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The Red Menace - the Communist Party
THE MONTH
New name, same great paper
Issue 14
Sunday
07.02.16
Changing of the Guard And what it means for us.
With the abdication of the throne by her majesty, we are starting to the the end of the rule of the “old guard” of MHoC and the rise of two Bens to power. Is MHoC going to change? I sat down with /u/ Ghoulishbulld0g, Incumbent Lord speaker and Lord Speaker candidate.
be one of the “old guard.” Do you believe this has any effect on the way MHoC is moderated?
/u/Chrispytoast123: Hello.
/u/Ghoulishbulld0g: I do. I work very closely with Padanub and his Speakership and they have been moderating differantly compared to the old Speakerships I worked with.
/u/Ghoulishbulld0g: Hello
/u/Chrispytoast123: How so?
/u/Chrispytoast123: Thank you for taking time to sit down with the MBBC.
/u/Ghoulishbulld0g: They have brought many new and refreshing ideas up and making it easier for people to contact the Speakership.
/u/Ghoulishbulld0g: Glad to be interviewed by the MBBC.
/u/Chrispytoast123: OK, let’s get into it.
/u/Chrispytoast123: So do you feel MHoC is going in the right direction?
/u/Chrispytoast123: So, recently MHoC has seen the election of the first speaker to not
/u/Ghoulishbulld0g: I do. I think we are as we are progressing with debates and
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Changing of the Guard allowing new users to raise up the ranks instead of the same old same old running the show. People like ElectricBlue and Purpleslug becoming Leaders and Deputy Speakers show that we have gotten fresh members in high positions.
/u/Chrispytoast123: Do you think having such a young DS team is a bad thing like many of the community say it is? This is the first team not to have Moose on it. Do you trust the speaker's decision?
/u/Ghoulishbulld0g: I trust the Speakers decision. He has a very competent team which I quite like. Moose was a very lackluster Deputy Speaker and he often caused a lot of drama. Something which in my opinion is bad for a Deputy Speaker to have with them. The new team is a lot better than the past.
/u/Ghoulishbulld0g: I hope not. I have been a member since March and have little experience in party politics. I would not consider myself one.
/u/Chrispytoast123: If elected Lords' speaker do you think you would work well with Padanub?
/u/Ghoulishbulld0g: I think I will work well with Padanub. After all he was my Deputy Director of Communications and often worked well both in the Conservatives and in his time as Deputy Speaker. He is a fantastic asset to the Speakership
/u/Chrispytoast123: Do you think you're a member of the old guard?
Who are the new Deputy Speakers?
Figgor Djenial
electric-blue
He is a veteran Labour Politician, having held the position of Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government consistently since the 4th Government, he is also the incumbent Government Chief Whip. Perhaps most importantly, he has prior experience as a Deputy Speaker under both / u/RoryTime and /u/Anthanaton. Djenial is also an achievement Lord, taking up the position of 1st Duke of The Weald. He has stood for the Speakership on three occasions. Now undertaking the role of Deputy Speaker as Chairman of Ways and Means.
He is one of the two Green Principal Speakers, standing alongside Irule04, previously he has held the positions of MoS for Children and Families, and he is the incumbent Secretary of State for England. Interestingly, he achieved the closest VoC result of all the Deputy Speakers, with only 55% voting in favour of him.
NicolasBroaddus
A RSP MP, he is one of only two of the new Deputy Speakers to have not held a Deputy Speakership position before. In his manifesto, he outlined his advocacy for direct democracy with regards to the Triumvirate, the introduction of events and a ‘solidified and clear ban system’
Chrispytoast123
A Liberal Democrat Party Lord, the 1st Lord Dunsfold, who is also the incumbent Chief Secretary to the Treasury. In his manifesto, which he made public, he claimed that he is willing to work very hard to make MHoC a better place, advocating strongly for election modifiers and devolved parliaments among other things. He has administrative experience from his previous job as a Deputy Lord Speaker, and so will be a fitting addition to the team.
The Month
Who are the new Deputy Speakers? Cptp28
Agentnola
A Conservative MP who has a wealth of front bench experience, holding Shadow MoS for Communities and Faith, Shadow Secretary of State for England and Shadow Secretary of State for Work & Pensions. Helpfully, he has also held a Deputy Speakership position for a number of months. In his manifesto, made public in the comments to the Deputy Speaker VoC, he said that he is open to the idea of Electoral reform, House of Lords reform and the introduction of events.
The other new Deputy Speaker with no prior experience, Agentnola is a Vanguard MP who is currently their Director of Culture and Media as well as their Media Spokesperson. He is a highly active member of MHoC Press, and so will be able to assist with meta issues in that regard.
TheQuipton
He is the incumbent Conservative Party Leader and Leader of the Opposition. His relevant administrative experience comes from previously being a Deputy Speaker and setting up the Internal Committee system within the Conservative Party. He will certainly be a valuable asset to the team being the leader of a Party, he will bring a unique perspective when it comes to discussing meta issues within the Party.
The Month
Opinion
Has MHoC Reached Full Capacity?
Tyroncs
Existing as a part of a larger website, at some point we are going to reach the maximum of the number of participants we are likely to get. There are only so many political subreddits, and from those only ever a certain number of people who are willing to join a political simulation and take part in it. The question I wish to ask is, have we now reached that peak point of our development? In the last few weeks there has certainly been a lot of discussion about the future of our humble simulation of the British Parliament. Over the last 6 months our subscriber count has increased by only 210. The number for the 6 month period prior to that is 1,069, over 5x higher. These numbers don’t necessarily sound the death knell for us, as many of our older members are in it for the long run and don’t intend to quit in the near future. However, our situation can be equated to that of Japan today and the demographic crisis they are facing. Although we can keep stumbling along day after day, as time goes on cracks will begin to show and larger problems will rise to the surface.
Many think that the problem lay with the inherent left wing nature of Reddit, and that the only solution is to change our electoral system to allow the right wing to take power and make the game interesting again. Whilst I don’t sympathise much with this view, it does seem to have some basis in the numbers. During the time of the 2nd Government (the only right wing
Government to date, consisting of the Conservatives and UKIP), /r/MHOC doubled in size – a growth rate not seen under any other Government thereafter. Perhaps allowing for the right wing to actually win sometimes will make the whole simulation that much more interesting, enticing new people to come join us and may stop some people leaving from boredom – after all we are the same size as we were on the eve of the General Election, with many people who joined at the time leaving in the months following.
I suppose in conclusion my view is that whatever we do, whether it be tinkering with the electoral system or changing the way the subreddits runs; it may increase the quality of the simulation and make changes for the better, but ultimately that doesn’t solve our fundamental problem of our growth rate in the long run being very very low. Although it may improve the retention rate of new people in the subreddit, I think that on the whole all of us here who have participated for a long time would have done so even if the state of the simulation was a lot worse than it is now. The election of /u/Padanub may provide us some hope, as in his manifesto he promised to advertise on other websites, which may alleviate some of the long term problems we are facing. Otherwise we will just have to sit tight and prepare for the zero-growth future we are inevitably heading into. The statistics don’t lie.
The Month
Opinion
The Red Scare
OKELEUK
The Communist Party has been a strange party in the /r/MHOC-Sphere. From its frequent factional struggle to the inactivity in actual participation on /r/MHOC and its subreddits.
The desire to roleplay a revolution, deeply ingrained in the Communist Party mentality, was just the opposite of what you want in a Model Parliament, the endless frustration which was shown inside the Communist Party that we could not have that, became an almost stereotypical feature.
I myself, learned to love the factional and bureaucratic activities of the Communist Party. While this is obviously a strange thing to say the least, i found it lovely that you could climb the ranks of the party, from red brigade activist to the ruling committees. It really did keep me wondered and i loved it, desiring to climb all the way to the top.
I joined on the 5th of January, one day before Bjorn Ironside was purged, and one day after / u/athanaton had left. I would frequently look at the communist skype chats and they all had such a different environment than anything else in the current global atmosphere. The Communist Party was definitely unique in its defining features to the other, somewhat milder Green and Labour Party.
The Communist Party had its heights and downs, i would generally describe it in three
political time zones: The 2nd and 3rd Unofficial Opposition, The Coalition, and the 5th unofficial Opposition again.
During the 2nd and 3rd Opposition, while i wasn’t fully aware of the surroundings of the political environment in MHOC, It was definitely still at the falling height of the communist party, they were submitting a red tide of socialist legislation, The Communists controlled the balance of power between the centre-left opposition and the right-wing gov. And the Communists were still somewhat active in both the press under spark, and the extra-parliamentary activities the Communists tried to organize were still in full swing. However, the Central Committee and the Democratic Procedure Committees soon collapsed with only one member still active and remaining, /u/ SPQR1776. He saved the party by rewriting the Constitution and getting a new Administrative Committee together. The Communists started the spiral into oblivion as many members left because they gave up on the revolution they wanted in the MHOC Sphere. The Socialist Party in the meanwhile formed, proving valuable competition on the vote of Democratic Socialists and somewhat more Libertarian Socialists. The Party had a falling point as they did not want to be in the endless opposition. It was only wise that the Communist Party eventually decided to join the Socialist Party in an electoral pact, as they did not actually lose votes, as many
The Month
Communist Party
think, but in proportion, percentage-wise, they lost votes. The Fact that the Socialists and the Communists did not have to compete for seats only increased the number of all out socialists in the house, however also firmly established that competition.
situation. Many members wanted to immediately leave, and at one point, the party was divided up with 33% in favour of staying, 33% in favour of pushing the coalition and if they did not comply, leave, and 33% in favour of immediately leaving.
The Coalition was definitely one of the most interesting time in the Communist Party’s life, as many wanted a coalition (in fact, the party voted 22 to 2 in joining the Coalition) but immediately as it was established it proved too shaky to actually exist. A handful of Labour MPs voting against the coalition's bills, and constant struggle between the Labour members and the Communist members, it could already be seen at the first post of the new coalition, as excited communists were excited for the new Government, but all kinds of Labour members pushed them down and said that sometimes things in the government’s plans were simply not going to happen. This giant struggle proved to be an entire struggle with the party and the coalition, as those parties were critical of the Communist Party, and the Communist Party itself realising it was in bad
This caused SPQR1776 to simply resign, and join the Socialist Party. The succession crisis followed by this was certainly a mindboggling experience, which you could see as stereotypical. People of all kinds of sections of the Communist Party fighting each other on the new attempt to gain the General Secretary seat, with even G0VERNMENT arising from the dead to join in this new succession crisis. I started taking over the Administrative Tasks SPQR1776 had been doing, and diametrically opposed to me was Cae388, interim General Secretary.
It was a weird time as 5 people became the big contestants of the new election, all in their specific opinions of the coalition as new predominant factions. Solidblues, Cae388, G0VERNMENT, WineRedPsy and OKELEUK all vying for the spot of General Secretary. In
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Communist Party what can probably be named the messiest election of MHOC History, First G0VERNMENT won, but then decided to immediately resign, then Solidblues won in a steady 15 to 14 against me, OKELEUK. Solidblues became General Secretary and I was now Deputy General Secretary.
The coalition feared the worst and thought that Solidblues was going to immediately pull out the switch, but he surprised everyone as he went to praise the coalition in the Deputy Prime Minister's Questions, while he had a notoriety when he said that the Tory Government “wasn’t that bad” before.
Ultimately, the Coalition damaged the party, and even when i got elected to General Secretary as Solidblues resigned after a month, i did hold a vote to pull the trigger, and after a strange 2 weeks of trying to leave the coalition while dealing with the internal bureaucracy of the party of actually leaving the Coalition. The Communists needed a rest from the hostility which manifested in the Coalition-Communist Relations, and as such, we went into the 5th Opposition.
The Fifth Opposition can be marked as the restoration and immediate collapse. My theme of the General Secretaryship was bringing the Communists back to the former glory of the January Months. We got a lot of new members, while our advertisements were constantly targeted by the rest of MHOC (which was hypocritical, as they tried to ruin any chances that the Communist Party got active again), times looked up. We had a struggle with the new Speakership of /u/ Rorytime as we saw him as the bringer of evil, the bringer of the electoral roll, i can only claim both with pride and dismay my role in creating the IRA (Impeachment of Rorytime Association) and the strong communist involvement in it. The Communist Party had to endure a lot of hostility from both the Inside, with particularly the MarxistsLeninists who tried to overthrow me, and the rest of MHOC despising us. Its as simple as it is in this regard that when the Marxistsleninists did their final coup attempt, calling for a reelection of my position as General Secretary, that the Party collapsed as many
members did not want to face a new MarxistLeninist General Secretaryship, or the hostility of it. And with hostility, i mean actual hostility, where several members would use to just throw around insults at the non-marxist-leninist members, to a point where even head mod Timanfya told me “How do you even withstand all this hate”.
While it meant the end of my GeneralSecretaryship, the collapse of the Communist Party was certainly a good thing, the Radical Socialist Party is so much better compared to the old Communists. You wouldn’t even understand how much the party itself has changed from its constant struggling to its loveliness.
However, truly, the Communist Party is something to be remembered by the MHOC, as it was unique in its kind. While the Radical Socialists are fine, i do want to see a return of the Ultraleftists to parliament in some way, as it was a defining feature for a good part of MHOC. It is sad the RCP died because of this.
The Month
Pirates
The Fall of the Pirate Party May 7th 2015, a day more memorable perhaps for the General Election, in fact it was the day in which the Pirate Party was officially born unto the world. A momentous occasion, a new age for Internet Rights had begun!
Yet, a mere 227 days later, the Party dissolved into an All-Party-Parliamentary-Group, the ship, seemingly, had sunk.
What caused the rise of the Pirate Party in the first place? And how did it eventually fall? Hear it here, from the people who were there.
The Climb - Interview with /u/ RomanCatholic
What caused the dissolvement of the SDCN and the formation of the Pirate Party?
As the election (GE III) results proved any attempts to try and normalise the CWL weren't worth it. The party's membership was non existent and I had no interest in trying to keep it staggering on.
I messaged a few people from around reddit whom I thought may be interested in starting it up (The Pirate Party). I continued on as leader of the SDCN but in reality the SDCN was just a shell of a party at this stage but I kept it going as I didn't want to dissolve it so soon after the election and because I felt I had a duty to the party.
What were things like during the first few weeks as a Party, how was activity etc?
I remember it being quite active and encouraging however the response to its formation was quite negative. People said that we were just transferring the membership of the CWL (which wasn't true) and other such comments which were frustrating.
I had wanted the SDCN MPs, myself and Stephendore, to become independent MPs (which is now the norm when a party dissolves) and then we would join the new Pirate party. But everyone found this so outrageous so that as to not alienate the House we put the two seats to by-election.
How did you find your tenure as leader up until the formation of the Triumvirate?
I look back on it fondly. Back then the party community was small but it was always very pleasant. I also do regret leading the party, I believe that in my time as leader we did prosper and that I did steer the ship well. However because I led the SDCN it was seen as me just changing some names and slapping a new logo on the SDCN.
I wasn't in it for power as some may accuse me of, there wasn't much power to be had anyway. All I wanted was for the party to be a success and I did dedicate my time and effort into establishing it, I never wanted power for the sake of power. Some won't believe me but I don't overly care, I'm finished with MHOC anyway.
The Peak - Interview with /u/ AlmightyWibble
How would you describe the period leading up to the General Election?
It was difficult, to be sure; it's hard to keep activity up when realistically, you have no influence at all in MHoC as a whole. I can remember many a day where we'd be seeing the usual drama from the Broad Left coalition, and we'd be saying "This is the day! Election incoming!" or something else to that effect. We were looking for an election virtually from day one; our manifesto was complete about 3 or 4
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Pirates months early, we had maybe 5 or 6 different lists of MP candidates, and I started pushing for a TLC +P within Labour (I remained part of the Labour Party community, even after my initial defection) almost as soon as I became Deputy Leader! The election came as long overdue to us really; in hindsight, it felt like the end of an era.
While this term saw very little with the Pirate name on it, we made sure to scribble it into the margins at every chance we got!
After the General Election, the Pirates ended up with 6 seats and a place in the governing ‘Rainbow Coalition’. How do you think the Party did in Government? Do you think you made a good account of yourselves?
Well, in one way or another, I was in the leadership of the Pirates consistently from the creation of the party, down to the end of it as a parliamentary party. It's been stressful at times, sometimes extremely so, but the experience of helping to craft a party from scratch is an amazing and exciting one. I've always been more of a backroom boy than a statesman, so leadership suits me personally a lot more than any of the other roles I could have taken up in the Pirates.
It's a mixed bag really, to be honest. On the one hand, we just didn't have enough activity to be churning out bills at the same rate as the other parties; while we didn't really submit much new legislation, we were able to submit a good amount of bills which had been written throughout the period where we had no parliamentary presence, and we were able to ensure the passing of the bills which had already been submitted to the Lords in the previous term.
On the other hand, we did play rather a large role in shaping major legislation that term; for example, the UBI (which I'm still opposed to unsurprisingly). Through my incessant criticism and Bnzss' ingenuity, UBI was turned from a heavy-handed and problematic measure into something which, while it isn't perfect, is now far better than what it would have been otherwise.
How do you view your tenure in the Party leadership? Both as a Triumvir and finally as Leader?
Deputy Leadership was probably the most relaxing time I spent in leadership; back then, there were no Triumvirs, no MPs, just me and RomanCatholic trying our hardest to make the Pirates known. Being Chairman, and later Triumvir, was very much dominated by coalition politics. I ended up being in charge of coalition negotiations, which ended up being a rather painful few days of my life. Still, we came out with a great deal for the Pirate Party, so in the end it was worth it.
Honestly, my time as leader was very short, and dominated by running internal election after internal election. I'm rather sick of that now to
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Pirates be honest! I'm missing leadership already, but hopefully I'll be going back to it soon enough ;) .
The Fall
How do you view the downfall of the Party? Do you think it could have been prevented?
The downfall of the party was unfortunate and it could've been prevented. There have been worse times facing the party, we had enough members to fill the MP seats and then some. From outside people saw everyone leaving but in my view that could have been prevented, as when people came with grievances either realistic or imaginary no effort was made to entice them into remaining the party, it seemed obvious that the party was on its last leg and AlmightyWibble believed that it would be best to dissolve the party.
But please don't interpret that as an attack on AlmightyWibble who is a good friend, but simply that it seemed to me that he was prepared to dissolve the party whereas I was slightly less willing. Wibble was a good leader and it's just a shame that the tide turned before he could do more for the party. Figgor’s defection and my
own were not meant to cause a rupture in the party, but they did. It was a shame to see it dissolve, the party could have gone on and recovered but most were not interested in allowing that to happen so as a democratic party a majority of us decided to dissolve it. - /u/ RomanCatholic
It was a long time coming. I think I could have probably prevented it in the short term, but the issue which caused its downfall was inseparably tied to who the Pirate Party are; it would have just happened again, and again, until eventually whoever was in charge would give up. I decided the Pirates didn't deserve such a long and drawn out decline, bit the bullet, and reformed the party into what it is today. - /u/AlmightyWibble
So, what now?
The Pirate Party still exists as a group of people, just not as an official Party. As for the future of the APPG which I now lead? Who can say, perhaps eventually the Pirate Party will fade out of existence entirely. However I will try to prevent that from happening wherever possible. The next few weeks will be crucial for keeping up activity and keeping the Pirate Legacy alive.
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Press
‘The Independent’ Inquiry Scandal - BBC Panorama Endeavour
JB567 and jas1066 An anonymous source at the independent has alleged bias within an investigation into articles from 'The Independent' newspaper.
An anonymous source revealed that /u/ Valttuuuuuuuuuu was the principal architect behind the questioning for the inquiry, despite the vested interest he had, with ‘The Independent’ being the largest rival to his own newspaper, ‘The Morning Star’.
Anonymous sources revealed that the establisher of the inquiry, /u/WAKEYrko, was absent from the majority of proceedings - leading to most vocal member, /u/Valttuuuuuuuuuu, running riot and dismissing any objections towards the inquiry’s neutrality. Valttuuuuuuuuuu attempted to justify this with “The team was assembled from those that were available at the time” suggesting that the investigation was botched from the start.
Member of the committee /u/DrCeaserMD said “I would like to say I want nothing more to do with this inquiry and that I am leaving” and would later comment "This inquiry is an unofficial and misleading farce!". Such discontent from one of the 4 active members of the inquiry must be noted, /u/ irelandball and /u/goonersam declined to comment
Valttuuuuuuuuuu seemed to target Imperial_ in particular with the report on multiple accounts naming him un-cooperative due to his protest over the involvement of rival publications.
“The inquiry into the Independent is an unofficial and misleading disgrace.”
Strong words from former committee member /u/ DrceaserMD, but perhaps unsuprising. Containing false information and reaching biased conclusions. It's so called head, WAKEYrko had very little involvement and Valtuuuu made it their mission to disgrace Imperial_ in particular and other members
of the team. I have in my possession a copy of the report.
Shortly after the announcing the commencement of the investigation, a broad based team was appointed from a wide range of backgrounds
The Investigation began with the questioning of /u/ Imperial_, who attempted to provide summarised knowledge into the events surrounding the Scandal. This provided information on how The Independent authors had absolute freedom to post articles with no upper control and scrutiny. It was discovered that /u/dynamic_12, a Labour Party Non-MP, had initially allowed /u/theyeatthepoo to make these claims in the Press with no suitable regulation or examination. The executives have not revealed or been able to reveal any hard evidence to support reasoning and to back up claims in the article.
This investigation would also like to note /u/ Imperial_’s clear unhelpfulness during the conducting phase, most notably as he abruptly quit citing talks with the speaker of the House of Commons. We do want to note to you dear reader that this was not an official inquiry, but merely an independent one the purpose of which was to suggest possible further action.
Therefore in conclusion, this investigation draws the blame on publishing this untruth primarily on the executives, most notably /u/Imperial_ who consistently refused to give clear answers and appeared to subvert the course of the investigation. Actions should also be taken against /u/ theyeatthepoo for writing the article. Demanding an apology and acknowledgement of their actions from the Executives and tetp should suffice, however we feel that blame ultimately lies with the news outlets for publishing such an article without proper scrutiny.