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Messages - Tar-Meneldur

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The WTA broadly agrees with the goals for education set out by MACHO. We will institute universal free primary and secondary education, with free further education available to the most academically able, and a wide programme of apprenticeships and training schemes avilable to the rest, preserving the knowledge of our skilled tradesmen and cratsmen.

We too hope that the young of all races will learn together in harmony, although we acknowledge this might be difficult at first. All species will attend the same schools, however we will ensure that all schools have at least one teacher of every race present among the student body, in order to ensure that no minorities feel misrepresented.

The WTA emphatically agrees that educators are the most qualified to determine the structure and practices of education in Middle-Earth, however we agree with MEAD's concerns over the feasibility of any "apolitical" system. Unlike MACHO, we seek to achieve this by ensuring that a proportion of the new appointments to the Upper House are of some of the land's most able educators. These Lords Educational will form the majority of any committees formed to advise the King and Cabinet on educational issues. Additionally, the Minister for Education shall usually be drawn from this group. This is an example of the approach we hope to take towards many areas of governance where expertise is necessary: thus there shall be Lords Environmental, Lords Economic, and Lords Military, drawn from among the leading individuals in the relevant fields, who shall give Parliament, the Government and the Crown supremely valuable guidance on their areas of expertise. This will also ensure that many ministers in His Majesty's Cabinet will be specialists and experts in their fields, rather than politicians with no specific knowledge.

We must criticise MACHO's statement that the failure of an apolitical teaching board will simply be due to "a failure of the nature of sentient species, not the policy". If a policy fails because the people of Middle-Earth cannot function with it, then it is a failure and should not be considered. The WTA does not believe that such excuses for the failure of government are in any way acceptable.

The WTA too must strongly condemn the educational policies of the SSS as strongly divisive and a significant barrier to the progression of our society.

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The WTA's leader, Prince Imrahil, shall stand for election in his home constituency of Dol Amroth and the Coasts. His deputy, Angbor of Lamedon, shall stand in the Vales of Gondor.

Our special target constituencies shall be Minas Tirith, Erebor & Dale, The Riverlands, and the Iron Hills.

Vote WTA for a stable society and economy, for equality, justice and freedom, for strong infrastructure and free trade, and for good sense and moderation in all decisions. Long live the King!

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Tolkien & LOTR / Re: Middle-earth General Election: Hustings Round!
« on: April 07, 2015, 06:39:27 PM »
To MACHO:
The WTA apologises if we have given the impression that those outside the nobility will have no place in government: the existing hereditary nobility will form the initial upper house of Parliament, whose composition will be become more varied as honours are bestowed upon meritocratically successful members of our society. The lower house will be entirely elected. Both houses will be able to introduce legislation and both will have to debate any new legislation before the King passes his final judgement.

To GAP:
Thank you for the clarification. While there are many areas where we disagree the WTA feels that our views on many of those issues have been adequately covered in previous posts. We wholeheartedly agree with you on the importance of education, and feel that most of your desires are ours as well, however we doubt that the implementation of your ideas will work in the short- to medium-term. Education can only show its benefits when the new generation comes to hold power and lead communities, and we feel there are many issues in Middle-Earth, especially equalities issues, which need to be tackled far more quickly. We believe that your proposal of citizen-level encouragement taking the place of many of the functions of law and order would be very difficult to implement, especially since many elders will hold different views to the government. In many cases, the prejudices we hope to combat will be views held by many local people, and thus any action your policy succeeds in producing will not occur for many generations.

To MEAD:
The WTA too admires the sentiment behind most of your five pledges, however we cannot agree with them in their specifics. Your pledges on marriage equality and discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sex and sexuality we wholeheartedly agree with, as well as those on abortion and euthanasia. Unlike MACHO, we feel that allowing those in pain to choose to end their own lives in no way contradicts Death's holy status as Eru's gift.

While we agree with the sentiment behind your Bill of Rights, we would prefer to set down the rights of the peoples of Middle-Earth in a non-legally-binding fashion, to allow these principles to guide the actions of government without placing it under the power of the judiciary to interpret this Bill. We emphatically agree with the abolishment of the death penalty.

The WTA certainly would not like to see our citizens under strict surveillance, however we would not like to entirely outlaw such practices. We would rather pass legislation to ensure that personal surveillance is carried out only by the national secret service,, and only in cases where significant evidence already exists to support a clear suspicion of illicit activity on a large scale - for example drug-smuggling operations and large-scale fraud. We would ensure that approval is needed from a variety of high-level figures for surveillance to proceed, and ensure that personal surveillance information, where it exists, is kept under strict security. We feel that strict controls on surveillance would be a better policy than an outright ban.

We have previously articulated our doubts about giving local communities too much power; we must disagree with allowing them power over policing, which we feel would leave this important public service too open to corruption. This is especially worrying in policing, due to how easily the police could become percieved as intimidating rather than approachable. We also share MACHO's concerns about the possibility of ethnic militias.


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Tolkien & LOTR / Re: Middle-earth General Election: Hustings Round!
« on: April 06, 2015, 10:48:47 PM »
To the SSS:
The WTA certainly shares MACHO's concerns about SSS's apparent tendencies towards violence and racism. Despite the SSS's assertion that such issues are "boring", we must ask what Shagrat's government intends to do about the wide range of challenges facing Middle-Earth. Their proclamation that nationalised Mithril mining will fund the State leaves us unconvinced: for how long can the price of Mithril stay as high as it is now with mass mining flooding the market? While we sympathise with Shagrat for Sauron's cruel use of him, we fail to see how this demonstrates his qualites as a suitable leader. Experience as the leader of a small warband does not make a political leader. How will Middle-Earth be governed by the SSS? A monarchy under Shagrat? A democracy? An oligarchy of all those wearing Mithril shirts?

To Green Arda:
your proclamation of the aread that concern you is of course all very well, but the WTA must request details of your specific policies. How do you propose to manage the economy? Maintain law and order? Do you have any specific environmental legislation you intend to enact? How will you ensure racial equality?

To MACHO:
While it is true that Middle-Earth's existing nobility have experience only of rule during a non-peaceful period, this does not mean that war is their only area of expertise. During war, the economy and commerce must still be managed effectively, law must still be maintained and civilian issues judged upon. We reject that experience of governance only during times of war implies an unfitness to govern during peacetime. It is still the case that experience in managing nations and regions exists only with the present nobility (with only very few exceptions), and to overlook this experience when setting up our new order would be a colossal waste of expertise.

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Tolkien & LOTR / Re: Middle-earth General Election: Hustings Round!
« on: April 04, 2015, 10:01:30 PM »
The WTA rejects most emphatically allegations of racism in our policies of separation of constituencies on the basis of race. We must draw the important distinction that "races" of humans are not only equal as sentient beings, they are also the same in all regards except appearance. The "races" within humanity have the same human needs, and the same human flaws. Any human may trust another to understand their needs. However, the races of Middle-Earth are a different situation. All sentient species are equal in rights, must be equal in the eyes of the law, however they are, at least at the moment, undeniably different. It is an unfortunate fact that the races of Middle-Earth, with only a few exceptions, live in segregation.

Consider the Iron Hills. The very small population of dragons relative to that of dwarves and goblins, and the present lack of knowledge, even distrust, of the groups for each other, means that it is likely that constituencies would elect dwarf and goblin members of parliament. There are not dwarves who have lived among the dragons, who now their wishes and desires, who feel their pain. The enormous amount of work that needs to be done in Middle-Earth for racial equality and harmony must proceed quickly. The needs of the minority races, the dragons, the Ents, the trolls, the eagles, cannot be adequately represented to Parliament by the humans, dwarves, and orcs of today's world. In such a government, their voices would be suppressed by those of the majority. A dwarf representative would likely have trouble adequately arguing in Parliament for the concerns of the dragons in his constituency. An Ent may dislike his representation in Parliament being a human, who would face great difficulty understanding the concerns of Ents. Unfortunately we live in a world with great racial divisions that need to be torn down. This can only be accomplished by forcing representation for the races with sparse populations.

Our policies are in place to ensure that the voices of the minority races of Middle-Earth are heard. Perhaps in three generations Middle-Earth will progress harmonious villages where trolls live with elves, where humans live with Eagles. Where racial relations no longer need to be discussed, will be viewed as an unfortunate feature of the unenlightened past. Where an Ent would be pleased his orc representative. This is the world the WTA wants to build. But we must be practical. To achieve this ideal, we must allow the voices of all races to be heard. Otherwise we will find ourselves in a world that has developed relations between the dwarves and elves and humans and orcs, while the minority races' needs are sadly neglected. Racism exists. It is a sad and serious fact. And we need to allow representation to all.

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Tolkien & LOTR / Re: Middle-earth General Election: Hustings Round!
« on: April 04, 2015, 05:34:44 PM »
In response to MACHO's criticism of monarchy, the WTA firmly believes that monarchy is the best system of governance for Middle-Earth at this time. We acknowledge that "centuries of slow and steady decline" are both undesirable and the likely outcome of continual monarchy. Our reason for desiring a monarchy for Middle-Earth is that the generations of stability that a monarchy provide will be the ideal base for a more cautious investigation of the alternatives. We see MACHO's and MEAD's proposals of the immediate introduction of democracy as grossly irresponsible, ignoring the great risk of widespread catastrophic upheaval because of the untested hope of something better. A monarchy under Prince Imrahil will allow us to recover from the devastating War and rebuild our society and our economy without putting us at risk of further upheaval. Once we have recovered, we may start to cautiously investigate options for Middle-Earth's long-term future.

While we acknowledge that expertise certainly does exist outside the hands of the nobility in many areas, including commerce, the WTA maintains that overlooking the experience of nobility and royalty would be a tremendous waste of the resources at hand. Statesmanship is not the same as running a business, and while the accomplished merchants will be an important voice in our Parliament, we believe that the experience of ruling held by the existing ruling classes is of utmost importance for a stable transitionary period. Only in the Shire, the one democratic region currently in existence, and a region with very different requirements of a government to Middle-Earth as a whole, is there any knowledge of statesmanship among the commoners. Obviously this is a deplorable and deeply unfortunate and classist situation, however the way to fight inequality is not to knock down the fortunate, it is to raise up the unfortunate.  By forsaking the nobility, MACHO and MEAD will harm Middle-Earth while benefitting no-one, unlike the WTA, who will help the underpriveliged while maintaining Middle-Earth's expertise.

Our ennoblement and honours system will move power in the nobility gradually, over many generations, away from the hereditary upper classes towards meritocratic experts, allowing us not to waste Middle-Earth's accumulated knowledge and wisdom.

In response to allegations that centralised power will result in corruption, I must disagree. As we have stated above, there is strong historical evidence that over the scale of a few centuries, monarchy is stable. In other words, hereditary monarchs remain righteous for many generations. Since we can, in the medium term, be sure of the moral integrity of our King and his advisers, this group can ensure that the middle management of the nation do not fall to corruption. Additionally, we hope that openness of government and freedom of press and reporting will lead to the discrediting of politicians who become corrupt. We agree with MACHO that leaving the control of taxation and of tax-collecting to local authorities presents a far greater risk of corruption than a centralised system, where the watchers and the watched may be in close proximity. We emphatically disagree that local systems make it easier to remove corrupt officials, as in small localities, the very small size of government makes it all too easy for corruption to reach the core, whereas in a larger central body, hundreds of politicians will be watching each other, all will be watched from above by the King and his councillors, and the public will be watching all. We feel that the danger posed by corruption at a small scale is too serious to risk. Local bodies will be better regulated by independent central bodies, who will be non-partisan in local issues so better able to make balanced decisions. Again, the greater size of the central government makes redundancies and safety precautions far more feasible.

On currencies, the WTA too hopes to introduce a universal paper- and credit-based currency, backed by a central bank, and made feasible by our unified fiscal policy. Together with our improvements in infrastructure, this should increase the trading power of local communities and facilitate our program for redistribuing wealth. We agree that paper money will be far more difficult to forge than coinage is.

And to Glaurung, the WTA takes the welfare of all sentient inhabitants of Middle-Earth most seriously. Due to the heterogeneity of the needs and desires of the different races of Middle-Earth, the system of elections to Parliament shall be organised such that Middle-Earth is split up into many overlapping sets of constituencies, one set for each race, to ensure adequate representation of races in minority areas. This way, the dragons, who, as a small minority in all of Middle-Earth except perhaps the Grey Mountains, will have the power to elect a couple of members of Parliament, while otherwise their needs could be sadly overloooked. As another example, as well as the several constituencies for the Men in Rohan, there will be one for the Dwarves, so that the inhabitants of the Glittering Caves may have a vote. This system will also encourage the mainstream political parties to appoint officials of differing races to positions of power.

Additionally, the WTA must highlight our opponent's use of the deeply offensive term "dragon-sickness" in reference to government corruption. The WTA considers stereotyping utterly unacceptable, and deplore the use of such racially-charged language.

Our paper- and credit-based currency will allow those dragons with a love of collection gold and jewellery to do so in a way that is not detrimental to local communities or the economy. The free market and our equality legislation will allow dragons to obtain jobs (for example in academia, in politics, in business), or to hire out their unique services (for example, for high-speed transportation in competition with the eagles, or the production of high-temperature environments for research and industry). Our education system will end the fear of dragons that is widespread among the other races, allowing dragons to take their place among the free people of Middle-Earth.

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Tolkien & LOTR / Re: Middle-earth General Election: Hustings Round!
« on: April 02, 2015, 10:26:39 PM »
In response to the criticisms of monarchy:
The WTA agrees that there have been significant historical cases of monarchical imperfection causing great suffering. We might even be persuaded that monarchy might seem to result in an inevitable slow decline of civilisation. However, we maintain that the number of historical cases of sudden failure of monarchy are few compared to the evidence for its medium-term (a few centuries) stability. Indeed, Isildur, Feanor and others were sudden failures in noble lines, but consider the monarchies of Numenor, Gondor and Arnor, all characterised by slow, stable decline on this timescale. There is irrefutable evidence that monarchy can result in milennia-long stability for a civilisation, and although we admit that monarchy is certainly imperfect, the strength of the evidence of its quality as at least acceptable is far more than there exists for the essentially untested and radical propositions of our opponents. Progress must come, but must be taken with care from a stable platform, rather than in a manner characterised by mad jumps for safety off a failing structure. As the long-term hereditary ruler of a prosperous city-state and region, as well as adviser to the late King, our leader has great knowledge and experience of statesmanship and we believe that he and his descendants shall keep Middle-Earth heading in the right direction for at least a couple of centuries to come, until we are in a more informed position to decide our (very-)long-term system of governance.

To MEAD:
How do you intend for your proposals of locally-determined fiscal policy to function when there is such great inequality of resources between the regions? Gondor and the Dwarven kingdoms will control the great majority of the money supply, and so given your free-trade ideas (which we, of course, agree with) the economic fates of lesser regions will be essentially determined by the choices, good or bad, of the powerful ones. Additionally, given the large fertile swathes of Middle-Earth that have lain uninhabited this past Age due to their so far unsafe nature, will not this modern age of peace, prosperity and policing result in large-scale migration which your decentralised powers will be essentially unable to deal with? The WTA believes that the position of such greatly decentralised power cannot result in a stable state in the current non-equilibrium political and economic climate. The grossly inhomogeneous distribution in Middle-Earth of skills and resources and the shared currency are not compatible with multiple independent legislating bodies in a free trade environment, and is likely to lead to widening inequality and instability without central intervention.

To MACHO:
Our parties seem to agree on most issues outside the constitutional, however I must ask both you and MEAD how you believe that an entirely new elected democratic government is to succeed in the short term, when we live in a world where experience and knowledge in statesmanship, and where, at least for now, education in general, reside almost entirely with the nobility?

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Tolkien & LOTR / Re: Middle Earth General Election: Hustings Round!
« on: April 01, 2015, 10:41:29 PM »
Right, an opening from the WTA. Given the necessarily polemic nature of our brief initial statement, I shall here attempt rather to explain the reasoning behind our beliefs on an intellectual level wherever possible rather than simply stating them. Our initial statement was intended to, in a few paragraphs, gain the votes of those we thought were most likely to come to us, a mostly Gondorian loyalist population, as well as those at the right disenchanted by the other parties present, drawing them to our centrist position relative to the other left-wing parties. That statement necessarily gave a one-sided view of our policies. Here, in this longer and more considered piece, I am utterly open. I take the opportunity to appeal not to the anger of the disgruntled, but to the intelligence of the informed reader, in the hope that my belief in the fundamental goodness of all races is not misplaced.

Core beliefs
The Alliance's core item on our manifesto is, of course, in the hereditary monarchichal system's suitability for continuing, at least for now, as the primary system of government for Middle-Earth, at least on a large scale. From a wider viewpoint, our goal is to create a morally sound, fair and prosperous society for the citizens of Middle-Earth, and of this our support for monarchy is simply one aspect.

We are not moral relativists. The WTA, as far as meta-ethics goes, believes in the existence of objective morality, that there is a single correct moral analysis of every scenario, although it is often difficult for we people to see that moral truth. We hold that the primary responsibility of a government is to make the morally right decisions. While many alternative ideas, such as democracy, show great promise, we are unwilling to trust our entire society to utterly untested political systems. We advise caution. We advise that when dealing with something as important as the society in which we live, we should move tentatively, with small-scale trials and with significant research and inquiry, exploring all the options. This is especially true when, as now, the status quo is not entirely awful. There may be a need for swift action, and this would be the case under, say an oppressive dictatorship. But it is not the case now. The tragically brief reign of King Elessar showed us prosperity, fairness and justice to an extent unseen for a millenium, and we believe that it is by building on his work that we can make the most effective progress with the least risk of disaster. Middle-Earth has just begun its recovery from the devastation of the War, and to throw ourselves decisively into immediate drastic action would be gravely irresponsible at such a time.

In short, don't be hasty.

On Democracy and Monarchy (with a bit more Core Beliefs)
We acknowledge the theoretical advantages of a democracy - it fulfils the criterion that the responsibility of government is to make the morally correct decisions, if we assume that the morals of the people are likely to be a good approximation to true morality, and that this will result in a democracy making the correct decisions. Believing as we do in the fundamental redeemability of all peoples of Arda, at least the first assumption seems probable.

However, democracy is an almost entirely untested system. While its use in the Shire has been effective, we do not belive that there is anywhere near sufficient evidence of its efficacy and stability to allow us to endorse its introduction in Middle-Earth at all. Its hasty adoption would go entirely against our doctrine of caution as outlined above.

The WTA would like to investigate democracy, and suggests that we begin a comprehensive program of research, headed by our most distinguished loremasters. We would like to move several local authorities to a representative democratic system, encouraging on a small scale the transfer, in these few test regions, of powers from the monarchy to elected councils. Evaluating the results of democracy across various cultures will enable us to make an informed decision as to whether it could work in Middle-Earth as a whole. We would also welcome suggestions of other possible systems of government, to undergo similar trials.

Giving the people the power to bloodlessly oust poor leaders is a phenomenal advantage of democracy. Its potential for long-term stability, we admit, looks like it could be superior to that of hereditary monarchy. We acknowledge history's example of the countless noble dynasties that fell to desire, greed, pride, and petty squabbling. However, consider history's example of the timescales over which this occurs. NĂºmenor's ruling Kings were exemplary for a thousand years before greed began to sow its seeds. The line of AnĂ¡rion in Gondor suffered only gradual decline for a similar period. Even among the shorter-lived races, it is clear that it takes at least a few generations for evil to sow its seeds in a noble line of kings and queens. But consider the timescales over which we could cautiously experiment with forms of government, with policies. A comprehensive evaluation of democracy (or something else) could easily be carried out within a century - far within the time we are allowed before the risk of monarchy wavering looms.


In short, in this as in all other matters, we do not advocate mindless conservatism, but rather caution, caution when dealing with the society that is dear to us. To achieve greatness enduring without falling into darkness, we must be open-minded whilst remaining tentative, rational while remaining compassionate. Only then may we progress without losing what is dearest to us.


On more specific policies
Here we step down a level. Here we stop talking about how decisions should be made and start talking about deciding. Everything I say hereon is the WTA's opinion on what we currently think is a good idea to implement in Society. In line with our core beliefs, every recommendation that we cite below should be taken as our current idea of what might be a good plan. Our party would consider every major step, probably conducting small-scale trials of all the alternative, taking advice from cross-social opinion polls, from both Houses of our proposed parliament, from the King's councillors. Getting to the point, our non-core policies are mutable. If they don't seem a good idea, we'll change them. If there's a lot of criticism, we'll take that into consideration, always erring on the side of caution. With that little caveat out of the way, here we go:

The WTA believes in a society where no citizen is in poverty, where everyone has a chance to succeed, where everyone is guaranteed a minimum standard of life, where one's start in life, one's race, one's beliefs, have no effect on what one may achieve; but also a society where talent, intelligence, and hard work are rewarded, where people may make of themselves what they will. A society where sanctions for rulebreaking are given not to personally punish or to chastise, not to morally condemn, but rather to to rehabilitate and to protect society from personal actions that are dangerous to it. A society that is unafraid to use its resources while managing them sustainably and with due consideration. A society where people may back to their ancestors with pride, benefitting from their knowledge and sacrifice without meaninglessly repeating their actions. A society where knowledge informs action. A society that for guidance looks neither upwards nor backwards, but outwards. A society where moderation is our adviser without being our captor.

The more specific policies themselves

Economy, commerce, welfare, and public services
The markets are neither a blessing nor a curse. They are forces and effects. Any view that places "the markets" anywhere on a good-evil axis is undoubtedly making a rushed and uninformed decision. The WTA sees the remarkable power of money to enable an ensemble of people acting selfishly to benefit the prosperity of all. We also see the power of money to grossly neglect some while propelling others. The markets are phenomenally efficient as a tool for assigning resources where they are required: they co-ordinate needs and wants with supplies and resources with far more efficact than could any co-ordinator. Yet their merciless cycles can fling many into the depths of poverty.

The WTA therefore seeks to regulate what must be regulated for the good of the people and for society as a whole, while leaving free what can be left free, and removing restrictions where restrictions are unnecessary. Aspects of this include creating an unconditional monteary allowance for all citizens, large enough to allow an acceptable, while not luxurious, life. We propose universal healthcare free at the point of use, and universal free education to the end of childhood for all, and further for the brightest. The simplicity of these policies will reduce bureaucratic cost compared to the complexity of means-testing &c. A moderate armed force will be maintained as a cautious measure due to the youth of this period of peace, and police and firefighting services will be created where possible. Through these policies, everyone will have access to clean water, to a warm room to live in, to the food they need, to education, to healthcare and to a safe society.

We will not impose any kind of minimum wage, as the personal allowance means that the lowest wage is high enough. However, the allowance's existance will increase wages by forcing employers to pay enough that employees' marginal gain in living standards in getting a job is worth the extra effort, as a job will no longer be a requirement of survival. The need for workers should drive the labour cost high enough to ensure that a large majority choose to work.

Public services will be funded by progressive income taxation. The taxation will be present from zero income, again because of the personal allowance, but will be low enough at low incomes to ensure people have good incentive to work. It will be higher at high incomes to be fair, but remain low enough to encourage increased wealth. The decision on whether the provision of public services is better achieved by awarding contracts to the private sector or by nationalised efforts will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. As always, we intend to in the name of efficiency leave to the free market what we can, while restricting what could be damaging. At the moment, we intend to award contracts for building and maintaining infrastructure to the private sector while maintaining public ownership of the infrastructure itself. We will adopt a mixed approach to healthcare, but we will run education, policing and the military on a nationalised basis.

We will attempt to remove barriers to free trade and improve infrastructure to allow strong commerce to develop in Middle-Earth. We will be removing Middle-Earth from the gold standard and establishing a central bank to control the supply of money, allowing for a more stable economy. We will use the current period of prosperity in the wake of the War's ending to save money in a central wealth fund, to be used to ride out economic slumps in the future without accruing large national debts.

Middle-Earth's economy badly needs modernising. While Mordor and Isengard embraced industry, the rest of the continent has remained a dominantly agricultural economy. Subsidies will be introduced for land reform and for innovation as well as for exploration far afield to open new markets to commerce. We will also invest significant resources in research into more efficient methods of manufacturing, mining, and farming.

Nobility
The WTA recommends the maintenance of the nobility as a historical institution, to be used to honour the most prominent and accomplished members of our society. The hereditary nature of existing noble titles will be maintained, although no special privileges of monetary inheritance will be permitted, meaning that only well-managed estates will survive. New noble titles, however, will be created for life only. The King will bestow such honours on the advice of his councillors, giving them to the great in our society, for great accomplishment within a profession, especially for those in academia, in law, in politics, and in the military. Also considered will be great work for charity, otherwise greatly serving the nation through political, or economic efforts or anything else.

Legislature and Judiciary
A bicameral central parliament will be established in Minas Tirith, our capital, where appointed nobility in the upper house and elected commoners in the lower house may legislate while advising the King on matters of State. The King will appoint ministers to his Cabinet, whom Parliament will have the power to dismiss with a large majority, as well as giving assent to legislation (and withholding it where necessary). A hierarchy of criminal and civil courts will be created, preserving where possible the heterogeneous systems currently in existence. The judiciary will exist in concert with central and local legislatures. While large-scale decisions must be centrally made to ensure fairness across our realms and to ensure the stability of our shared economy, power will be devolved to local government wherever possible. A written legal consititution will be eschewed in favour of a non-binding statement of purpose for society, in order to better prevent its misinterpretation, and to reduce the power of the judiciary to interfere with the legislature.

Equality
Matters of equality will be treated seriously. A combination of regulation and economic incentives will be used to ensure an egalitarian society for all. Examples of our policies in equalities include forcing all new commercial builds to allow sufficient doorway and ceiling heights to admit all races entry, from hobbits to Men and Elves, with an additional requirement to allow sufficient height for Ents and Trolls if the representatives of those races in local government request it. While the personal allowance will cover maternity pay, the State will (as well as requiring employers to grant maternity leave), grant an allowance to employers of mothers to offset the administrative costs of finding replacements. Equalities officers of all races will be recruited to act as inspectors at all levels of society, ensuring fair access to all insititutions regardless of race.

Environment
While our current civilisation has little environmental impact due to our sparse population, the environment has the potential to become a very serious issue. The need to limit barriers to industry and commerce must be balanced by the need to protect our environment and responsibly manage our resources, which, like equality, will be accomplished by an informed combination of regulation and economic incentives.

Culture
Local governments' budgets will include allowance for cultural spending, such as museums, arts funding, cultural centres, protection of minority languages etc.

--

We encourage citizens to vote White Tree for a fair, prosperous, and above all, sensible society. Hopefully I haven't bored anyone with this somewhat-lengthier-than-intended manifesto. Don't be hasty, vote White Tree for moderation and good sense!.

9
Left/Right: 2.12
Up/Down: -2.87

Religion: complicated, but I usually go with "unaligned theist"

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