Bretonian Government

[pchwang]

I completely agree with Adrian regarding the part about the Constitution. I've brought it up in the discussions in the skype chat, and I'll reiterate it here again.

What is written above isn't even a constitution, which is essentially a large document about laws. The above document is about various parts of the government and their respective functions...it touches on conventions of sorts, but that's barely enough to call it a constitution.

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[7:42:05 PM][6:51:36 PM] Igor (Smokey): btw terry
[6:51:48 PM] Terrance Cooper: Ye?
[6:52:00 PM] Igor (Smokey): nothin
[6:52:03 PM] Igor (Smokey): just sayin btw
[6:52:05 PM] Terrance Cooper: <_<

Johnny_Haas: you shot anti criuse speed rockets!!!
Johnny_Haas: but why????
Johnny_Haas: ??
Johnny_Haas: why you shoot criuse speed rockets?

[bluntpencil2001]

Actually, it's more a list of honours really, which is fine.

It's the title, the whole constitution thing, that bothers me.

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[pbrione]

The above document is about various parts of the government and their respective functions

Well....to be honest that is pretty much what a Constitution is supposed to do (e.g. US Constitution describes the functions of the legislative, executive and judical branches of government)

In the respect that this sets out what the various branches of government are and how they relate to one another it does contain a constitution within it (specifically articles 2, 3, 7 and 9) but it also has lots of other non-constitutional things within it, describing how the nation of Bretonia is to operate on a cultural as well as political level. Unfortunately, there is no existing word to describe such a document, so short of making up a name for it, I struggle to see any alternative, unless you can suggest something suitable.

Personally, I don't see that it matters too much what it's called - the document is essentially the same regardless of its title. What's in a name, anyway?

Still, if you don't like it, suggest an alternative title...

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Sir Stanley Nelson




<span style="color:#000066">Charles Canning </span><span style="color:#000066"> Foreign Secretary</span>

[pbrione]

Also, life peerages... well, they're picked by political parties. Theoretically, if the PM in RL wanted to, he could make as many as he liked if he wanted to push legislation through. Creation of peerages like this has been done before, and peerages have even been exchanged for cash. In the past decade.

Regarding this point, I would argue that Bretonia is operating far more like pre-19th Century Britain, where the Monarch had a far more active role in politics, and peers were appointed purely on the Monarch's own personal discretion, rather than on the instruction or even advice of any ministers or parties. Since the outlawing of the populists, I think we have generally been considering the Bretonian Parliament to be absent of any strong political parties; instead there are just fluid coalitions of constantly changing personal loyalties.

Discovery Houses are nowhere near supposed to be anything like perfect copies of their 21st Century Earth counterparts.

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Sir Stanley Nelson




<span style="color:#000066">Charles Canning </span><span style="color:#000066"> Foreign Secretary</span>

[Dieter Schprokets]

The concern about the term "constitution" flows out of the fact that Great Britain has no such thing (not written in any case), much to the confusion of many non-Britons. People assume Democracies have constitutions. Heck, even Canada has one (Though the British North America act was better.)

Blunt, as a politics/history wonk, knows this, and the word "Constitution" makes him twitch, and to be honest, it does me too, for the same reason, but I twitch less..

However, like LeMaitre said, we have no reason to think Bretonia should act exactly like modern day Great Britain, and if we don't call it a Constitution, what the heck DO we call it?

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[pchwang]

I suggested a charter.

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[7:42:05 PM][6:51:36 PM] Igor (Smokey): btw terry
[6:51:48 PM] Terrance Cooper: Ye?
[6:52:00 PM] Igor (Smokey): nothin
[6:52:03 PM] Igor (Smokey): just sayin btw
[6:52:05 PM] Terrance Cooper: &lt;_&lt;

Johnny_Haas: you shot anti criuse speed rockets!!!
Johnny_Haas: but why????
Johnny_Haas: ??
Johnny_Haas: why you shoot criuse speed rockets?

[pbrione]

The risk there is that we already use the term Charter to describe the granted trade rights of Bretonian corporations like Bowex and BMM.

I happen to be a UK politics student myself, and whilst it is true that Britain does not have a single written constitution, it is nevertheless true that there IS a British constititution, simply not one codified into a single document.

I see reason that we could not assume Bretonian history was sufficiently different for them to agree to adopt the additional measure of actually writing these constitutional conventions down into a written document; bearing in mind that in RP were are assuming that there WAS considerable opposition to this motion (hence the fall of Worthington's Government...), but that nevertheless it was eventually forced through.

Do you really have an objection to this line of RP development? If this is really that unpalatable a concept to you, then we still need an alternative suggestion (and one that is not too different, as we don't want to re-write the whole document and all the Parliamentary RP at this stage)

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Sir Stanley Nelson




<span style="color:#000066">Charles Canning </span><span style="color:#000066"> Foreign Secretary</span>