The Leader of the Opposition (Restoration) Bill

[Miestrâ Schivâ, UrN]

WHEREAS El Lexhatx H.1 refers to a "Leader of the Opposition";

AND WHEREAS this is nowhere defined in Organic or Statutory Law;

AND WHEREAS it would be a good tradition to re-establish, as Parliamentary democracy works best with a vibrant alternative Government holding the government to account in the Legislature;

AND WHEREAS according to historical documents, this was once a Royal appointment, but that would not be an appropriate tradition to re-establish;

BE IT ENACTED by the King, Cosâ and Senäts in Ziu assembled that the following new section shall be added to Title H of El Lexhátx:

Members of the Cosâ who (in a given session of the Cosa) have voted NON on the most recent Vote of Confidence, or intend to do so on the next Vote of Confidence, shall be known as El Contrapharti Fieir da Sieu Maxhestà, or "His Majesty's Loyal Opposition" in English, or in short "El Contrapharti / The Opposition". Unless and until the members of the Opposition decide otherwise by majority vote, the "Leader of the Opposition" shall be the leader of the party with the most Cosa seats belonging to MCs who voted NON on the last Vote of Confidence.

[Lüc da Schir]

Big fat cosponsor, with a few caveats:

1) Isn't the "loyal opposition" just the biggest party, in Westminster system lingo? ("other opposition" being minor opposition parties) - I'm fine with the difference though.

2) I'm not sure about the default appointment method, because (hypothetically) you'd just need one MC from the biggest Government party to vote against Confidence and the Prime Minister would also be the Leader of the Opposition.

3) Can we put in the Talossan translation for Leader of the Opposition too?

4) Can we give the Leader of the Opposition Rt. Hon. treatment like in the Westminster system, so that it has some semblance of being an official role (and hopefully encourages incumbents to do proper Opposition stuff like eg. naming a Shadow Cabinet to shadow-terp Ministers)?

[Miestrâ Schivâ, UrN]

May 16, 2019 10:23:21 GMT -6 Lüc da Schir said:

Big fat cosponsor, with a few caveats:

1) Isn't the "loyal opposition" just the biggest party, in Westminster system lingo? ("other opposition" being minor opposition parties)

No, "Loyal Opposition" means the entire opposition. "Loyal" just means "opposing the Government but Long Live The King". I.e., in the British system, not Sinn Féin.

2) I'm not sure about the default appointment method, because (hypothetically) you'd just need one MC from the biggest Government party to vote against Confidence and the Prime Minister would also be the Leader of the Opposition.

Maybe I should have worded it clearer: but let me show you by brackets what I was trying to say: the leader of (the party with the greatest number of (MCs who voted NON)). Not The leader of (the biggest party which includes any MCs voting NON).

3) Can we put in the Talossan translation for Leader of the Opposition too?

Plot twist: there isn't one. I'm as shocked as you are. KR1 didn't include one in the language before his abdication and I don't think the post-2005 CÚG had one either. In the Republic we used tanáischteu, from Irish tanáiste which means "a chief's successor", although in Irish that word means the Deputy PM rather than the Opposition Leader.

4) Can we give the Leader of the Opposition Rt. Hon. treatment like in the Westminster system, so that it has some semblance of being an official role (and hopefully encourages incumbents to do proper Opposition stuff like eg. naming a Shadow Cabinet to shadow-terp Ministers)?

You know I'm radically neutral on titles, go for it.

[Istefan Perþonest]

May 16, 2019 10:23:21 GMT -6 Lüc da Schir said:

2) I'm not sure about the default appointment method, because (hypothetically) you'd just need one MC from the biggest Government party to vote against Confidence and the Prime Minister would also be the Leader of the Opposition.

As I read the text, it's the party that casts the most NON votes on confidence, rather than the party with the most seats where somebody voted NON.

[Miestrâ Schivâ, UrN]

On the subject of titles, did you know that in Commonwealth realms, "Right Honourable" is a title given to a member of the Privy Council? I am not in favour of empty titles but I am in favour of making jobs mean something. So perhaps it might be more interesting to give certain privileges to the Leader of the Opposition - for example, the right to ask Terps more frequently with more follow-up questions, etc.

[Sir Alexandreu Davinescu]

This bill in general is a great idea and I support it. Well done.

[Antaglha Xhenerös Somelieir]

May 16, 2019 18:03:26 GMT -6 Miestrâ Schivâ, UrN said:

On the subject of titles, did you know that in Commonwealth realms, "Right Honourable" is a title given to a member of the Privy Council? I am not in favour of empty titles but I am in favour of making jobs mean something. So perhaps it might be more interesting to give certain privileges to the Leader of the Opposition - for example, the right to ask Terps more frequently with more follow-up questions, etc.

To the best of my knowledge, only people from Commonwealth countires that still have HM Queen Elizabeth as Head of State can be appointent to the Privy Council, not the commonwealth as a whole. But thats all just a complicated affair. 

Im not going to comment on use of titles though, as i wouldn't agree that they are always empty, however in Talossa they definatley seem to be. But i wont say more on that. 

In terms of the proposal at hand, i think its a great idea, although i wouldn't mind seeing it go a bit further, as i don't see why that a "Leader of the Opposition" shouldn't be able to form a shadow cabinate as part of their role, which the members of the shadow cabinate are able to challenge their counterparts a bit more frequently, especially if their is a new policy initative being announced. As this will contibute to futher clarity and debate into matters and more transparency, also it helps to give voters an easier way of knowing in a clearer way where the Govenment and opposition agree and disagree and should help foster a better and more transparent way of holding Government to account and a way of doing so whilst presenting an alternative, and a range of views. 

But yeah i do like the proposal and think it is a good idea and step for talossa to take.

[Miestrâ Schivâ, UrN]

May 16, 2019 18:25:44 GMT -6 Antaglha Xhenerös Somelieir said:

To the best of my knowledge, only people from Commonwealth countires that still have HM Queen Elizabeth as Head of State can be appointent to the Privy Council, not the commonwealth as a whole.

Canada has its own Privy Council.

i don't see why that a "Leader of the Opposition" shouldn't be able to form a shadow cabinet as part of their role

That would be a good thing, but I don't think it should be set up in law. Let's get a Tanáischteu first and see what they do with the role.

[Sir Alexandreu Davinescu]

I am not a big fan of the proposed title. My suggestion would be Omnicanerie, because it (a) looks impressive, (b) sounds funny when you say it, and (c) is actually funny since it means "the sort of person who makes white noise" in Talossan.

[Lüc da Schir]

May 16, 2019 18:03:26 GMT -6 Miestrâ Schivâ, UrN said:

On the subject of titles, did you know that in Commonwealth realms, "Right Honourable" is a title given to a member of the Privy Council? I am not in favour of empty titles but I am in favour of making jobs mean something. So perhaps it might be more interesting to give certain privileges to the Leader of the Opposition - for example, the right to ask Terps more frequently with more follow-up questions, etc.

Yup, exactly what I had in mind. It ties in neatly with the terp overhaul project that we both want to see done in the third Clark or so.

[Lüc da Schir]

May 16, 2019 15:32:38 GMT -6 Miestrâ Schivâ, UrN said:

Maybe I should have worded it clearer: but let me show you by brackets what I was trying to say: the leader of (the party with the greatest number of (MCs who voted NON)). Not The leader of (the biggest party which includes any MCs voting NON).

I can't read.

3) Can we put in the Talossan translation for Leader of the Opposition too?

Plot twist: there isn't one. I'm as shocked as you are. KR1 didn't include one in the language before his abdication and I don't think the post-2005 CÚG had one either. In the Republic we used tanáischteu, from Irish tanáiste which means "a chief's successor", although in Irish that word means the Deputy PM rather than the Opposition Leader.

Well, you used yourself "Ducea dal Oposiziun" or something like that in 2012/13, so I had that in mind, but Tanáischteu sounds awesome and has precedent.

[Lüc da Schir]

Oh, and a follow-up on the Privy Council thing: the PC appointment is primarily done so that the Leader of the Opposition can receive classified briefings. So maybe a provision that specifies that the Tanáischteu has to be included in any emergency talks (eg. whatever happened during the ESB Affair)?

[Ian Plätschisch]

May 16, 2019 18:03:26 GMT -6 Miestrâ Schivâ, UrN said:

On the subject of titles, did you know that in Commonwealth realms, "Right Honourable" is a title given to a member of the Privy Council? I am not in favour of empty titles but I am in favour of making jobs mean something. So perhaps it might be more interesting to give certain privileges to the Leader of the Opposition - for example, the right to ask Terps more frequently with more follow-up questions, etc.

All MZs are already allowed to pose as many Terps as they want, so I would not be in favor of taking away the privileges of other MZs in order to "give" privileges to the Opposition Leader.

Other than that I definitely support this.

[Glüc da Dhi]

I don't understand the reason for this. We're not the UK, our political system is very different, why do we need to copy them? I think this steers Talossa more towards a two party system, rewarding the largest party in opposition (and also giving some weird incentive for parties to vote NON on the VoC), while we should really celebrate the pluralism of our politics. Why does the opposition need a single leader when the parties in the opposition can be so different?

If this is then used as an excuse to remove privileges of the smaller opposition parties just to make the position more interesting we are really heading in the wrong direction.

[Miestrâ Schivâ, UrN]

WHEREAS El Lexhatx H.1 refers to a "Leader of the Opposition";

AND WHEREAS this is nowhere defined in Organic or Statutory Law;

AND WHEREAS it would be a good tradition to re-establish, as Parliamentary democracy works best with a vibrant alternative Government holding the government to account in the Legislature;

AND WHEREAS according to historical documents, this was once a Royal appointment, but that would not be an appropriate tradition to re-establish;

BE IT ENACTED by the King, Cosâ and Senäts in Ziu assembled that the following new section shall be added to Title H of El Lexhátx:

Members of the Cosâ who (in a given session of the Cosa) have voted NON on the most recent Vote of Confidence, or intend to do so on the next Vote of Confidence, shall be known as El Contrapharti Fieir da Sieu Maxhestà, or "His Majesty's Loyal Opposition" in English, or in short "El Contrapharti / The Opposition". Unless and until the members of the Opposition decide otherwise by majority vote, the "Leader of the Opposition" shall be the leader of the party with the most Cosa seats assigned to MCs who voted NON on the last Vote of Confidence.