RTD 24

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Renew Scheme opened for applications
The Renew retrofit scheme has opened for applications with the scheme to be given 25 billion Dux Libra(37,500,000,000 Euros) a year and increasing to operate from government. The scheme makes eligible for the retrofit of Solar and renewable energy, battery packs , electric charging systems for cars, better insulation and electric and underfloor heating or connection to district heating for old properties. The move is aimed to renovate the old home stock to modern 21st century standards and keep it in good use and affordable to occupants while saving carbon emissions from housing. The scheme will allow grants or super low interest loans from 15,000 to 30,000 Dux Libra (22,500 Euros to 45,000 Euros) per household or sing home landlords.

The scheme will work to help modernise the housing stock increasing efficiency. There is also a requirement for multiple property landlords to modernise housing stock or commercial units to net zero conditions and full insulation before they are allowed to rent out any units. It is hoped the scheme will significantly help towards the net zero goal by 2030 of the United Duchies.10 Billion Euros of the scheme has been provided by the EDA though 50 billion Euros had been requested it is expected that United Duchies will be putting another request in for additional funding for the scheme this year to boost the funding level for the scheme overall.The scheme is expected to help 1.25 million households and small businesses per year.The scheme will require use of at least 50% made in Duchies products to be eligible for the scheme.

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Harmonized quality standards, business regulations and copyright laws needed says James Mizrachi Roscoes
James Mizrachi-Roscoe has today said that Europe needs to harmonise its business laws on quality, copy right and trade. He said in a public meeting "Today Roscoes and many other businesses have to navigate over 20 different quality and safety standard laws, copyright systems and administration systems to trade throughout Europe with exports and imports hard because of this process. Roscoes size businesses find it inconvenient to meet 20 plus different standards but if its hard for bigger businesses and organisations like Roscoes and Siemens imagine how hard it is for a SME without the dedicated international trade teams large businesses have. Many businesses face significant barriers to growth or in procuring imported goods because of the multiple different standards. Exporters have to treat each country or trade bloc as an entirely different project making one off consignments hard to fulfill meanwhile getting imported parts or goods is harder as they have to be certified as safe in Duchies because there is no garuntee it meets standards domestic firms meet. The result is less international trade and specialisation than would otherwise be the case. That is why I am running on the business harmonisation platform so SME's and big business has equal footing in the market which is not the case at present."

His proposals include setting a common copyright system for the whole of the EU with opt outs available for nations and also doing the same for a common minimum product safety and quality scheme and mark. He has acknowledged some product standard minimums may need to be lowered to meet a new European standard but argues this is adressed by other quality marks that most Duchian products are aligning to anyway. He argued clothes, and daily products are more expensive throughout Europe as a result of inconsistent standards and costs of compliance with mutiiple systems and individual certification of safety and quality being required in each market.

The candidate has also called for much more powers for the EU and "more efficient administration" . He's argued for localising decision making to expert panels in each nation for each agency in areas of development, agriculture and environment among other areas. He said to us in his talk with us "At the moment the three commissioners decide everything , run everything and make every decision in the EU especially in agencies like the EDA. This is highly inefficient as every application has to go through Europolis and you are essentially screwed if an incompetent or less active commissioner gets elected as has happened many times recently. My proposals would see either national or regional panels and sub-panels handling applications with experts from all sectors with some appointed by EU and some by the national governments or institutions. These would decide grants and proposals under a certain amount and be given budgets in proportion to population to allocate. The measure would ensure that people assessing projects have local knowledge and expertise resulting in better more efficient decision making. These panels would have to write reports every 6 months and be audited every 12 months to protect against corruption. This would also apply to other grant making institutions." The commissioner candidates proposals have drew praise from the business community and third sector organisations who say navigating EU funding applications is often too complex , slow and bureaucratic with over 80% of organisations saying they instead pull from either ECON operated , other international agencies or domestic agencies for their funding as this tends to quicker and more efficient. James has branded this "an embarrassment for the EU" saying if the EU wants to survive it needs to be "indispensable and costly to leave just because it is the most efficient in development of Europe and important to everyday lives." He said " I believe in the vision of the EU and the idea but the problem is that in practise there is too much obstructionism and inefficiency. Every good idea to harmonise standards or make the EU more efficient and responsive gets voted down and frankly lazy and ineffective commissioners just go in get paid for doing literally nothing of note for the European people before the next "do nothing comissioner" gets in to repeat the cycle. My prediction is the EU will see nations leaving and forming alternatives if this situation continues. We are already seeing the rise of Unus in the north in United Duchies and this concerns me , I want to see us in the EU in 10 years time but unless the EU actually changes I fear a day when we will be leaving the EU and we likely won't be the only nation to do so in that situation." His candidacy has been backed by the Moderates, PSD , Liberals and UoD while Unus have called him an "EU lackey". Unus also have put in their platform they intend to hold a referendum on the EU promoting leaving the EU over their "control over the nation and wastage of Duchies money ". The party is in line with the AfD in this policy.

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Tarek Al-Wazir arrested and extradited to Duchies
Tarek Al-Wazir has been arrested and extradited to the United Duchies on terrorism charges. The controversial public figure has said many statements supporting extremism according to opponents but the arrest has come following new evidence of direct links to terrorism.

The police said in a statement "Tarek Al-Wazir has been arrested in the Duxburian Dominions after evidence was found of direct links to terror cells in the Duchies including the cells which hit the sporting venues in 2023. We believe we have a strong case and it is likely if found guilty he will recieve life in solitary according to Duchian laws on terrorism." The news was welcomed by all parties with hope being exressed the issue of terrorism related to the Svarnan war dying down.

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Duchies Football Association to send undercover enforcement to matches abroad to spot hooliganism and offensive behaviour
The Duchies Football Association has announced its plans to roll out the programme of sending undercover enforcement officers to matches to United Duchies matches abroad. The programme which has resulted in hundreds of bans of fans from matches with up to lifetime bans for hooliganism and offensive behaviour such as racist, sexist and homophobic chants or gestures will be rolled out to foreign matches with undercover enforcement officers set to be placed in various places around the stands. The DFA has said "We are still concerned by the potential for racist, sexist and homophobic people attending matches or people who act offensively or obscenely making the sport an uncomfortable environment for people. We intend to root this out and will be acting against so called fans who act this way abroad.They must respect other fans and people abroad or face fines or up to a lifetime ban if caught." If found guilty the person would be on a no ticket list with information on the threat they pose being shared with authorities in other countries so they can be denied tickets. The association also intends to share details those who have committed offenses in the Duchies with other countries authorities in order to help combat hate throughout the sporting world.The association is also paying whistleblowers for reporting incidents and sending in evidence of any violations of the spectator code of the DFA. The payments which ammount to 50 % of a fine if the person is sucessfully sanctioned is payed to the person on a successful enforcement operation.

The programme is also in place in Cricket matches as well as Rugby matches in the Duchies with suggestions they could try to roll out programmes like it abroad as well. The programme has been praised as well as criticised with those praising it seeing it as a vital measure to stop hooliganism and hatemongering in its tracks while those criticising the programme saying it runs counter to free speech and privacy of fans.

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Shock polls shows right wing surge
New polling figures show a surge in support for right wing parties in the Duchies with a slight boost for the Liberal Party and Moderate Party with the PSD and The Left suffering losses while UoD who have the centre right ground are continuing their polling collapse. The Moderate Party under John Peter Key look set to gain 30.72% if the election was held today holding steady on the 30.84% at last election while PSD are expected to drop to 16.43% from 20.71% at the last elections if elections were held today. The AfD are making the headlines however with projections of over 74 seats with Unus also likely for the first time to pick up over 100 seats and on course to take up the position as the second largest party in the country. Analysts have suggested the current right wing surge could easily become a trend into the future and have said factors such as immigration , security fears and the recent attacks may be playing a role in boosting Unus and AfD's popularity. The parties are also showing strength outside of Westseaxna , Doornevale , Aranvale and Albion. Dissatisfaction with the EU and a desire to leave among some is also said to be behind the rise.The rise in support for Unus risks making forming a government with existing parties impossible if the 21 majority in the upper house is reduced for the governing parties with this potentially forcing them to bring in Unus to the coalition or face the tough choice of bringing an unpopular UoD into the coalition government to stop Unus getting into the coalition.

Party	%	Seats Now	% of Seats now	Projected Seats	Increase Decrease	% of Seats Projection
The left	1.57%	29	3.57%	10	-19	1.54%
IUAC	0.14%	1	0.12%	1	0	0.15%
PSD:	16.43%	158	19.46%	107	-51	16.44%
Liberal Party:	14.46%	102	12.56%	94	-8	14.44%
Moderate Party:	30.71%	232	28.57%	200	-32	30.72%
Union of Democrats:	7.21%	111	13.67%	47	-64	7.22%
Unus	16.57%	90	11.08%	122	32	18.74%
AFD	12.91%	88	10.84%	70	-18	10.75%
Total:	100.00%	812	100.00%	651	-161	100.00%

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UoD Leader toppled
Terence Fitzcharles was today toppled as leader of the UoD in a surprise vote by UoD MP's. He was toppled amidst the lastest poll in the long term collapse in UoD political polling as they struggle to find an identity losing the centre right to the Moderate Party and the right wing of the party to Unus. The party now faces a struggle between the centre right and right wing wings of the party with the right wing supporters arguing the party needs a tougher stance on immigration and more national conservative stance to combat the bleed of voters on the right wing to Unus while the centre right argue that doing so would only increase the bleed of centre right support to the Moderate Party arguing instead there needs to be a return to the centre of politics and reduction in pro-tax cut and more austerity agenda.

The party has been reported to be in civil war with analysts describing the party as a party on death row. The party has been suggested to be close to imminent collapse or split with a potential power gap appearing in the centre right of politics if that occurs.

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Duchies government pass ban on destruction of heritage buildings
The law to ban the demolition of buildings built before 1950 has officially passed today. The Heritage Preservation Act essentially lists all buildings built before 1950 as protected buildings. The act requires that all alternative uses for housing, commercial use and community use must be exhausted before the building can be demolished with developers having to prove that any sensitive development or alternative use is impractical. The acts passing comes after years of campaigning from heritage preservation organisations in the United Duchies. The act is expected to protect entire neighbourhoods and also requires that should such a building burn down buildings built before 1950 must be rebuilt in the same location and with the same design lest the developer face jail and imprisonment. The act will also allow heritage organisations to object to redevelopment plans and propose alternative uses being able to buy the building from site owners if they can pay the market rate for the building and have funds to redevelop the site in a sensitive manner themselves.

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Roscoes denies sabotage of Czechslavonic economy
Roscoes today has responded to the arrest of its executive and some members of the main shareholding family. It said in a statement "We are concerned and sad to hear of the arrests and would like to talk with the Czech Slavonic government to resolve the issue. However we absolutely deny any sabotage or intent of sabotage of operations in Czech Slavia. Simply put as the assets in the country were no longer under company operation or ownership we had no obligation to continue supplies or maintenance contracts in the country or share any of the intelectual property of the company this is standard international procedure in such events as nationalisation.

We offered jobs to the former employees as we do any time we close a division or an operation in another country to ensure that workers have the option at least to remain with out company and security of a job by giving priority to those employees. We don't believe in laying off or people losing their job if we have jobs available elsewhere for those individuals as a matter of respect for their contributions to the company.We value employees and they are our greatest assets and deserve to be rewarded with job security where possible.This again is a standard part of our core values."

It is not known if the company is in negotiations but it is expected the company will enter negotiations with the Czech Slavian authorities.

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Local Government Reform
Today the government passed a law on local government reform reforming how local governments are ran. Currently there are three levels of government the National government , Duchy Government and the Local Authority with the local focusing on all local policy and public services and National And Duchy governments delivering Health and General Public services.

The reform will split local government in two with councils providing public services and bin collections and mainting most delivery of local services but making a new Combined Authority with an elected Regional Mayor to make decisions on planning , regional transport policy and , regional development , local road maintenance and Business Enterprise Support. The job of mayors will be to integrate rural areas into the the urban areas and develop regional transport policies and systems and also advocate for their region and market their region to business and other departments of government.

The new powers for levels of government are as follows:

Government Level	General Policy Area
National	Health, Education(Core curriculum) , Media and Arts and Culture ,Economy, Labour Laws, Welfare Foreign policy , Defense , Law and Order ,Treaties, National Transport Policy, Immigration Equality Laws
Duchy	Economy, Any additional Labour rights, Social Policy, Alcohol and Drug policy, Duchy Education curriculum , Intra-Duchy Transport, Law and order
Combined Authority	Planning, Transport ,Local Road Maintenance and Development, Regional Development Planning, Business Enterprise Support ,Regional Tourism Planning
Local Authority	Bins, Local Transport, Youth Services, Libraries , Arts and Culture , Social Care Delivery , Schools and Colleges, Local Public Services and Planning

Elections for Regional Mayors will be held in 6 months.The mayoral authorities shall exist in Supseaxe , Baltica and Westseaxna

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Duchies Football Association tightens anti-hooliganism regulations
The Duchies Football Association have today announced a key deal with Californian and United Kingdom authorities with aims for talks with other federations throughout Europe to tighten regulation on hooliganism. The deal with the UK and California includes data sharing on those committing acts of hooliganism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia or racism at football games or outside of the stadiums in bars and allowing for each others investigators to to go to the games in each others countries to investigate their fans and monitor for incidents.

The DFA along with other sporting regulators in the Duchies also agreed a deal with the Duchies Identity Documents and Passport Office and law enforcement in the Duchies to share data and for any fans found to be engaging in the banned behaviour by the football association or caught committing public order crimes abroad to have have a travel ban on all international flights , trains and coachesmay be given travel bans from 10 years and up to lifetime travel bans depending on the offense. The tough stance is hoped to significantly reduce the hooliganism rate and make it so there are less incidents abroad embarressing Duchians who travel. A law is to be passed that would require travel companies operating in Duchies to check the list on any passenger before selling a ticket for a journey with steep fines if they allow those on the Duchies Travel Ban Database to travel.This will also apply to those who are reported by fans through the fan repotting scheme run by the sports associations. These penalties may be applied in addition to bans from any sporting events in the Duchies.

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Irmgardis City absorbed into Baltica
Today the government have announced after a vote in Irmgardis City legislature that Irmgardis city is to be absorbed into Baltica. The vote follows a campaign by locals to integrate transport policy and policy more with the surrounding Baltica and Baltia region. The council will still exist for local matters and local policy but will have education, transport and health as well as broadcasting policy controlled by the Baltica Duchy. The broadcast IBS is to be absorbed into EBS with channels and programming merged.The Irmgardis City area will be part of the elected mayoralty of the Baltia region which will run the regionwide policies such as global planning and transport through the Mayoralty which will be elected in upcoming elections.

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Shock election Called
Today as the media gathered there was rumours of a big announcement from the PM John Peter Key. The matter of the sudden press conference was unveiled at 19:06.

John Peter Key announced the new election for the parliament of the Duchies to last until 2029 with a reset of election dates for national elections. He said in his speech "Today Duchians I come to you today to announce I have took the journey to High Duke Nikolai III to ask for the disolvement of my government for new elections in 6 weeks for the Metropolitan Mayors , the House of Commons and the House of Duchies which he has in his good wisdom approved.

The reason I have come to this decision is there has been significant changes in our systems and circumstances. We have added the overseas constituency in House of Commons and House of Duchies , we have also had the reintegration of Irmgardis City into Baltica and the redrawing of boundaries. It is only fair and practical given these changes that we hold a new election so the whole of the United Duchies can decide on the future government of the remainder of this term. I will be campaigning as expected to maintain my government and my parties participation in it but I feel it only fair you decide as the public. I thank you the public for your trust and your support and we are proud of our record and I hope to serve you for 5 more years until 2029 on August 25, 2024 but if not I thank you for your support and are proud to have humbly served you in this role that has been the honour of my life. "

The news of the election has surprised many especially given the strength of Unus right now. The election will be fought with the following seat numbers for each Duchy and 100 list seats to help parties reach their national vote share plus any additional seats under the MMP system should smaller parties win local seats over their proportional seats by popular result:

Local Seats

Duchy	Seats	House of Duchies Seats
Cair Para	16	30
Supseaxe	229	30
Westseaxna	142	30
Baltica	138	30
Albion	15	30
Doornevale	20	30
Aranvale	18	30
Overseas Constituency	72	30
National List Seats	100	-
Total:	750	240

The following Mayoralties will be up for election to trial the system until 2029:

Mayoralty	Population
Goudadam	3,937,001
Brummagem	3,432,329
Cair Para	3,387,782
Porterdam	3,244,654
Hague	3,031,404
Hamborg	2,771,696
Flussgelort	2,635,323
Baltia-Irmgardis	2,818,254
Arthuria	1,659,954

The current seats in parliament are as follows:

House of Commons	Local Seats	List Seats	Total National MP's	Expat Ministers of Parliament	Total MP's	%:	Leader
ADA	1	0	1	0	1	0.12%	Ulles Kulnja-Vereles
The Left	16	12	28	1	29	3.57%	Leo McKulsky
IUAC	1	0	1	0	1	0.12%	Lara Baker
PSD:	107	28	135	23	158	19.46%	Summer Hughes
Liberal Party:	64	27	91	11	102	12.56%	Arron Scott
Moderate Party:	168	34	202	30	232	28.57%	John Peter Key
Union of Democrats:	82	24	106	5	111	13.67%	Mr Terence Fitzcharles
Unus	44	44	88	2	90	11.08%	Dominic Marshall
AFD	20	0	88	0	88	10.84%	Leonard Hudson
Total:	502	169	739	72	812	100.00%	-

House of Duchies

House of Duchies:	Seats	% of Seats:
ADA:	3	1.11%
The Left	8	2.96%
IUAC	9	3.33%
PSD:	46	17.04%
Liberal Party:	34	12.59%
Moderate Party:	76	28.15%
Union of Democrats:	39	14.44%
Unus	45	16.67%
AFD	10	3.70%
Total:	270	100.00%

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Election poll House of Commons(10/07/2024):

Party	%	Seats Now	% of Seats now	Projected Seats	Increase Decrease	% of Seats Projection	Seat % Change
The left	1.29%	29	3.57%	9	-20	1.20%	-2.37%
IUAC	0.09%	1	0.12%	0	-1	0.00%	-0.12%
PSD*:	16.79%	158	19.46%	169	11	22.53%	3.08%
Liberal Party*:	13.57%	102	12.56%	59	-43	7.87%	-4.69%
Moderate Party*:	33.07%	232	28.57%	249	17	33.20%	4.63%
Union of Democrats:	2.14%	111	13.67%	16	-95	2.13%	-11.54%
Unus	20.57%	90	11.08%	154	64	20.53%	9.45%
AFD	12.48%	88	10.84%	94	6	12.53%	1.70%
Total:	100.00%	812	100.00%	750	-62	100.00%	-

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Aviv Rubenstein-Roscoe selected for Brummagem South Constituency

Aviv Rubenstein-Roscoe was today announced as the candidate for the Moderate Party in the Brummagem south constituency which covers the Bournville,Maypole,Weoley,Northfield, Longbridge, Selly Oak, Stirchley and Kings Norton areas among others. She is one of the youngest selected in the election so far at the age of 24 years old.

She is running on the Moderate platform of balancing business and societal needs and backing public service investment backed by economic growth and also advocating for the Neurodivergent in parliament on behalf of her community. She is a popular youth leader and support worker according to her campaign site and will be maintaining shifts in those jobs if elected to remain "grounded" although at a reduced level.There are rumours that others from the Roscoes, Cadbury and Abbott Families are likely to run in the election. There are strong rumours Percy Abbott-Durham and Jade Abbott-Durham are possibly going to be announced for a constituencies in Brummagem in the next few days.

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Unus say they would work to remove Article 2: XXIII
Unus today pledged to work to remove Article 2: XXIII if they could build up enough votes to do so. Dominic Marshall said in a speech "We believe in the United Duchies. We believe in the absolute sovereignty of this nation to defend itself and take pre-emptive strikes to eliminate the dangerous fifth columns and enemies of our state and its people. It is shocking the Moderates , Liberals and PSD put our military and executive in a straight jacket where they have to deploy troops anywhere outside of ECON . We must reverse this travesty."

The ammendment in question requires the United Duchies to have a vote of 75%+1 of all chambers of parliament to go to war or conduct any military operations outside of allied nations(ECON)or the United Duchies unless there is a direct attack on their territories , aircraft or vessels by another nationstate or those acting on behalf of the nationstate. It is designed to prevent declarations of war without overwhelming parliamentary support and oversight except in emergencies.

So far the Moderate Party, Liberal Party and PSD have said they would not back the removal of the amendment to the constitution. While Moderates leader John Peter Key said in a statement "This only shows the ultra-nationalist and violent tendencies that the nationalist conservative right harbour. They would be a threat to our nation and harmony in the EU that we cannot afford. We urge citizens to remember when their voting the extreme right and nationalist policies of Unus and the AfD. They will not protect our countries values they will only destroy the values of decent Duchians and trample over the harmony of our society with their anti-immigrant , militant nationalist rhetoric."

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Uri Mizrachi-Roscoe and Jade Abbott-Durham announced for Moderate candidates

Today the Moderate Party announced Uri Mizachi-Roscoe and Jade Abbott Durham for parliament seats in Brummagem as their candidates for the Brummagem Southwest and Brummagem South East seats. The pair round up a trio of candidates from the Roscoe and Abbott families who are friendly with each other. The announcement was a surprise as it wasn't expected for Uri to run but they would be among the youngest parliamentarians if elected. Polling and modelling is predicting a clean sweep in the south of Brummagem to go to the Moderate Party as alot of UoD votes collapse towards the Moderate Party and Unus. The party said in a statement "We are proud of our South Brummagem team of candidates who should represent the south of Brummagem well if elected.

Meanwhile the party announced it would be open to talks with Spain and a state visit from Spain if elected saying "We have had our differences it is true but we can work together for the European good as we have always strived to do in our governance. We are not elected just to fight for petty nationalistic policies that serve only the Duchies and the elite like Unus promote but to work for the common good of all and this includes working for the common good of Europeans. Will this mean compromise with other European states ? Yes. Will this mean sometimes we have to compromise to pool sovereignty for the common European good? Also yes. But above all by working for the European good we work for the good of Duchians also and that shall continue to be a guiding philosophy in this party. It doesn't mean we roll over and that we don't stand up when fighting for whats right and consumer and workers rights across the EU but we must be willing to compromise also."

Unus responded with Domonic Marshall calling John Peter Key " A weak pathetic pussy who will sell out the Duchies." He also went on to say "Its time to stand up to Spain more and frankly we should be sending flotillas to their coast and if their ships come in the Caspian blow them out of Caspian waters. Maybe we could use the sailors as kindling." The comment was condemned as inflammatory and damaging and also condemned for being "unbecoming of a party looking to govern."

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Election poll of polls 24/07/2024

Party	%	Seats Now	% of Seats now	Projected Seats	Increase Decrease	% of Seats Projection	Seat % Change
The left	0.37%	29	3.57%	2	-27	0.27%	-3.30%
IUAC	0.09%	1	0.12%	0	-1	0.00%	-0.12%
PSD*:	22.41%	158	19.46%	169	11	22.53%	3.08%
Liberal Party*:	9.10%	102	12.56%	68	-34	9.07%	-3.49%
Moderate Party*:	34.32%	232	28.57%	258	26	34.40%	5.83%
Union of Democrats:	0.15%	111	13.67%	1	-110	0.13%	-13.54%
Unus	17.83%	90	11.08%	134	44	17.87%	6.78%
AFD	15.73%	88	10.84%	118	30	15.73%	4.90%
Total:	100.00%	812	100.00%	750	-62	100.00%	-

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Moderate security pledges
The Moderate Party today unveiled its security policy going forward for the Duchies. The party has been on a journey since the Red Attacks and terrorist attacks in the last few years in the Duchies. The party stopped the rollback of the smart CCTV system.

The party pledged the following policies:

1. Increasing smart cctv network to at least 7 million Smart CCTV facial recognition cameras within 3 years from election and creation of a unified Duchies Guard smart CCTV network.
2. Linking up private CCTV cameras in publically accessible places into a Duchies Guard smart CCTV network.
3. Installation of smart CCTV cameras into all sensitive locations for national security.
4. Incentivise residents to ingetrate private CCTV feeds facing public streets and corridors into a Duchies Guard smart CCTV network.
5. Increase policing around the nation by boosting police officer numbers by at least25% over 4 years.

The policies have been opposed by the Liberal Party who described the policies as "an assualt on liberty and privacy of all Duchians totally disproportionate to the threat from crime and violence" and pledging to remove smart CCTV at the first chance it gets. Meanwhile the Moderate Party rebuffed this statement saying "We believe smart CCTV expansion is a vital tool in our crime fighting arsenal. We believe that the safety and security benefits it brings to the public cannot be overstated." The PSD are officially supportive of a "smart CCTV policy with safeguards" while Unus support more security and tougher sentencing than the Moderate Policy with Unus saying "Just increasing smart CCTV is not enough. We need to increase background checks on immigrants , stop politically correct policing and institute a random stop and search policy with no right to refuse the stop and search and requirement for all citizens to identify themselves to police when asked. The Moderate Party and the UoD are frankly weak on this issue."

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Projection poll Duchies 01/08/2024
House of Commons

Party	%	Seats Now	% of Seats now	Projected Seats	Increase Decrease	% of Seats Projection	Seat % Change
The left	2.30%	29	3.57%	17	-12	2.27%	-1.30%
IUAC	0.02%	1	0.12%	0	-1	0.00%	-0.12%
PSD*:	20.07%	158	19.46%	151	-7	20.13%	0.68%
Liberal Party*:	12.22%	102	12.56%	92	-10	12.27%	-0.29%
Moderate Party*:	33.86%	232	28.57%	254	22	33.87%	5.30%
Union of Democrats:	2.90%	111	13.67%	21	-90	2.80%	-10.87%
Unus	15.71%	90	11.08%	118	28	15.73%	4.65%
AFD	12.92%	88	10.84%	97	9	12.93%	2.10%
Total:	100.00%	812	100.00%	750	-62	100.00%	-

House of Duchies

Party	%	Seats Now	% of Seats now	Projected Seats	Increase Decrease	% of Seats Projection	Seat % Change
The left	2.30%	8	2.96%	2	-6	0.83%	-2.13%
IUAC	0.02%	9	3.33%	0	-9	0.00%	-3.33%
PSD*:	20.07%	46	17.04%	43	-3	17.92%	0.88%
Liberal Party*:	12.22%	34	12.59%	20	-14	8.33%	-4.26%
Moderate Party*:	33.86%	76	28.15%	78	2	32.50%	4.35%
Union of Democrats:	2.90%	39	14.44%	7	-32	2.92%	-11.53%
Unus	15.71%	45	16.67%	57	12	23.75%	7.08%
AFD	12.92%	10	3.70%	33	23	13.75%	10.05%
Total:	100.00%	270	100.00%	240	-30	100.00%	-

[BrumBrum]

Duchies Assured backed by consumers

Today a survey of consumers by Which duchian edition and in conjunction with Opinnium has revealed a high level of trust and uptake of the Duchies assured schemes. 73% of those surveyed said they'd only buy Duchies non-consumable goods , electronics and white goods made or designed in Duchies if they had the quality marks from the scheme on them while 83% said they'd only buy Duchian food with the Red Tractor mark or Duchies Assured mark on them and would view any goods or food without them as lower quality and more expensive in the long run. 56% of respondants said they would consider Duchies Designed labeled products over other products and pay more for goods seeing them as potentially higher quality.

In the survey they also surveyed attitudes to holiday and travel buying with 70% saying they'd only book with travel agents or companies on the Dara Protected , Duchie Track Assured and DICTA assured schemes which all Duchies companies have to follow putting 5% of the ticket or holiday price into an emergency fund to pay out if a company fails or claims have to be paid to companies for rebooking due to acts of God.The results show a positive uptake of the schemes.

The scheme has spread with all Duchian designed or made products in Roscoes , Tengelmann group companies(including Sainsbury's and Argos) ,Albert Heijn, M&S and Waitrose meeting the standards with it growing in popularity among manufacturers in the United Duchies. The scheme is predicted to cover 80% of Duchian products within 3 years garunteeing that Duchian products will exceed any European common standards . No party has proposed making the standard mandatory though market pressure has essentially made it essential to certify to the standard.

The Duchies Assured organisation is also investigating setting up additional schemes to cover ferries and software and online services to cover those sectors of the markets among other schemes. It is also looking at working with other European partners in ECON if the proposal for a CE mark fails to set up a scheme involving any ECON and additional countries to certify quality of goods within the bloc. This scheme would be administered internationally aligning standards across boarders to guarantee quality of goods for consumers though any standards of these sort are potentially going to be lower in warranty periods and part availability requirements than the Duchies assured schemes.