To begin with - here is a bit of a disclaimer: I have no idea if I am in the right place for this or if indeed there is a right place for this at all. I would be really glad if someone could push this post to its proper place so to speak! 
Also I haven't been on a Forum in quite some time, so please show mercy, when I'm making a mistake! ...and if someone could quickly tell me how to resize images on this forum (my BBCode has gotten rusty...), that would be awesome.
Ah, and just to be certain and not to offend anyone: The story is in no way intended to convey a political opinion!
I would expect that most of us, who play Cities: Skylines have their imagination at some point running a bit wild: "What would it be like to actually live in my city? Where would it be? Who would I be? Would I like it there?" Since I'm far from home, working in a foreign country with only my shoddy laptop at my disposal, I have no possibility at the moment to go back to playing Cities: Skylines and so in a flurry of boredom and a teensy bit of insanity I began to imagine what it would be like if I lived in my own City of Mausburg, woke up in the morning and would open the pages of the "Mausburg Times". So I began writing little articles, fleshing out the political system and climate of my city and the surrounding region and coming up with a bit of a timeline for it. I have no idea if this will turn out to be even remotely interesting for others, but I figured I should give it a shot. It's in a way a city journal with a bit more journal than city (pictures)
The story will be told in newspaper snippets, so I will not give an introduction beforehand as to the history and structure of the City, but I hope this will become clearer as the story progresses. When I get access to a better computer, I will try to upload some screens of the city to give a better idea, where the story takes place.
If any one feels the urge to flesh out parts of the story on his own, please feel free to add little snippets on your own but please don't go to far!
Now, to begin:
Mausburg Liberals rejoice as final election-results come in!
Mausburg has returned a Liberal-Majority City Council and a strong LibDem/Christian Democrats Landtag on polling day.
Mausburg, 6th May 2016, Mausburgs Liberals have defied pollsters and political analysts time and again. While Support for liberal policies hit an all time low in the UK and in Germany in the 2010s, the capital of jointly governed Dilate Island in the North Sea has seen itself become an ever so stable stronghold for their policies. Frederick Holton will continue on as Lord Chancellor.
The 2016 local elections have reaffirmed the Liberals grasp on the city with unprecedented strength – For the first time since the Plydale Agreement established local rule on city and island a one-party-government was returned for a second term.
The 2016 Landtag election returns a liberal majority in what will likely be another MLP-CDU-Coalition in the Landtag.
Granted, the Liberals have always had a strong power base in the city but after the 2013 disaster for Germany's FDP and the 2015 collapse in UK LibDem-support, there were widespread speculations that the trend could even reach as far as remote Mausburg.
That these ideas were misguided could have been obvious even from the start – Since the Liberals are the only party that doesn't seem to have had to fight some powerful local issues: The conservative spectrum of Dilate voters has always been fragmented at best given that there is no common conservative party for the german community and the British one:
Despite Projections that Mausburgs Liberals were in for a disastrous election outcome, the Liberals defended and even expanded their majority in the city council.
german conservative voters tend to stick to their Christian Democrats (CDU) while the British ones tend to support the local Tories – The cultural gap between both parties prevents them from embracing the common ground and so the right-wing infighting give voters less incentive to vote for these groups, since the short lived 2002 CDU-Tory-Coaltion in the Landtag proved that a numerical right-wing-majority didn't necessarily translate into a working right-wing-government. The Christian Democrats have since then tended to support the more socially inclined Liberals in the Landtag either on Confidence and Supply Terms or in a full-blown Coalition, thus leaving the Tories largely to fend for themselves and deepening the chasm between the two parties. In the City the Tories were able to increase their share of votes slightly, but this was mostly due to the much criticized decision of the BIP to endorse the conservative ticket in this election while CDU lost their traditional stronghold, the Rattenhagen Forrest Constituency to new far-right AfM by a razor-thin margin.
On the left hand side of the spectrum, the support for Social Democrats and Labour, who sit together in all Councils, has seen a slow but steady decline over the past decades that hasn't yet come to a halt. While there is little discord between the two communities on this side of the aisle, demographic change has led to a decline in blue-collar-population in city and county over time, leaving the left-wing electorate being chiefly made up by progressive white-collar workers and academics. Since reform movements á la Tony Blair or Gerhard Schröder have never actually occurred for Socialdemocrats and Labour Party in Mausburg, these voters too tend to throw their support behind the Liberals.
The only real contender to liberal supremacy in the city could have been Mausburgs historically strong Green Party, but the party has seen its worst electoral showing ever following on years of corruption, infighting and even criminal activities which culminated one month before the election in the murder of Green Chief Whip Edgar Donald Geier which effectively led to the parties implosion. During the election there was no united green campaign and without an endorsement voters flocked to the Social Democrats and the Liberals. Even now, the Greens are still in disarray and while criminal prosecution is under way efforts to regroup and at least put up a candidate for next years mayoral elections have only slowly began to pick up trajectory.
This all leaves only the Liberals in as an actual contender for political leadership. In the past years party leader Fiona Endemann and her team have with meticulous care avoided being too connected to their British or german sister parties. Also the decision to renominate Frederick Holton for the office of Lord Chancellor despite him not holding the party leadership proved to be wise: The approval ratings for Holton outranked those of Endemann or any of the opposition candidates by a wide margin.
Working with the defanged Christian Democrats in the Landtag and alone in the city, there was no danger for the party to step into the pitfalls of being the smaller coalition partner like in Germany or the UK and with Mausburg slowly advancing to surpass Frankfurt as a headquarter for financial enterprises of all sorts, the party definitively presented the most voter-friendly program, while opposition parties largely stuck to their core constituents. Albeit, the Liberals have been clever enough not to go down the path of Germanies FDP, whose fight against social security often greatly surpassed their penchant for civil liberties and have in this regard stuck more closely to their British allies and their center-left approach.
The key-issue during the campaign was the Liberals announcement that they would invest up to 24 billion Euro into upgrading Mausburgs public transport system including a controversial Tram-line to link the City Center to the Airport. While funding for these investments was a large issue and Tories and SDLP both claimed that neither London nor Berlin would be willing to provide any significant funds, support for the MLP went through the roof, when a deal with London and Berlin was actually struck by Mausburgs Chancellor mid-January. But since the deal only covers about 65% of the projected cost and MLP vowed not to raise any new taxes to fund the rest their position might still come under jeopardy later that year.
Finally with the still unresolved question of Dilatia Islands actual status (for now its a jointly governed crown dependency slash Bundesland with the Queen or her governor and the German president as joint heads of state) voters, after decades of insecurity and the all too recent referendum, were eager not to embrace cultural polarization over political one by voting too german or too british and reopen old wounds. British and german parties efforts to influence the election (with Dilatia sending 6 deputies to the german Bundestag, the German parties were particularly interested in gaining a foothold on the island) where largely futile in an environment that was largely concerned with local issues, since actual authority over fiscal or foreign policy is not vested in Dilatia. And for the Mausburg electorate London or Berlin were far away during polling day.
The Governor is expected to call for Mr. Holton later this week to form the new government pending the approval of the german president. Afterwards the new cabinet will seek the approval of both City Council and Landtag. The State Opening of the new Legislature will most likely be scheduled for late April, when the governor will read out the Lord Chancellors Program for the coming years.
Also I haven't been on a Forum in quite some time, so please show mercy, when I'm making a mistake! ...and if someone could quickly tell me how to resize images on this forum (my BBCode has gotten rusty...), that would be awesome.Ah, and just to be certain and not to offend anyone: The story is in no way intended to convey a political opinion!
I would expect that most of us, who play Cities: Skylines have their imagination at some point running a bit wild: "What would it be like to actually live in my city? Where would it be? Who would I be? Would I like it there?" Since I'm far from home, working in a foreign country with only my shoddy laptop at my disposal, I have no possibility at the moment to go back to playing Cities: Skylines and so in a flurry of boredom and a teensy bit of insanity I began to imagine what it would be like if I lived in my own City of Mausburg, woke up in the morning and would open the pages of the "Mausburg Times". So I began writing little articles, fleshing out the political system and climate of my city and the surrounding region and coming up with a bit of a timeline for it. I have no idea if this will turn out to be even remotely interesting for others, but I figured I should give it a shot. It's in a way a city journal with a bit more journal than city (pictures)
The story will be told in newspaper snippets, so I will not give an introduction beforehand as to the history and structure of the City, but I hope this will become clearer as the story progresses. When I get access to a better computer, I will try to upload some screens of the city to give a better idea, where the story takes place.
If any one feels the urge to flesh out parts of the story on his own, please feel free to add little snippets on your own but please don't go to far!
Now, to begin:
Mausburg Liberals rejoice as final election-results come in!
Mausburg has returned a Liberal-Majority City Council and a strong LibDem/Christian Democrats Landtag on polling day.
Mausburg, 6th May 2016, Mausburgs Liberals have defied pollsters and political analysts time and again. While Support for liberal policies hit an all time low in the UK and in Germany in the 2010s, the capital of jointly governed Dilate Island in the North Sea has seen itself become an ever so stable stronghold for their policies. Frederick Holton will continue on as Lord Chancellor.
The 2016 local elections have reaffirmed the Liberals grasp on the city with unprecedented strength – For the first time since the Plydale Agreement established local rule on city and island a one-party-government was returned for a second term.
The 2016 Landtag election returns a liberal majority in what will likely be another MLP-CDU-Coalition in the Landtag.
Granted, the Liberals have always had a strong power base in the city but after the 2013 disaster for Germany's FDP and the 2015 collapse in UK LibDem-support, there were widespread speculations that the trend could even reach as far as remote Mausburg.
That these ideas were misguided could have been obvious even from the start – Since the Liberals are the only party that doesn't seem to have had to fight some powerful local issues: The conservative spectrum of Dilate voters has always been fragmented at best given that there is no common conservative party for the german community and the British one:
Despite Projections that Mausburgs Liberals were in for a disastrous election outcome, the Liberals defended and even expanded their majority in the city council.
german conservative voters tend to stick to their Christian Democrats (CDU) while the British ones tend to support the local Tories – The cultural gap between both parties prevents them from embracing the common ground and so the right-wing infighting give voters less incentive to vote for these groups, since the short lived 2002 CDU-Tory-Coaltion in the Landtag proved that a numerical right-wing-majority didn't necessarily translate into a working right-wing-government. The Christian Democrats have since then tended to support the more socially inclined Liberals in the Landtag either on Confidence and Supply Terms or in a full-blown Coalition, thus leaving the Tories largely to fend for themselves and deepening the chasm between the two parties. In the City the Tories were able to increase their share of votes slightly, but this was mostly due to the much criticized decision of the BIP to endorse the conservative ticket in this election while CDU lost their traditional stronghold, the Rattenhagen Forrest Constituency to new far-right AfM by a razor-thin margin.
On the left hand side of the spectrum, the support for Social Democrats and Labour, who sit together in all Councils, has seen a slow but steady decline over the past decades that hasn't yet come to a halt. While there is little discord between the two communities on this side of the aisle, demographic change has led to a decline in blue-collar-population in city and county over time, leaving the left-wing electorate being chiefly made up by progressive white-collar workers and academics. Since reform movements á la Tony Blair or Gerhard Schröder have never actually occurred for Socialdemocrats and Labour Party in Mausburg, these voters too tend to throw their support behind the Liberals.
The only real contender to liberal supremacy in the city could have been Mausburgs historically strong Green Party, but the party has seen its worst electoral showing ever following on years of corruption, infighting and even criminal activities which culminated one month before the election in the murder of Green Chief Whip Edgar Donald Geier which effectively led to the parties implosion. During the election there was no united green campaign and without an endorsement voters flocked to the Social Democrats and the Liberals. Even now, the Greens are still in disarray and while criminal prosecution is under way efforts to regroup and at least put up a candidate for next years mayoral elections have only slowly began to pick up trajectory.
This all leaves only the Liberals in as an actual contender for political leadership. In the past years party leader Fiona Endemann and her team have with meticulous care avoided being too connected to their British or german sister parties. Also the decision to renominate Frederick Holton for the office of Lord Chancellor despite him not holding the party leadership proved to be wise: The approval ratings for Holton outranked those of Endemann or any of the opposition candidates by a wide margin.
Working with the defanged Christian Democrats in the Landtag and alone in the city, there was no danger for the party to step into the pitfalls of being the smaller coalition partner like in Germany or the UK and with Mausburg slowly advancing to surpass Frankfurt as a headquarter for financial enterprises of all sorts, the party definitively presented the most voter-friendly program, while opposition parties largely stuck to their core constituents. Albeit, the Liberals have been clever enough not to go down the path of Germanies FDP, whose fight against social security often greatly surpassed their penchant for civil liberties and have in this regard stuck more closely to their British allies and their center-left approach.
The key-issue during the campaign was the Liberals announcement that they would invest up to 24 billion Euro into upgrading Mausburgs public transport system including a controversial Tram-line to link the City Center to the Airport. While funding for these investments was a large issue and Tories and SDLP both claimed that neither London nor Berlin would be willing to provide any significant funds, support for the MLP went through the roof, when a deal with London and Berlin was actually struck by Mausburgs Chancellor mid-January. But since the deal only covers about 65% of the projected cost and MLP vowed not to raise any new taxes to fund the rest their position might still come under jeopardy later that year.
Finally with the still unresolved question of Dilatia Islands actual status (for now its a jointly governed crown dependency slash Bundesland with the Queen or her governor and the German president as joint heads of state) voters, after decades of insecurity and the all too recent referendum, were eager not to embrace cultural polarization over political one by voting too german or too british and reopen old wounds. British and german parties efforts to influence the election (with Dilatia sending 6 deputies to the german Bundestag, the German parties were particularly interested in gaining a foothold on the island) where largely futile in an environment that was largely concerned with local issues, since actual authority over fiscal or foreign policy is not vested in Dilatia. And for the Mausburg electorate London or Berlin were far away during polling day.
The Governor is expected to call for Mr. Holton later this week to form the new government pending the approval of the german president. Afterwards the new cabinet will seek the approval of both City Council and Landtag. The State Opening of the new Legislature will most likely be scheduled for late April, when the governor will read out the Lord Chancellors Program for the coming years.
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