It's almost like I'm good at this Speaker thing...

[St George]

Hello, it's the Speaker here. You elected me four months to do the things I set out to do in my platform at the time, which you can peruse here.

In the four months since then, I'd like to think we achieved the overall goals I set out for the term. We improved the speed and accuracy of our checks, and put the team on a good footing to succeed. We welcomed @Cretox State and @Robespierre into the Office this term and they have served admirably, and I think both will go onto great things next term and in the future, if they choose to depart from the Office after this election. @Bobberino provided the office with continuation from previous Speakers and has been a great help as well. We also welcomed back a former, @Crushing Our Enemies, who has acted as the office's expert on the procedure and history of the office. His advice has been invaluable and I am indebted to him.

My goals for the next term are very similar to the last. Ensure checks are done in a speedy and accurate manner, as well as ensuring the citizenship and residency rolls are updated and correct. At several points since I first joined the office, I have carried out audits of the rolls, and corrected any discrepancies, but I have not in general publicised the results of these audits to the Regional Assembly. I think it would be reasonable to set a goal for the next term to carry out such audits on a monthly basis and publish the results in the Speakers Desk topic.

Also during this term we have simplified the Standing Orders, slimming down some passages that we felt were superfluous and also made changes to the Acting Speaker procedure. We have also experimented with changes to how we present motions and voting topics. In the next term our ongoing review of the Standing Orders, Voting Templates and the Regional Assembly Rules will continue.

As always, I welcome questions, suggestions and comments, and I hope I have your vote during this election.

 

[Bobberino]

Mr. Speaker, how can you stand in public and show your face while not immediately having crowned the greatest figure in TNP history, @Pigeonstan, your Deputy Speaker upon him being granted citizenship?

 

[St George]

Mr. Speaker, how can you stand in public and show your face while not immediately having crowned the greatest figure in TNP history, @Pigeonstan, your Deputy Speaker upon him being granted citizenship?

I prefer better birbs, like @Nimarya

 

[Highton]

You can count on my support

 

[Cretox]

For this next term, will you be looking into camping out at update and catching NPAers that accidentally move their citizen nations for a second?

 

[St George]

You can count on my support

Thank you very much!

For this next term, will you be looking into camping out at update and catching NPAers that accidentally move their citizen nations for a second?

I will be employing only the finest invisible scripts to do just that!

 

[Robespierre]

Indeed, you are quite good at this Speaker thing, MJ!

I’ve enjoyed working with you over the course of the past four months and, so long as the Speaker’s Office remains with your capable leadership, I have no doubt that our legislature will be in good hands should you be re-elected.

 

[Yuno]

I prefer better birbs, like @Nimarya

Or me (don't hire me though)

Anyway good luck with your platform! I have full faith in your abilities

 

[Comfed]

Follows everyone like a sheep

You’ve got my vote! Probably!

 

[Nimarya]

I prefer better birbs, like @Nimarya

For some reason I can't like this post, which makes me sad. But I will say, you've got my vote because you've been nothing but reliable and awesome as Speaker this past term and I wish you luck with this platform!

 

[Pallaith]

MadJack, I love what you've done with the office. You are, indeed, good at this and there's absolutely no way you don't have my vote. I hope this campaign can be another opportunity for someone to try a campaign and show us what they can do, like last time. With that sort of thing in mind, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on your deputies. These would be the potential successors, how do you think they've been doing and how would you evaluate their readiness and ability to do the job someday? This is a hard office to manage well and finding talent for it is so often an ordeal. Do you think the talent pool is strong? Is there anyway we can get it even stronger? I struggled to do this when I brought in the Speaker staff, but I am still stumped on reliable ways to do this short of finding precisely the right people and being a decent trainer of them. Is there a better way?

 

[Siwale]

Who would your ideal cabinet consist of?

 

[St George]

Indeed, you are quite good at this Speaker thing, MJ!

I’ve enjoyed working with you over the course of the past four months and, so long as the Speaker’s Office remains with your capable leadership, I have no doubt that our legislature will be in good hands should you be re-elected.

Or me (don't hire me though)

Anyway good luck with your platform! I have full faith in your abilities

Follows everyone like a sheep

You’ve got my vote! Probably!

For some reason I can't like this post, which makes me sad. But I will say, you've got my vote because you've been nothing but reliable and awesome as Speaker this past term and I wish you luck with this platform!

Thank you very much!

MadJack, I love what you've done with the office. You are, indeed, good at this and there's absolutely no way you don't have my vote. I hope this campaign can be another opportunity for someone to try a campaign and show us what they can do, like last time. With that sort of thing in mind, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on your deputies. These would be the potential successors, how do you think they've been doing and how would you evaluate their readiness and ability to do the job someday? This is a hard office to manage well and finding talent for it is so often an ordeal. Do you think the talent pool is strong? Is there anyway we can get it even stronger? I struggled to do this when I brought in the Speaker staff, but I am still stumped on reliable ways to do this short of finding precisely the right people and being a decent trainer of them. Is there a better way?

I'd just like to echo your hope that someone decides to step up and offer a competing campaign. Even if someone doesn't win, a well run, professional campaign that shows a willingness to take on feedback and to contribute to the region will always benefit the candidate in the long run. Highton's campaign from last term certainly helped change and shape a lot of people's opinion on him from just being the sports RPer guy to someone who could step up and into a role in the political sphere.

As for my deputies, I think they've performed admirably for someone who sometimes cannot be all that easy to work with. Cretox and Robespierre have been superstars this term - they took a little time to get up and running but I'd be confident now about handing the office over to either of them at some point. Bobberino as well. Bob's one of my favourite people to work with, even if he isn't always as active - or as serious - as others. Bob could step up and be speaker now, and do a very good job at it. COE has obviously been speaker in the past and his role is very different to that of the other deputies - he offers advice on issues and brings with him an understanding of the office and how it and the RA has developed that few others possess.

I think the talent pool is undeniably strong, but we can always do better. In my last platform I had mentioned about turning the Speakers Staff into a training pipeline for future deputies, but COE at the time accurately pointed that that is what happens with new deputies anyway. The Speaker can just appoint as many deputies as they deem appropriate, and give them checks to do or just have them focus on votes or have them do the overly ambitious projects that some previous Speakers thought to engage in. I'll raise eyebrows, sure, but if the Speaker thinks it's necessary there's not so much that can be done about that, beyond recalling him, or I guess passing a law limiting the number of deputies the Speaker has. I think there's a certain value in the projects the Speakers Staff sought to do, but why develop what would amount to a Ministry when those projects could be done in collaboration with one of the actual ministries? Maybe we'll pursue that, next term. Maybe not.

Who would your ideal cabinet consist of?

Of all the delegate questions you could ask me, it's this one and not the coup one? Still, we can have some fun with this entirely hypothetical situation:

Ok, so if I were delegate I would immediately amalgamate a number of ministries we have. Legally, there is required to be an Executive Officer in charge of three areas: Foreign Affairs, Military Affairs, Internal Affairs. The Legal Code does not however say they have to be different people. So here's what I'd do:

1. Foreign Affairs, World Assembly Affairs and Military Affairs would become one Ministry, with Commissioners within the ministry for each area.
2. Culture, Communications, Home Affairs and Radio would become one Ministry, with Commissioners within the ministry for each area.

The External Affairs Ministry would be headed by the Delegate, because the Legal Code doesn't say that the Executive Officer in charge of those areas can't be the delegate. The Commissioners would be Tlomz for World Assembly, Pallaith for Foreign Affairs and either Bobberino or Rom for Defence and I'm not sure which, so let's say both. And I'd like to apologise to the hypothetical Pallaith now cos my man in this scenario there are treaties and relationships that are burning.

The Internal Affairs Ministry would be headed by someone who the Delegate could trust to adequately oversee the admittedly large brief handed to them - someone who could mosey on over from the Culture team to the Comms team etc etc and just go "Ok last time we talked you said x, y, z would be done. Is it done and what are your plans for a,b,c? Ok that's good but it contradicts what we agreed for d,e,f so rework that." I like seeing people suffer so Praetor is up. Under him is McMasterdonia at Culture, Nimarya at Home Affairs, Prydania at Radio (probably renamed podcasting cos that's what it is) and Goyanes at Communications. Goy's at Comms because I happen to agree with Praetor that TNL is more important than TNS, so you need people comfortable writing long-form, detailed stuff, so who better than the best world builder and contextual writer in the region?

Alternatively, Catholic theocracy and I'll just import the people in the Core discord server to run my Vatican Council.

 

[Cretox]

As Speaker, you have some power. But you want more. You want all the power. You want to put your boot on the region's throat and punt anyone who disagrees. How would you coup TNP?

 

[St George]

As Speaker, you have some power. But you want more. You want all the power. You want to put your boot on the region's throat and punt anyone who disagrees. How would you coup TNP?

You resign as Speaker, run for delegate, use your deputies that now run the Speakers office to help push through a series of reforms that massively increase the power of the delegate and then burn down the Regional Assembly and blame it on the communists.

 

[Dreadton]

If Bob has 4 apples and Sue has 4 oranges. How much is a turnip in North Bradenbrook?

 

[St George]

If Bob has 4 apples and Sue has 4 oranges. How much is a turnip in North Bradenbrook?

Due to the chronic turnip shortage I'm afraid the central government can only allocate North Bradenbrook Authentic Turnip Substitute. The ongoing shortage has been caused by turnip speculators driving the price up - a bundle of turnips in South Dradenbrook went for a similar price as a new car recently.

 

[Oracle]

Suppose your plan was to coup The North Pacific. How would you go about executing that plan?