In case you missed it: Miestra Schiva for Seneschal

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

Estimadas es amadas cüncitaxhiens:

Against my own preferences, but rising to face necessity, I am presenting myself as the Free Democrats' candidate for Seneschal in the 57th Cosa election. "Just when I thought I was semi-retired in a hole, they pull me back in again."

The reason I gave up the presidency of the party, and stepped aside from the job of leading the Government, over the last calendar year was a feeling that I had reached a dead end.

The decades-long struggle to reform Talossa's Organic Law to decrease the unilateral, unaccountable power of the monarchy – and its seemingly inevitable effect of encouraging every King of Talossa in lazy, self-righteous defence of power for power's sake – had been mostly effective, but had bogged down at the very last hurdle of basic democratic accountability. Political struggle against a group of people who are convinced not only of their right to set the agenda for the nation regardless of lack of mandate, but of their right to be taken seriously, takes a lot out of you, and you have to question at what point you say "enough".

I also had to have the humility to admit that I had no answers to the most fundamental question facing Talossa – where are new citizens going to come from? Because Talossa's leadership – on both sides of the Cosa – is old, tired, and burned out. I mean old in "Talossa years", which are something like "dog years", in that you get tired at an accelerated rate. Much the same people are running the institutions and having the debates as they were at the time of Reunision. This is not healthy.

The most articulate monarchists, of course, have an argument that it's precisely the smug pomposity of monarchist Talossa that attracts new citizens, and things like democracy, equality, making the "top jobs" open to all, are no fun and ruin the essence of Talossanity. But that can't be true. Can it? If it is, I've wasted 25 years.

This speech is difficult for me because I have to be honest about the consequences of my decisions. I have to admit that the Government of the 56th Cosa has mostly been a failure.

Part of this was its inexplicable sabotage at the beginning by one of the three initial Coalition parties – who, after campaigning in the election on the basis of supporting the "Monarchist-Republican Compromise" – turned tail, broke for Opposition, and subsequently loudly opposed the compromise. And they never gave any explanation why, apart from insults. The fact that this party now provides a home for veterans of the RUMP gives a hint as to what might be going on, though.

I know that the study of Talossan history is not fashionable at the moment, but even King Robert I knew why the Kuenn/Rosalez faction, known as "Davron", were such bad news. Unprincipled politicking and backstabbing in the search for power alone is even worse than KR1's tyranny, which at least had a vision of Talossa behind it. This might sound like picking a fight. But I'm always stunned at people who defend their right to behave as they want, to break commitments, and not only suffer no consequences, but for it never be mentioned again. What goes round must come round.

But that could have been surmounted, if the Free Democrat and LCC Ministers had subsequently pulled together and did their job. But mostly, we didn't.

I have to be honest here. The performance of my successor as Seneschál, Txoteu Davinescu, has not been satisfactory. Up until this point, my personal friendship with Txoteu and the requirements of Cabinet solidarity and party loyalty have led me, publicly, to avoid this particular elephant in the room. But the Talossan people are not fooled. You all know what's going on. Some of you have even noticed the point where the old Distáin had to step up and publicly take up the slack.

I have been honest with the Seneschal about this behind closed doors. Txoteu has had a string of difficult things to deal with in his extra-Talossan life that have taken attention away from his duties in leading the Government. I bear him only the best of will and I hope to see him representing the Free Democrats in the next Cosa. But to pretend there was no problem with the 56th Cosa government would be rightfully scorned by the Talossan public. It also would also make my decision to resume the leadership inexplicable.

Of course, it wasn't all the Seneschal's fault. At least one Cabinet Minister has done precisely nothing in his role in this term, and we couldn't fire him because there hasn't been an obvious replacement. But "the fish rots from the head", as they say. Culture is set from the top down. A Seneschal has to lead.

My main qualification - perhaps the only one - for the top job is that I do what I say I'm going to do, regardless of personal convenience. The 56th Cosa cabinet had six policy portfolios with targets to be achieved. I ended up doing two of those – Justice and Interior – all on my own, and hitting virtually every goal for achievement we set. But I did this at the cost of burning myself out, personally.

What all this has shown is that running the Talossan government is a lot of hard work. But it has also shown me that our Organic and statute laws make this much harder work than it has to be. Contrary to the opinions of certain of my Cosa colleagues, "overly formal and pompous rules" are not a good thing. They are part of the reason Talossa grinds to a halt. There is too much that the laws say have to be done, and not enough people to do it.

I mean, the Electoral Commission, to start with. Why do we have to go through that rigmarole every time? I'll tell you why – because when the secret ballot was first brought in, the RUMP party (fearing electoral disadvantage) professed anxiety about how easy it would be for a secret ballot to be rigged by the Chancery. And things are MUCH harder to abolish than they are to establish in Talossa. So: this vestigial body has to be appointed every time to do nothing.

There is a temptation for the party in power to run on its record. "Re-elect us because we're the only ones who know how things work". That's how the RUMP party stayed in office. The Free Democrats are not going to do that. We couldn't claim, on the evidence of the last term at least, that we're superior in activity or administrative 'chops' than a putative opposition. (I might note here the good record of the Balançéu party's leadership in the Cézembre provincial government. That's what the provinces are there for.)

So the two central platforms of the Free Democrats in this 57th Cosa election are:

1)   Enact the Monarchist-Republican Compromise, finally. We're serious this time. We will need a 2/3 Cosa majority – along with whatever other parties decide to support us – to finally bring Senator Plätschisch's much watered-down "Compromise on the Compromise" bill to a public referendum. This is the last step in the drawn-out process of removing the old, corrupt, RUMP-system in Talossa. There is a layer of people in Talossa who have no political mandate, and yet are given power by the King precisely because they protect his right to unaccountable exercise of power. The King himself has stated this openly. How anyone cannot see that this is the definition of corruption is beyond me. While this bill is not how I would choose to solve the problem – a "legislative decapitation" would be more to my liking – this is the last throw of the dice before a large segment of Talossans understand that it is impossible to put John I under any accountability under the OrgLaw, and draw the appropriate conclusions.

2)   Cut red-and-green tape. There is just too much law. There are too many Government offices who cannot be filled. We'll repeal all of it that we possibly can. We'll merge provinces where-ever we can. If we could, we'll downsize the Talossan state to the point that three or four people can comprise a full Cabinet, and do everything to keep our ImagiNation running smoothly.

I have to conclude with a solemn promise. If Talossa is not fundamentally different by the end of this term – if our programme has not succeeded in a buzzing country where new citizens become active with enthusiasm, where many more people are keen to take positions of responsibility, where the political leadership is actively competed over rather than being a "booby prize" – then this will be my last venture into national politics. If Talossa is not significantly better, if it has not become a fun pastime for me rather than an annoying and infuriating chore, I will retire from active political leadership at the end of the coming term, and scale my Talossanity back drastically, perhaps only to language nerdery and writing, perhaps to zero. This would require the current opposition to get a Government together and run stuff, which might be funny to watch, from a distance.

But I have promised at least one more term to my Free Democrat colleagues. Because I still believe in the possibilities of what Talossa might be. I still refuse to believe that Talossa is better and more fun when run by a self-declared aristocracy. I believe in the principles for which I fought in 2012, 2004 and 1997. Even if I am burned out before the end of the year, those principles must be fought for to the last drop of my will to be Talossan.

Vote Free Democrat. That is all.