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Our educators are a rather liberal lot and would never accept such a totalitarian agenda. Your scenario is unlikely while even a shred of democracy remains in britain. Socialism is detestable, I agree wholeheartedly with that, but I fail to see where we disagree (and it seems we must). You're not really saying that public education is an evil that will turn our nation into a brutal socialist dystopia, are you? In that case you're far more libertarian than I've assumed.
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ooc: ooc means out of character, as in the real me not the 19th century whig politician me who is neither social nor democratic.
Not by itself, no, but one thing leads to another. Labour-controlled education (since, as far as I know, the Labour party is the only party that supports public education) teaches children about socialism, children grow up to spread the word about a system that is contradictory to itself and doomed to fail, so on and so forth. Of course, that's only assuming Labour is in control. What if we have reactionaries, people who still cling to the monarchy, even long after its demise? If any of these people are in control of the money that the public schools need in order to function, then does it really honestly matter how liberal the educators are?
Perhaps it is simply me and my paranoia, but all of these things compile into a rather frightening problem that could turn even worse as time goes on.
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Well, while the elections are almost over, here comes this:
Attack77, you're the WriteAAR of the Week!
Congratulations, and keep working so fine!
Attack77, you're the WriteAAR of the Week!
Congratulations, and keep working so fine!
Thanks Kurt!
Mabye the award might even get a new voter or two into the thread before the election closes.
Mabye the award might even get a new voter or two into the thread before the election closes.
Well. Meritocracy is one of these words that is easy to get everyone to agree is a good thing but in reality doesn't mean anything.
It can be used to justify pretty much anything as all it means is that the most capable should rule. In that sense it has an identical meaning to the word aristocracy, an idea which marks the first real attempt to create a 'meritocracy'.
So, depending on your own views, a meritocracy can justify anything from the rule of kings, to capitalism, to democracy, to social democracy, to Stalinism, to pretty much any system of government that has ever existed. Since civilisation began we've been striving to find a way to get the most capable people in positions of power. Nothing has worked so far.
My idea of meritocracy is a little like the old Prussian army. Everyone starts at the bottom and works themselves up according to merit. Maybe we might get something like this to work during our lifetime.
Also, could you somehow mirror this discussion in the AAR? it's been quite a lot of fun.
Seems like it isn't closed yet, so I can still get a vote in. Would write an elaborate post, but I don't really have the time right now
Labour!
Labour!
:rofl:
I'm enjoying the bubbles of idealism here.
C'mon everyone, get your vote in if it hasn't been in already. Let's see Britain move on into the next few years!
Total Vote: 47 (+1)
Tories: 20
Labour: 17
Liberals: 8
Whigs: 2
Tories: 213
Labour: 181
Liberals: 85
Whigs: 21
IPP: 84
Unionists: 16
Once again there is no clear winner. So a coalition government must be formed. The Conservative Party shall lead a grand coalition beside the Liberal Party, the Whig Party and the Unionist Party. It would have been possible for the coalition to be formed without the Whigs; however the majority would have been very slim – so the Whigs are included to make the majority more stable.
The Tory led coalition hold a total of 335, giving it a majority of 35 seats.
Benjamin Disraeli is now the 4th Prime Minister of the British Republic.
Tories: 20
Labour: 17
Liberals: 8
Whigs: 2
Tories: 213
Labour: 181
Liberals: 85
Whigs: 21
IPP: 84
Unionists: 16
Once again there is no clear winner. So a coalition government must be formed. The Conservative Party shall lead a grand coalition beside the Liberal Party, the Whig Party and the Unionist Party. It would have been possible for the coalition to be formed without the Whigs; however the majority would have been very slim – so the Whigs are included to make the majority more stable.
The Tory led coalition hold a total of 335, giving it a majority of 35 seats.
Benjamin Disraeli is now the 4th Prime Minister of the British Republic.
Yay! Disraeli will lead us to Empire!
And if the coalition fails...
then...
mwhahaha!
And if the coalition fails...
then...
mwhahaha!
The Election of 1851
During the summer of 1851 the government collapsed as the leftward drift of the Chartists (from May, Labour) alienated the Liberals. Eventually Labour were forced out of the coalition and for a few brief months Earl Russell attempted to hold together some sort of government when his party held less than 1/3 of the seats in Parliament. Once Tory goodwill dried up Russell was forced to admit defeat and called an election.
Of the three main parties Labour’s manifesto was by far the most significant. With a program for radical reform across the country it would be the reaction of the other parties to this as much as their own manifestos that would shape the election. The Liberals remained vaguely against Labour but offered little other than the same Liberal, indeed Whiggish, policies that had been employed repeatedly for 15 years without successfully solving the problem of working class discontent. The Tories on the other hand were emphatically against Labour’s proposals but offered an alternative to them that they claimed would clam the class conflict in Britain.
Disraeli’s Conservatives were to go on to secure an outstanding result in the election. With a huge swing of votes in their favour the Tories had secured more seats than any party before in the history of the Republic (4 more than they had managed in 1836). The days of electoral turmoil under Robert Peel seemed to be well and truly over. However, perhaps worryingly, they failed to make a significant impact in the major urban centres around the country – winning few votes from the newly enfranchised urban workers, but also few from the middles classes of the major cities. The Labour Party, although losing the election, secured a major swing in their favour as they rose to an impressive 181 seats – becoming the official opposition. This election was one of consolidation for Labour as shift to the left, after moving on from the Chartist platform, discouraged many old voters but allowed the party to effectively monopolise the support of the industrial workers (8-10% of the population of mainland Britain) and secure a very large portion of the workers’ vote in more rural areas – beyond the conurbations. In order for both Tories and Labour to succeed the Liberals had to fall, and fall they did. Russell witnessed as his party lost just under half of its seats and came within one seat of finishing fourth behind the Irish Parliamentary Party (had the IPP not lost two seats then the Liberals would have done just that). The act of giving all men the right to vote had destroyed the Liberal party. They could now no longer offer further reforms to the workers and could never compete with Labour in terms of working class credentials. Meanwhile, widespread blame in many circles for the collapse of the government, a failure to form a hard-line anti-Labour platform and general dissatisfaction after years of domination by the Liberals and their predecessors the Whigs contributed to the electoral disaster. Elsewhere, the Whigs lost just one seat – maintaining their small but not insignificant Parliamentary presence, and the Unionists won two additional seats from the IPP (demographic change was the reason behind this as the Unionists won a seat in Cork off the backs of the support of a growing British born community there and gained another seat in Ulster).
As the election came to a close there was still no clear winner. Both the Tories and Labour still believed they could potentially lead a new government. Whilst Disraeli moved slowly – first securing the steadfast support of the Unionists and Whigs (which combined with his own party’s MPs brought him to 250) before moving on to steady negotiations with the Liberals Harney flung himself into action. He knew fine well that that the Liberals were much more likely to support the Tories, but he hoped that he might be able to convince them to restore the old coalition – just now as junior partners. Harney actually did a very good job in his politicking – managing to heal a lot of old wounds with the Liberals, however his dreams of government were shattered by the potential third party in the coalition – the IPP. The days of Daniel O’Connell and moderation were well and truly over for the IPP under the leadership of William O’Brien. The new party leadership campaigned on a slogan of ‘’liberation for Ireland’’ – when asked what this meant in practise O’Brien admitted ‘’the IPP stands for the liberation of the Irish people from British domination by any means necessary’’; when the reporter replied ‘’would ‘any means necessary’ include armed insurrection?’’ O’Brien repeated ‘’it means by any means’’. The strong pro-Irish current that flowed through the Labour party might have meant that Harney need not fear repercussions for talking with men like this, but Russell could never afford to.
With the alliance with the left clearly impossible the Liberals happily flung themselves into the lap of the right. In return for 1/3 of Ministerial posts and 1/3 of the places in the Cabinet (the Liberals only contributed ¼ of the coalition’s MPs) the Tories got their most important allies and secured a government.
The ruling coalition was led and dominated by the Tories (who contributed 2/3s of MPs) but also included the Liberals, Whigs and Irish Unionists. With a relatively slim majority (35 members) it was imperative that Disraeli prevent any fragmentation within his own party. So long as he could do this he could rely upon the power of the Tories within the coalition to effectively bully the smaller parties into line – this was perhaps the most stable coalition since the conception of the Republic for this very reason.
Being so dominant within the coalition Disraeli was not forced to make so many great gestures of compromise as earlier coalitions had. Whilst giving the other parties a say in all matters and offering to lighten his new economic policies of limited industrial intervention and protectionism the new government would be undisputedly Tory in its nature.
During the summer of 1851 the government collapsed as the leftward drift of the Chartists (from May, Labour) alienated the Liberals. Eventually Labour were forced out of the coalition and for a few brief months Earl Russell attempted to hold together some sort of government when his party held less than 1/3 of the seats in Parliament. Once Tory goodwill dried up Russell was forced to admit defeat and called an election.
Of the three main parties Labour’s manifesto was by far the most significant. With a program for radical reform across the country it would be the reaction of the other parties to this as much as their own manifestos that would shape the election. The Liberals remained vaguely against Labour but offered little other than the same Liberal, indeed Whiggish, policies that had been employed repeatedly for 15 years without successfully solving the problem of working class discontent. The Tories on the other hand were emphatically against Labour’s proposals but offered an alternative to them that they claimed would clam the class conflict in Britain.
Disraeli’s Conservatives were to go on to secure an outstanding result in the election. With a huge swing of votes in their favour the Tories had secured more seats than any party before in the history of the Republic (4 more than they had managed in 1836). The days of electoral turmoil under Robert Peel seemed to be well and truly over. However, perhaps worryingly, they failed to make a significant impact in the major urban centres around the country – winning few votes from the newly enfranchised urban workers, but also few from the middles classes of the major cities. The Labour Party, although losing the election, secured a major swing in their favour as they rose to an impressive 181 seats – becoming the official opposition. This election was one of consolidation for Labour as shift to the left, after moving on from the Chartist platform, discouraged many old voters but allowed the party to effectively monopolise the support of the industrial workers (8-10% of the population of mainland Britain) and secure a very large portion of the workers’ vote in more rural areas – beyond the conurbations. In order for both Tories and Labour to succeed the Liberals had to fall, and fall they did. Russell witnessed as his party lost just under half of its seats and came within one seat of finishing fourth behind the Irish Parliamentary Party (had the IPP not lost two seats then the Liberals would have done just that). The act of giving all men the right to vote had destroyed the Liberal party. They could now no longer offer further reforms to the workers and could never compete with Labour in terms of working class credentials. Meanwhile, widespread blame in many circles for the collapse of the government, a failure to form a hard-line anti-Labour platform and general dissatisfaction after years of domination by the Liberals and their predecessors the Whigs contributed to the electoral disaster. Elsewhere, the Whigs lost just one seat – maintaining their small but not insignificant Parliamentary presence, and the Unionists won two additional seats from the IPP (demographic change was the reason behind this as the Unionists won a seat in Cork off the backs of the support of a growing British born community there and gained another seat in Ulster).
As the election came to a close there was still no clear winner. Both the Tories and Labour still believed they could potentially lead a new government. Whilst Disraeli moved slowly – first securing the steadfast support of the Unionists and Whigs (which combined with his own party’s MPs brought him to 250) before moving on to steady negotiations with the Liberals Harney flung himself into action. He knew fine well that that the Liberals were much more likely to support the Tories, but he hoped that he might be able to convince them to restore the old coalition – just now as junior partners. Harney actually did a very good job in his politicking – managing to heal a lot of old wounds with the Liberals, however his dreams of government were shattered by the potential third party in the coalition – the IPP. The days of Daniel O’Connell and moderation were well and truly over for the IPP under the leadership of William O’Brien. The new party leadership campaigned on a slogan of ‘’liberation for Ireland’’ – when asked what this meant in practise O’Brien admitted ‘’the IPP stands for the liberation of the Irish people from British domination by any means necessary’’; when the reporter replied ‘’would ‘any means necessary’ include armed insurrection?’’ O’Brien repeated ‘’it means by any means’’. The strong pro-Irish current that flowed through the Labour party might have meant that Harney need not fear repercussions for talking with men like this, but Russell could never afford to.
With the alliance with the left clearly impossible the Liberals happily flung themselves into the lap of the right. In return for 1/3 of Ministerial posts and 1/3 of the places in the Cabinet (the Liberals only contributed ¼ of the coalition’s MPs) the Tories got their most important allies and secured a government.
The ruling coalition was led and dominated by the Tories (who contributed 2/3s of MPs) but also included the Liberals, Whigs and Irish Unionists. With a relatively slim majority (35 members) it was imperative that Disraeli prevent any fragmentation within his own party. So long as he could do this he could rely upon the power of the Tories within the coalition to effectively bully the smaller parties into line – this was perhaps the most stable coalition since the conception of the Republic for this very reason.
Being so dominant within the coalition Disraeli was not forced to make so many great gestures of compromise as earlier coalitions had. Whilst giving the other parties a say in all matters and offering to lighten his new economic policies of limited industrial intervention and protectionism the new government would be undisputedly Tory in its nature.
Well, it looks as we are on the verge of a promising era for all. Let's hope that I'm not wrong.
Well I'm just about to go off and play the game.
So I'll know very soon. You won't know for a little while longer.
I'm hoping that I will be able to put the awesomeness of the next update into words.
I'm probably going to need to split the update.
I'm probably going to need to split the update.
It is interesting to see such a strong Labour party that isn't represented in the government. I wonder what form their opposition will take...
Eagerly awaiting the update!
Eagerly awaiting the update!
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