx H.2.

1. Is the Seneschál familiar with the British children's cartoon, "Peppa Pig"?

2. Is the Seneschál familiar with the running joke that in Peppa Pig's town, every single job - from firefighter to supermarket clerk to veterinary nurse - is done by a single character, Miss Rabbit?

(If the answer to the preceding questions happens to be "No", I here introduce video evidence.)

3. Given that - with his impending appointment to the position of BHAID coordinator - the Senator from Florencia now figures on The Seneschál's List of state appointments in no fewer than six places - is the Senator from Florencia now Talossa's "Miss Rabbit"?

4. Leaving aside amusing name-calling for a second, is the Seneschál not thoroughly embarrassed that - having continuously attacked the Secretary of State in the previous Cosa for taking on too many jobs, he is now doing the same thing, at double speed?

5. Can the Seneschal also comment on whether any effort was made to find literally anyone else to be BHAID Administrator?

6. Is it healthy for democracy for Talossa for two "Ministers of Everything" to concentrate all functions of the State in their own hands?

EDITED TO ADD: I just noticed that the Seneschal is also going to be Talossa's delegate to MicroCon. This is getting out of hand.

Estimat Túischac'h, I rise yet again to present a Terpelaziun to the Minister of Culture, as permitted by El Lexhatx H.2. I apologise once again for seeming to "pick on" the Minister; it is a coincidence that the issues I am noticing are in his portfolio areas.

My question concerns the Symbols of the Ziu Act, currently on the Clark as RZ4. Did the Minister, or Cabinet, receive any feedback from the Royal College of Arms on this bill?

Estimat Túischac'h, I rise to deliver a Terpelaziun to the Minister of Technology, as authorised by El Lexhatx H.2.

Given the Minister's comments elsewhere on Wittenberg that he does not see his role as a political one, can I ask for:

a) an explanation of who in Cabinet sets the political priorities for the Ministry of Technology, i.e. who decides what is to be done, rather than how it will be done?

b) a description of the working relationship between the Minister and the Permanent Secretary of Backend Admin? I am aware that the Minister and the PermSec get on well and there's no friction: what I am asking for is how responsibility for 'doing the work' is shared between the two, or whether there is a duplication of roles.

Grült méirci.

Estimat Túischac'h, I rise once more to deliver a Terpelaziun to the Minister of Immigration, as authorised by El Lexhatx H.2.

My question relates to the current law on provincial assignments, El Lexhatx E.7, and recent debates in the Hopper on possible reforms. I am asking for the Immigration Minister's opinion:

1) in particular: about how to remedy the anomalous place of Mexico in our provincial assignments.
2) what he thinks about our current system of provincial assignment overall, given that it seems to have led to the underpopulation of Vuode among other inconsistencies and unbalances.