The Middle Earth General Election: THE ELECTION DEBATE

[Jubal]

Far from creating different educational standards, MEAD believes that it is only by allowing local areas to decide what is right for them that we can get an education system that genuinely serves the needs of Middle-Earth's people. We will ensure that no area is left behind financially through our federal wealth taxation, and we will ensure that local regions are not trapped in a central "one size fits all" model.

[Tar-Meneldur]

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.

[Tar-Palantir]

MACHO would like to make the point that a more apolitical educational system should be at least tried, rather than abandoning all efforts and instituting a political one. If it becomes political, nothing is lost; if it works, much is gained.

We would like to ask the WTA who will control the specialist appointments to their proposed upper chamber? Could this process not be open to abuse?

[Eowyn]

Needless to say, Green Arda does not condone of the divisive and discriminatory policies suggested by SSS.

While we like the idea of expert panels for more areas of governance, we also query how the suggested specialist sectoral commission would be elected?

Furthermore, we oppose the male-orientated nomenclature that is suggested for this. This shows the WTA's automatic assumption of a patriarchal way of running Middle Earth. This goes against our beliefs in equality of genders, and Green Arda would strongly oppose this nomenclature. We would suggest names suggest as "specialist group" or "expert commission".

WTA also refer to His Majesty, but these elections are being held precisely because His Majesty is deceased...

[Jubal]

THE VOTING WINDOW IS NOW OPEN.

People may cast their ballots whenever

[Eadfrith]

Voting in both Ithilien and Gorgoroth & Dol Amroth and the Coast has now finished, but a significant part of my Gondorian constituents (10-15%), many of whom are ex-service men wish it to be know that they find the entire idea of voting for rulership farcical.
Rule comes not from a mandate from the masses but divine judgement made clear through military victory. They favour a return to the Stewardship as the natural successor to the hereditary kingship of Numenor, and will fight to make it so.

unfortunately, without an elected government, this popular opposition has nothing to oppose... They are therefore going round beating up Orcs, Ubarians and Haradrim as the natural fallback.

What will the new government do to relieve these social tensions?

[Glaurung]

Voting is now complete in the Cardolan, Dorwinion & Near Rhun, and Dunland & the Isen constituencies.

[Tar-Palantir]

To relieve social tensions in the lands of Gondor, MACHO will endeavour to create jobs and set up social initiatives to promote harmony and tolerance. As many of the restive constituents are ex-servicemen, we feel they would be ideally suited to joining MACHO's proposed (small) central police and defence forces, where their undoubted skills can be put to use for the good of all of Middle-earth.

MACHO would also like to make the argument that, if a mandate for rule comes from divine judgement, both the Stewardship and the monarchy have evidently incurred divine displeasure, so should not a new democratic form of government be tried? Eru's mind is unknowable to those of us in the Mortal Lands - it may be that democracy is part of his plan for Arda. By joining the central defence and police forces, these ex-servicemen will have the perfect opportunity to find out. They cannot expect a new government to have military success if all the trained military personnel withhold their service to find out if it will be militarily-successful.

Vote MACHO for a fairer government for all!

[Eadfrith]

By your own logic, the masses cannot provide judgement on the will of Eru, so cannot decide who holds power!

[Jubal]

We of MEAD feel that appeasement is not always the answer when faced with bloodthirst and religious fanaticism. This mentality - the idea of right to rule - is exactly what the free peoples of Middle-Earth have suffered and fought against for so long. It was this mentality that bound together the servants of all autocrats, and it is the antithesis of what MEAD stands for. The idea of binding religiously motivated rabblerousers into the central police force proposed by MACHO will, we think, be of great concern to many residents of Middle-Earth. How will people in Harad or Rhun find it when their central police forces are formed of fanatics who believe in military conquest and the divine right of kings? These ill-thought proposals must be withdrawn; they are only a recipe for further tension and unrest.

We will give local people the powers they need to deal with these problems; given how vast Middle-Earth is, it could be days or weeks before significant central help arrives to deal with unrest, and it is clear that these things need to be dealt with locally. We call upon all involved in such violent movements, and community leaders in their area, to encourage immediate disarmament. Given the high level of tension at this difficult time, we may consider an amnesty should we enter government, but it would be a betrayal of both the specific victims of attacks and the wider communities the attacks have disrupted to indicate that we consider these people anything but criminals. The fires of Gondorian nationalism must not be allowed to consume Middle-Earth; a vote for MEAD will be a vote for standing firm against those who would seek power and domination over others.

As the election moves on, it seems to be becoming clear that it is unlikely any party will be able to form a majority government. We wish to make our first pledges known on this front:

• MEAD will not form a government with, or work with, the White Tree Alliance. Our commitment to democracy is absolute and unwavering. This is not merely about elections; it is about people across Middle-Earth having the right to determine how to run their lives.
• Similarly, we wish to rule out any coalition or policy agreement with the SSS, whose militarism is the opposite of the values we believe will lead to a better Middle-Earth.
• In any coalition negotiations, we will have a number of policies that will be an absolute requirement of any agreement. The first three of these "red lines" are as follows:
• Our Sentient Beings Rights Bill that will provide basic standards of decency and humanity to all citizens, regardless of gender, sexuality, and species. This would include not being spied upon by the state and not being discriminated against on any of the aforementioned grounds. The peoples of Middle earth must have their individual liberties and rights protected at all costs.
• Our pledge to not impose federal sales taxes on businesses employing three or fewer people. We think this is a vital move to allow peasant smallholdings and other small businesses to really get ahead. Taxation for federal programmes should only come from the pockets of the large hereditary estate-holders, not from the ordinary cobbler, blacksmith, or farmer.
• Creating a fairly funded, locally sensitive education system. Education is absolutely at the heart of what we want to do, giving local people - adults as well as children - the skills base they need to stand up for themselves as individuals and improve their lives. Education will help people help themselves; we are committed to providing it in a way that is flexible and sensitive to local needs, as well as being free at the point of use.

[Tar-Palantir]

The point MACHO were making is that no one can know the mind of Eru, therefore who is to say whether a government has his favour? The government must be given a chance and judged on its actions and achievements, rather than condemned for purely ideological reasons. The masses should therefore withhold their opprobrium at this stage.

We disagree with MEAD that we are appeasing one particular section of society. We certainly do not envisage that the defence forces will be made up exclusively of Gondorians (or any other group), but were pointing out that this may be a way that militarily-able members of society could put their skills to better use, rather than fomenting rebellion at home. Any factionalism in any central institution will have a very dim view taken of it by the government. We anticipate the military and the police to be a visible standard bearer for the united society MACHO strives for. Initially, we concede that some areas may feel more comfortable not being policed by representatives of those they have fought so long with, but we hope the high level of training and courteousness of all members and representatives of a MACHO-led government would rapidly overcome such obstacles.

We feel MEAD's proposals to create what are effectively local militias at what they themselves acknowledge is a time of great tension will greatly increase the chances of ethnic cleansing in some areas. Needless to say, this would be disastrous.

With regards to initial pledges, MACHO:

• Will not form a coalition with the SSS, whose views we feel are inimical to what we seek to achieve
• As a party commited to fighting for the rights of minorities and democracy, we also oppose the establishment and authoritarian bias of the WTA
• Will ensure the Brown Lands are reforested and turned into a memorial arboretum for all the dead of all the races of Middle-earth
• Will reach out to our neighbours to allow people in frontier regions to live in greater security with enhanced trade. We will oppose all narrow, sectarian policies and jingoistic mindsets. Middle-earth must move on from its past
• Will create a central police and defence force to act as a standard bearer for integration and to ensure that all citizens of Middle-earth can live in security, regardless of race or belief
• Will ensure formal equality for all races, which will be enshrined in a non-politically-controlled education system that caters to the needs of all