How to run the game...

[afleitch]

I'm putting this in a seperate thread as this is how we can start the game as soon as possible with as minimal a fuss.

Rules

Parliament operates in 'real time' with the exception that we have elections say every 3/4 months. Therefore there is set business on certain days of the week. It has to work differently from what we have in Atlasia.

There is a Parliament Thread where more general discussion is located. This takes the form of a continuing 'narrative' of debate. This is also where ceremonial and procedural matters are discussed. Every Wednesday (at least to start) will be Prime Ministers Questions, probably the highlight of the week which should hopefully need no explanation Importantly, this is also where the final reading of each bill takes place; there is a short period of discussion/abuse allowed but this is where the final bill has to be voted on. The Speaker will announce the results of each division(vote)

However (and this is what makes it different from Atlasia) there will also be seperate threads for legislation. These will be 'Committees'; threads opened up for different concerns, where the details of the bills are discussed and amendments debated and voted on. We can run these side by side. There is no need for those playing to be involved in each and every one of them. You may never contribute to something about Foreign Affairs, but you may end up chairing the Arts Committee, When the final amended draft is decided upon, then the vote takes place in the main Parliament Thread.

For example we would have the  Parliament Thread.

Education Committee (where all Education related bills are discussed)
Health Committee
Foreign Affairs Commitee...

and so on.

Each Committee can only discuss one piece of legislation at a time unless in an emergency. Each Committee has a 'chair'; a sponsor who acts a bit like the 'PPT' for each thread.

It's a different way of doing things, but it allows the game to be more focussed. Serious stuff can be found in the Committee threads, while the rough and tumble and fun can take place in the Parliament Thread.

[afleitch]

Straightforward, simple, workable. And if something needs changing, it can be changed with minimum fuss. Excellent.

I might post a lot of background stuff when I stop working later. Hopefully enough that we can then get things moving...

Thank you I was concerned that in trying to simplify things I might have made them more complicated.

In terms of committees, I thought it best to keep the number low, but 'split' them if necessary in the future. So I've grouped them as follows

Education and Health
Social Affairs and Welfare (Social security, equality, welfare provision)
Law and Home Affairs (domestic security, police, army etc)
Business and Finance
Foreign Affairs
Constitutional Affairs (devolution)
Culture (sport, leisure, planning)

Not all the commitees will be constantly active. In retrospect it might be fairer to allow more than one piece of legislation to be considered in each committee.

[afleitch]

Right. Let's get this moving.

Who want's to chair what Committee? Then we start the game. If we don't know the details about each region by then don't worry; we can still play.

[afleitch]

Right. Let's get this moving.

Who want's to chair what Committee? Then we start the game. If we don't know the details about each region by then don't worry; we can still play.

Just to be clear, we're using the three committees in your opening post?

Apologies, I was thinking it was best to use these;

Education and Health
Social Affairs and Welfare (Social security, equality, welfare provision)
Law and Home Affairs (domestic security, police, army etc)
Business and Finance
Foreign Affairs
Constitutional Affairs (devolution)
Culture (sport, leisure, planning)

[afleitch]

Are we ready to go then?

[afleitch]

Things do seem to have ground to a sudden halt. A shame because we're almost there... Perhaps it is time to poke people with sticks.

It's all very odd. I suppose we just need to start the Parliament and open smaller boards for the different committees. That's all there really is to it.

[afleitch]

Education and Health
Social Affairs and Welfare (Social security, equality, welfare provision)
Law and Home Affairs (domestic security, police, army etc)
Business and Finance
Foreign Affairs
Constitutional Affairs (devolution)
Culture (sport, leisure, planning)

Slight re-jig

Merge - Constitutional Affairs with Foreign Affairs
Create - Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
Change - Culture to Culture, Planning and Transport (ie adding the Transport Brief)

[afleitch]

To quickly establish a few ground rules:

1. Antillia will have developed its own deranged parliamentary and political traditions. In particular there is even less division between the executive and the legislature than in most countries; this even extends to the fact that cabinet ministers are allowed (and frequently do) chair parliamentary committees.

(OOC: we don't have enough players to do else, somewhat regrettably)

2. But following several high-profile bribery scandals in the 1970s and 1980s, there are now a few rules regarding conflicts of interest. For our purposes, the main one is that a cabinet minister cannot chair a committee that he/she has any responsibility for in government.

3. This is not America, so Chairs are given to all parties with a significant amount of seats.

Etc.

Agreed. Given the respective size of the country (and constituency size too), the Parliament is likely to focus on lots of smaller issues, that in larger nations would fall under the jurisdiction of states, counties etc. It will fill the parliament with debates on the price of fish. But that's a good thing