[STATE OPENING OF THE COSA] Speeches

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

The 55th Cosa was just officially opened. Unfortunately for whatever reason, I couldn't see the Speech from the Throne from my end; but since it was pre-recorded, I'm pretty sure this transcript is accurate. The Leader of the Opposition gave a firm rebuttal (and was dressed better than I was), which I hope he'll post in text form too. Props to the Túischac'h for organising it.

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To our trusty and well-beloved Senators and Members of the Cosă, greeting.

It gives us the greatest pleasure to open the 55th Cosă of the Kingdom of Talossa. We commend all the new Members of the Ziu on their election, and look forward to working together on legislation which will help Talossa thrive and flourish for the coming six months.
We congratulate Miestra Schiva on being elected Seneschal for a third term by the Cosă. Despite our many political differences, we have established a strong working relationship with Dama Miestra for the preceding two terms, and we look forward to our relationship going forward on a platform of mutual respect.

We also congratulate the members of the incoming Cabinet: S:reux Grischün, Börnatfiglheu, dal Vál, Nouacastra, and Davinescù. It gives us great pleasure to formally appoint them to the posts chosen for them by the Seneschál.

After the major changes to the Organic Law of the last two Cosă terms, we are satisfied to announce that the incoming Government will concentrate on initiatives and legal reforms which will improve the day-to-day functioning of Talossa, and encourage activity from all citizens, whether they support the governing parties or not.

We commend in particular the incoming Minister of STUFF, S:reu Grischün, for "hitting the ground running" in his portfolio. Not only has he already launched the Second Talossan Activity Survey, but he has massively revamped our official national website, bringing it up-to-date and enacting measures that will keep it so. We are currently in discussions with him about handing over several Talossa-related domain names, currently in our personal possession, to the Government.

Our government will continue the process of going through our statute law, El Lexhatx, and reforming or repealing archaic or inoperative provisions. A smaller Lexhatx is a good Lexhatx; too many prescriptive laws do not serve to motivate apathetic Governments, and only hinder the initiative of active Governments.

Our Ministry of Culture will prioritise "games and competitions", as per the last National Survey, and other "fun" Talossanity. The government will provide prizes and trophies for privately and publicly organized competitions, and create additional, easy-to-participate competitions. There will be at least one art show of non-digital Talossan art, with possible prizes to be funded.

We will also prioritise translations of important State texts into ár glheþ naziunál and working with SIGN to publish a revised official Grammar of the Talossan language. The Culture Ministry will work with the Defence Ministry and the Zuavs on increasing rewards for use of the Talossan language, and explore with the Chancery the possibility of banner advertisements for Talossan endeavours on Wittenberg.
Our Ministry of Finance will commit to increasing our national income by starting a Voluntary Donations campaign, with a pre-determined goal. We will investigate further avenues to sell our coins and stamps. Among the initiatives we will examine for feasibility will be: naming a Registered Agent for Talossa in the State of Wisconsin, to enable Talossa to own online and other property as an Unincorporated Association under Wisconsin law; and a digital version of Talossan currency that can be bought with macronational currency, and used for trade between Talossans, to complement our current coins.

One recurring problem in Talossa in recent years has been, on one hand, too many offices with not enough people to fill them; and on the other hand, citizens with talent and enthusiasm becoming bored and alienated through not having a chance to do a "Talossan job" which engages them and helps their nation. Our government will use the newly-established Talossan Job Centre to fill vacancies in the Talossan governing apparatus, and to fit interested citizens to appropriate jobs. We will also examine a governmental services procurement system, featuring guidelines by which non-Talossans may be found to perform certain Government jobs for which no Talossans are available, for whose performance the relevant Minister will be accountable. This latter is particularly important in the realm of "information technology" and web administration, where qualified citizens are all too rare and often over-burdened.

The Interior Ministry, and the new Permanent Secretary of Immigration, will use the New Citizens' Information Packet being developed by STUFF, and other online resources such as the New Talossan History Project, to make sure prospective and new citizens have all the information they need to fully participate in Talossan life. They will also use all other means to engage new citizens and inactive citizens returning to Talossan life. This may include using the Job Centre to find appropriate tasks for enthusiastic new citizens. The question of whether the currently-inactive New Citizens' Coterie will be restarted is still being examined.

The Ministry of Justice, meanwhile, has a mandate to examine proposals for fundamental reforms of our Organic and Statute law. We shall set up two Ziu committees with equal Govt/Opposition representation with a mandate to produce reports, including proposed legislation if appropriate, on possible legal and constitutional reforms. One committee will deal with possible reforms to the Ziu, including the Cosă's size, electoral system and ways of assigning seats; the possibility of a unicameral Ziu; and moving responsibility for the Clark from the Chancery to the Mençéi and the Tuíschac'h. The other will deal with questions of judicial reform. This might include: removing Wisconsin law from el Lexhatx in favour of an indigenous equivalent; moving to an inquisitorial rather than adversarial Cort system; moving to a civil law rather than a common law system. In addition to all this, the Minister of Justice will be going through El Lexhatx to make sure all references to other sections of the Lexhatx and to the Organic Law are up to date, especially following the "Still Into This" Amendment enacted last year.

Our Foreign Ministry will prioritise active engagement with the micronational community, seeking cultural exchanges and friendship with other Talossa-like entities, as opposed to non-serious "bug nations". Meanwhile, our Defence Ministry  shall prioritise the activities of the Zuavs, including naming a new Capitan, and increasing rewards for use of the Talossan language. We also take great pleasure in announcing our interest in re-starting "BEER", Talossa's now-defunct rocketry/aeronautics/space programme, for which the incoming Deputy Minister, Munditenens Tresplet MC, shall take primary responsibility.

The governing parties have already introduced a raft of legislative proposals into the Hopper. We shall watch their progress with interest, and we hope to offer timely feedback on any improvements that might come to our attention.

To conclude, we offer our heartiest sympathies to all Talossans whose lives have been touched by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Our Government stands ready to enact a Solidarity Fund to support any Talossans who have found themselves in financial peril due to the effects of this ghastly disease. The safety and health of the Talossan people is the primary concern of this State.

Once again, we offer our best wishes to all Talossans, and we hope that the 55th Cosă will be the most productive in a long time; and that it will preside over a flowering of activity in our ImagiNation.

¡Så vivadra Talossa!

[Sir Ian Plätschisch]

Greetings from the Leader of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition to all the Honorable members of the Cosa and Senats and to all the citizens of the Kingdom of Talossa.

We congratulate the Seneschal for her appointment to a third term and the Túischac'h for organizing this State Opening of the Cosa. We also congratulate the Regent for his appointment and hope for safe travels for the King and for his return to active service as soon as he is able.

It is hard to find fault with much of the Government's program. If it fulfills even half of what it has promised for the Ministries of STUFF, Culture, Finance, Interior, and Foreign Affairs, it will be counted among the objectively more successful Talossan Governments, and we wish them nothing but the best on these endeavors.

However, as is to be expected, a few aspects of the program must not be allowed to pass without comment.

The Government desires multiple major changes to the structure of the Ziu. First, they seek to reduce the number of seats in the Cosa, locking out small parties and causing citizens think twice before engaging in one Talossa's most entertaining activities; making your own way in our political life. They also seek to make the Ziu unicameral, which would likely drastically reduce the representation of the provinces and remove what is currently one of the only motivations for active participation in provincial life.

Technically, the Government is only promising to form committees to investigate these reforms, but it is no secret that most of the senior officials desire them and left unopposed will implement them.

The Government also believes in the necessity of rewriting the Organic Law and statute law entirely to address the structural ambiguities contained within them. While it is true that the technical quality of these documents could certainly be improved, tossing them out and depending on the new authors to produce an acceptable, let alone enhanced, replacement is possibly the worst way to go about the improvement. Ambiguities in a law are usually not apparent until after the law is put into practice and issues arise. We have thus developed a fair understanding of the issues with the current Organic Law and statutes, and we would be happy to work with the Government to address them. Alternatively, introducing an entirely new law will introduce an entirely new set of the problems that we will not know how to address.

Even putting that aside, attempts to introduce many major changes to the Organic Law all at once have demonstrated themselves to be an extremely inefficient vehicle of reform. A Royal Commission almost identical to the committee the Government now proposes met for several months between 2015-2016 and expended considerable effort, but ultimately could not produce a report. An attempt to introduce an entirely new Organic Law between 2018-2019 required even more manhours but failed in the Ziu. Meanwhile, over a dozen Organic amendments addressing individual issues passed the Ziu and were approved in referendum during the same period. We hope the Government heeds this lesson and does not allow history to repeat itself. 

We also must oppose the Government's recent statement denouncing the King and committing to his removal from the throne. In it, the Government levies many accusations against the King and the Regent, some which grossly misleading, some which are vastly overblown, and some which they cannot possibly know to really be true. I have sharply criticized the King before, but his appointment of a Regent, which if anything is an improvement over the status quo of the King's absence, should not be the cause for his removal. Happily, the Government and the Regent have recognized their duty to cooperate with each other, and we hold both to a high standard of honesty and fairmindedness.

Unfortunately, it is concerning to us that the King's absence has indeed been the status quo for several years. We are thankful for his feats of leadership, but as Monarchists we know that Talossa needs a King for today and tomorrow, not just for yesterday. Therefore, we encourage the King to renew his involvement in Talossan culture as soon as he is able or consider an honorable retirement.

The ideological difference between Government and Opposition is clearly defined. Is there any role for the King in the governance of Talossa, or not? We believe there is. We are sure the arguments will be hashed out during the upcoming referendum on the question, but the division over principle is one reason why we are looking forward to supplying vigorous opposition. There is another reason though; having spent a long time in the Government myself, I know that a weak opposition leads to an atrophied Government with Ministers much less active and interested than they would be if the opposition were holding them to account. This is especially if true if the Government and Opposition don't despise each other, because if they do, both are freed from the responsibility of listening. To quote Proverbs, "Just as iron sharpens iron, friends sharpen the minds of each other." We're confident in our ability to maintain a working relationship with the Government and deliver on common goals while also effectively challenging them, and we hope they feel the same.

Long live the King! Long live Talossa!

[Tierçéu Rôibeardescù]

The video is currently being compiled with the speech in full and will be published tomorrow.

I can affirm that the Oath of office was recited, in the official Talossan language as required.

My speech to the house ran as thus:

Order Order, If I may address the house,
The responsibility that has been bestowed upon me by the greatest honour I have enjoyed in my professional life, Worthy members of the cosa. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for the trust you have put in me, and I am keenly conscious of the responsibilities that I am now committed to. I just like to mention this with respect to the office 's duty.

A Speaker is automatically and indefinitely accountable for casting aside all his or her prior political convictions. As for members of one political party and another, my contribution to this House is to be fully neutral. That is what it is about, and I will do my best to represent this House in the time ahead, diligently and honourably and efficiently.

We face the most testing times in Talossa. Many members feel very sad and very insecure, but large parts of the community still feel angry and irritated. We have to amend, but I do want to reiterate that I want to feel that the vast majority of this House of Representatives are upright, good, noble citizens who have come into politics not to feed their nests, but because they have heeded the public service call.

They want to represent their country, make a difference and change the lot of this country, and I will always have the greatest regard for those people. In that basis, with that faith and with that spirit, I will continue to perform my duties in this office, which I consider to be the greatest honour to hold in my professional life, as I have said.