mhoc: the week issue 13

THE WEEK Issue 13Thursday24.12.15

Merry Christmas from The Week

HaveADream talksWhy I Left the Liberal Democrats

AgentnolaCoalitions - The Make or Break of MHoC

Abandon Ship!The Pirate Party Has Dissolved and become an all-parliamentary party grouping.

The Pirate Party was born from the ruins of the Social Democratic and Civic Nationalist Party, and, even in it's earlier days, faced controversy as RomanCatholic, the leader of the New Pirate Party, tried to keep the SDCN seats for the Pirates, facing outrage from all sides of the house.With the seats gone to a by-election, the Pirates ran a candidate in /u/m1cha3lm.He was eventually beaten by the Liberal Democrat /u/HaveADream, and the independent Socialist, /u/SPQR1776 (who later joined the now-defunct Socialist Party.) Meaning that The Pirates had zero representation in the House of Commons, and only one seat in the House of Lords.

Their success in GE4 was overwhelmingly surprising, with critics denouncing Figgor’s

claims that the Pirate Party could get five seats in the General Election.Instead, they won six, beating the Green Party. Following their electoral success, they formed the Rainbow Coalition, alongside the Labour Party, the Green Party and the Liberal Democratic Party.

However, inactivity plagued the party and over time, causing key defections and AlmightyWibble, the leader to hold a vote. The Party voted heavily to disband and become an All-parliamentary party grouping, causing a small hit to the governments majority.

Conservations

“Why I Left the Liberal Democrats” A Conversation between HaveADream and Jas1066

/u/Jas1066: Thank-you for taking time out of your busy schedule to meet with me, Cal. Firstly, what caused you to leave the Liberal Democrats?

/u/HaveADream: No Problem. Tired of petty party politics, really, some of the conduct shown by members of the Liberal Democrats during the leadership election, and historically in the past, with situations like what happened with James, I'm just tired of it to be honest and I'd prefer to focus on the press, which, to be honest, I'm probably best at.

/u/Jas1066: Very interesting. Why now? Has there been any Drama in Lib Dem High Command?

/u/HaveADream: No, not really, just realised that I was fighting a losing battle and decided to get out before the game’s over.

/u/Jas1066: Did anyone know about your decision before you made it public?

/u/HaveADream: I'll probably make a statement to the party later today, but for now, whoever saw the announcement first was the first to know.

/u/Jas1066: OK, so you said you were going to focus more on the press.

Jas1066 (Cont): What in particular are looking forward to? Any new projects?

/u/HaveADream: Well, I'm the Director-General of the MBBC so I'll probably focus more on that, instead of writing party constitutions and

legislation, I will be broadcasting HIGSFY and writing MHOC: The Week!

/u/Jas1066: Exciting stuff. What are you going to most miss about the Lib Dems?

/u/HaveADream: Probably the community, despite their flaws I enjoyed talking to a lot them and I will miss them.

/u/Jas1066: And what are you looking forwards to?

/u/HaveADream: Sense of freedom, no whip, no filter, no strings on me.

HaveADream is a former Deputy Leader and MP for Hull North for the Liberal Democrats.

HaveADream first entered the Commons in May 2015 when he won the By- election that was held as a consequence of the dissolution of the SDCN.

HaveADream then became the Deputy Leader after losing the Leadership election to favourite /u/bnzss, pushing legislation like the Gay Marriage (Northern Ireland) Act and the Mental Health Act.

The Week | Thursday 24 December

Parliamentary Politics

Coalitions - The Make or Break of MHoCAgentnola

Coalitions are the backbone of every Government in MHOC. In the last parliamentary session, we had two famously troubled coalitions the IV Government and Opposition. Both withstood under immense internal and external pressure, but both eventually collapsed underneath their own weight. The IV Government was made up of the Communist Party, Socialist Party, Green Party, and The Labour Party, and it ended with the Communist Party backing out. The IV Opposition was made up of UKIP, The Conservative Party. and the Liberal Democrats, which ended with UKIP being kicked out. These coalitions are some of the prime examples of vastly different parties trying to create a framework to collaborate for the good of the parties, but ultimately lead to the collapse of the coalition.

“The fourth government was quite something”, it was “an impractical [Government], but essentially necessary." The Government was riddled with cracks from its very foundations, because things like “Labour members that used to actually insult [the communists] in ... threads,” or “a lot of comment threads which read stuff like ‘FULLCOMMUNIST GOV’ or like singing socialist songs in the threads, which isolated more moderate Labour members.” The opposing sides of the Government would continue to alienate each other throughout the term. This ignores the middle part of the coalition, The Socialist Party and The Green

Party, they “acted, in practice, in tandem with [each other].” They essentially “functioned as glue” in a coalition where “a lot of glue was needed”. But Labour did not just alienate the communists, “they went back on everything agreed [to in] the coalition agreements and it constantly felt like they were more friendly with the opposition than the government” Eventually the Coalition came to a crossroads, even though “the communists were quite ecstatic about the fact they could finally enter a coalition”, they “did not write bills, they weren't great at voting,” and they were “horrible at communication”, thus it became “impossible to work with them” which caused the government to weaken, and begin to crack. It became a partisan fight between Labour and the Communists about the future of the coalition, but “by [the end] most of the communists had disappeared” and “[The Greens and Socialists] had clearly sided with labour,” thus spelling the end of the fourth government.

“The [IV Government] was great most of the way through”, it was a familiar alliance. The Liberal Democrats, Conservatives, and UKIP coalition was seeming friendly with “very minor arguments caused by certain famously problematic members. It was a fairly strong coalition, held together by the Conservative party. The tories worked as the binding between UKIP and the Liberal Democrats, because “the mixture of some of [UKIP]


Parliamentary Politics

members... combined with some of [Lib Dems]... [resulted in] relations [not being] great” between the two parties. “It all went downhill when members of UKIP sponsored a motion that, from the Lib Dems' perspective, was in breach of the coalition agreement.” This coupled with the fact that UKIP not having the greatest whipping record” lead to the vote of removal by the Liberal Democrats. Supposedly “these [problems] had all been solved by the time they were voting to leave... [the Lib Dems] started the bandwagon and couldn't be bothered to stop it even though the original reasons were no longer relevant,” and “The Conservatives were forced to vote with the Lib Dems to vote to expel UKIP from Opposition, in order to retain Con-Lib relations.” And thus the IV Opposition fell from grace, and as UKIP was expelled, the fourth became the fifth.

Coalitions are a fickle business, party leaders have to maintain relations with people who see themselves, not as subordinates, but as equals and they must maneuver to keep themselves in power, and their members in line. The death of both the IV Government

and the IV Opposition were caused by the polarisation of two opposite members who ended up alienating each other. Eventually the middle had to choose one side, and the coalition split. Both coalitions were broad alliances, which is what ended up killing both of them.

Author's Note: This is a second article in a series, I have been meaning to create. It is called Parliamentary Politics, and it does not cover specific events, but analyses the relationships and choices made by parties. This may not be a very unique concept, but this specific article is written in a distinct style, which may or may not be the future of the series. It mostly contains anonymous quotes by those involved, they are embedded in the text to add to the evidence and to create a clearer image to what the dynamics were. If this style is annoying, just let me know, and I will change it to a more traditional style. -/u/agentnola


Interviews

An interview with BnzssFormer Leader of the Liberal Democrats

My first question is, what was your key to success at the GE?

The coordination of our PPCs, which helped us to advertise in every conceivable subreddit they could, as well as encouraging PPCs with contacts within reddit to get some extra votes. I also encouraged people to treat advertising feedback (half of which is usually negative) with a bit of humour. That usually wins people to your side.

What does ppc stand for for all our unknowing readers?

Prospective parliamentary candidate.

What was your high point of your leadership and your low point?

The high point was the outcome of the general election. Getting 18 seats, which made us the 3rd largest party, and then going on to become the 2nd largest party in government, was just great. Really good effort from everyone involved and I was very proud.

The low point was the continuing tragic farce of /u/demon4372 in the party.

On a personal level I got on pretty well with him, and I will always stand by my assertion that he is a very, very capable administrator, as well as a cunning politician. But his behaviour and attitude turned the party against him and in some cases against itself. On one fateful evening, I had to step in to prevent a tenuous VONC against a deputy leader, and work pretty hard to keep people in the party at all. That was overall a not particularly pleasant experience.

If James attempted to come back to the Lib Dems, would you support him coming back?

He has a lot to give, but I'm not convinced he can curb his excesses. So in true Lib Dem style, I'm going to have to abstain on that one.

Alright. So why did you step down from leading the lib dems?

I greatly enjoyed my time as leader, but I became aware of my own shortcomings. At first, I think I gave the party what it needed, which was a clear ideological direction - not mine specifically, just a sort of united view we as a party could push before,

during and after the general election - and a little bit of dynamism. But I also have shortcomings; I missed deadlines, and was pretty slow on administration (which has never really been my strong point).

In short, I saw my shelf life as leader was about to expire, and knew that there were at least two others more capable than me in leading the party.

Who were those two others?

Tom and Seb, not exclusively them, but they eventually contested the leadership and either would have been great.

Now onto your politics. When did you get into politics and who inspired you/your beliefs?

I wasn't at all interested in politics until I started at university, and it came out when I studied ancient philosophy. Polybius is the one writer I can point at who inspired me to find out more about politics and philosophy, and of course when you specialise in the history of ancient Rome, it's difficult to avoid constitutional theory. Roman politicians were quite fond of it.


Regionalists

The Fall of the SNP and the Rise of the RegionalistsDuncs11

After over one year of being a party, the Scottish National Party have officially disbanded, citing issues with activity and not contributing much legislation as main reasons.

The Scottish Nationalist Party dates back to the second general election, when the infamous Jacktri ran in Scotland with a manifesto filled with SNP branding, and was duly elected as an MP, however his Scottish Nationalist credentials didn’t last for long, and he joined the British Imperial Party shortly before his ban. Jacktri might not have stayed around as an SNP indy for long, but the seeds of the nationalist party were sown, and during the 2nd Government, the SNP were officially formed as a party.

At the 3rd General Election, the SNP won in Scotland, winning 4 seats in the region, and formed a confidence and supply deal with the Alliance of the Broad Left, and eventually made their way into government when the communist party withdrew. However this spell of success wasn’t long to last, and during the election debates controversy erupted when a SNP candidate made comments some deemed anglophobic and potentially racist, and that was the least of the problems for the party, when only 2 SNP MPs were returned at the election, and activity in the party was presumed to fall.

The Party held an internal vote, with the options being either disbanding or joining the Regionalist Party being created by AlexWagbo, and the result was narrowly in favour of disbanding.

I interviewed the former leader of the SNP, /u/Chaseteper about this:

Q: When did you know that the SNP would not continue as its own party, and instead disband or join the regionalists?

A: The MHOC Constitution states that a party needs 10 active members to form, when I joined the SNP 7 months ago we didn’t even have 10 active members. The SNP has always suffered from inactivity. The most recent election results were a blow to the party with our seats being halved and it was a blow from which we were unable to recover. To be honest,

I only realised how untenable the situation was a few days before I opened internal discussion about the party’s future; where everyone agreed to either disband or become regionalists.

Q: What did you think the result of the party vote was going to be?

A: I wasn’t sure and the vote was ultimately very close anyway.

Q: Why did you decide to join the regionalists?

A: I think the regionalist coalition gives all our MP seats more clout as we are able to negotiate within the house from a stronger position. It also allows for more interesting internal politics and internal debate rather than there being the same three people in every thread! I still think the regionalist party best represent my views as a nationalist and social democrat.


Liberal Democrats

The Sudden Rise of JellyTom ThatThingInTheCorner

In a surprisingly close leadership election, JellyTom was elected as the new leader of the Liberal Democrats on 17 December, replacing Bnzss. The Work and Pensions Secretary beat Ajubbajub - the now Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader in the House of Lords - with 52.9% of the votes cast. This election was one of the most tightly contested that the Liberal Democrats have ever seen, particularly following the resignation and defection of HaveADream – who was seen by many as the favourite to win.

The East Midlands MP is a relatively new member of the party. So new in fact, that he wasn't eligible to vote in the previous leadership election in which his predecessor was elected. His rise can perhaps be documented as one of the fastest in MHoC history, being elected as a National MP in a matter of days after joining the Liberal Democrats in July.

Soon after his election as an MP, he was already appointed as a junior minister in the Department for Health. During the fourth general election in October, he was elected as an MP for the East Midlands,

despite a Vanguard surge in the constituency and was appointed as the Work and Pensions Secretary in the Labour-Liberal Democrat-Green-Pirate ‘Rainbow’ coalition. Overall, it took him no more than five months to rise from an ordinary unknown party member to the figurehead of the Liberal Democrats.

His initial announcement to stand for leader came with surprise from all areas of the party, however, it was also widely welcomed as many in the party expected that JellyTom would be a widely likeable individual with whom anybody can get on with. Many commentators believed that the Liberal Democrats needed this due to the recent drama that at one point seemed to be engulfing the party.

When asked by the MBBC about his reaction to his astounding sweep to victory, he replied, "I am surprised and delighted to have been elected Leader of the Liberal Democrats, I would like to thank everyone who has voted for me, especially those who have supported my campaign and guided me through a tough leadership battle, may I also once again pass on my respects to Ben - his shoes will be very hard to fill - but I look forward to the challenge."

"Tom is a splendid chap with real life experience of the world, which a lot of our members do not have - plus, in my view, he shows tremendously good judgement in general", the outgoing leader Bnzss said.

The defeated candidate, Ajubbajub, has previously lost in two deputy leader elections and has announced his intention to stand in the current deputy leadership election, along with twelve other prospective candidates. He said that JellyTom would make a "fantastic" leader, who he could work well with.

The new leader has to ensure that the party remains unified, particularly following the threat of defections that were witnessed across many of the centre to centre-left parties a week ago, resulting, most notably in the dissolution of the Pirate Party and the Scottish National Party. Following the most successful general election for the Liberal Democrats – in which the party regained its status as the third party for the first time since the election of June 2014 - his task ultimately will be to maintain this momentum and electoral success. Party unity will be vital in doing so.


We Asked…

1 Clement Attlee LABOUR 1945-51

31.1%

2David Lloyd George LIBERAL 1916-22

9.8%

3Winston Churchill/Benjamin Disraeli CONSERVATIVE 1940-45, 1951-55/CONSERVATIVE 1868, 1874-80

8.2%

43rd Marquess of Salisbury CONSERVATIVE 1885-86, 1886-92, 1895-1902

6.6%

5Margaret Thatcher/Tony Blair CONSERVATIVE 1979-90/LABOUR 1997-2007

4.9%

Who is your favourite Prime Minister? TheChattyShow


The Lighter Side of the House


mhoc: the week issue 13

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