SENDER ID: Max Cosmatopolis RECIPIENT: Prime Minister Elizabeth Hall SUBJECT: Gran Canaria
Prime Minister Elizabeth Hall
Firstly I congratulate you on your ascension to Prime Minister, I hope you shall be more diplomatic in talks. Secondly is Gran Canaria, now I've been out of the woods so t' speak for a couple weeks now, ah've seen Gran Canaria and you have officially abandoned it along with it's dockin' rings. This is mighty peculiar, as I did believe we had a some-what softening of diplomatic relations between Zoners and Bretonia. Please explain why Bretonia has done this, and if you have any intentions of returnin' Prime Minister
Encryption: Sandringham
To: Max Cosmatopolis, Velvet
From: Secretary to the Prime Minister Leicester Blackett, Bretonia
My salutations to you, Max Cosmatopolis of the Velvet, and the prime minister's. She sends you her regards, but it is her deep regret that she cannot spare the time to talk with you herself because all her attention has been engrossed by the government's current circumstances. I hope that my humble self can satisfy your intrusively insatiable esurience for information.
National governments are sophisticated machines. A machine can work, a machine can produce, a machine can injure. But a machine never feels wrong, nor right. Governments should not be seen as individuals, even if they are groups made up of individuals. Those individuals never all think the same and it is never the same individuals that do the thinking. Sometimes a government can be seen to conflict with its own self, but in fact it never does, because a government does not have a self. It is merely that one day certain individuals will happen to support ideas that are more easily accepted by the relevant majority, and the other day it will be other individuals with different ideas. At least, this implies for parliamentary governments. Autocracies can be more consistent, but they can also be more consistent at being inconsistent, if you're following me, depending on the autocrat's general state of mind. Bretonia is indeed a monarchy, but it is not an autocracy, so public opinion does have a weight, but we all know that public opinion is not a constant. What is a constant is Bretonia's signature, or that of its representatives, so you needn't worry that our treaties would suddenly cease to be valid without us telling you.
I trust that I was sufficiently clear. Good bye, Max Cosmatopolis of the Velvet, and a pleasant day to you.