RTD 24

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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%	-

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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.

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PSD announce workers benefits boost plan
Today the PSD rallied on their workers benefits plan in a press conference with unions. The party pledged the following proposals:

Benefit	New	Current
Paid time off	11 Weeks	9 Weeks
Minimum wage from January 2025	25 Dux Libra per hour	20.70 Dux Libra per hour
Paternity/Maternity Leave	15 Weeks within 1 year of birth	10 Weeks within 1 year of birth
Weekley Hours cap before overtime	28 Hours per Week	35 Hours

The pitch it seen as a radical increase in workers rights and conditions if elected into government with the PSD saying these increases and an increase of 10% in benefits rates would be the major red lines for a coalition. The Party said "We believe the hard working people of this nation should keep more of the growing wealth of this nation. We also believe these proposals will as backed by evidence be a win win for workers and business alike as evidence shows this policy results in increased productivity." The Moderate Party have kept tight lipped about these areas though they have pledged an increase in minimum wage to 22 Dux Libra by January 2025 while the UoD opposed the proposals describing them as a "economic suicide of the highest magnitude". Unus and AfD refused to comment on the platform only saying "We believe in workers rights and protecting Duchian workers interests." The Liberal Party have proposed minimal changes in labour policy saying " We believe the balance works well now though are open to changes in return for the right policies getting through in other areas." The Liberal Party are expected to be willing to compromise in return for some reforms of criminal justice to lighten sentences and increase community service sentencing for "minor crimes" .

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Roscoes released without charge from Czechslavia
Today news has come through that the Roscoes arrested in Czechslavia Yohanna, Danya and Mathias have been released and are now in the United Duchies. Reports indicate no charges were pursued in the end by Czechslavia in what was seen by many as a political arrest to distract from domestic issues in the country. It is not known if a deal was struck for the release and what was in the deal if one exists.

However recently the Duchian Business Council has revised its stance on Czechslavia. The Duchian Business Council has now said "We do not believe buying goods from Czechslavia is a risky venture and partnerships of limited nature for production of goods in Czechslavia is a safe investment. We still believe there is work to be done if Czechslavia is to be considered safe for foreign owned assets fully but business with Czechslavian companies in the context of importing goods not of sensitive IP nature from Czechslavia is safe for businesses to do."It is not known whether Roscoes intend to conduct any business with Czechslavia in the future.

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Moderate- Centre Left Coalition confirmed
Today a Moderate , Liberal and PSD coalition has been confirmed after the election results last week with the three party government having a majority of 145 in the house of Commons and 22 in the House of Duchies. The new government is to focus on the increase of public services using economic growth , simplifying international trade through treaties and EU laws and increased labour protections for workers. The coalition are to commit to a raising of minimum wage increase to 22 Dux Libra or 6.2% increase , an increase of Paternity and Maternity leave to 15 weeks within 1 year of birth of a child and increase to 11 weeks of paid time off. The lack of lowering the hours before overtime cap is a notable and it is understood the Moderate Party was concerned lowering this would impact the economy too significantly believing the current cap is set at the right place. The coalition government will also result in a network of 7 million plus linked up DuchiesGuard Smart CCTV network with residents able to recieve payment to integrate private residence street facing CCTV and doorbells into the network to fight security risks and reduce incidence of crime. A priority of the government is to prepare for the summit with Leagio within the next week.The Liberal party secured the ending of non-public owned prisons and more priority of community sentences for less serious crimes as well as less severe prison sentences in return for the smart cctv and stricter punishments of more violent crimes,

The election resulted in the election of Aviv Rubenstein-Roscoe, Uri Mizachi-Roscoe and Jade Abbott Durham into the House of commons for the Brummagem South , Southwest and South East seats for the Moderate party. The election ha also resulted in the resignation of the UoD leader after their loss of 94 of their 111 House of Commons seats and 32 of ther 39 House of Duchies seats to the Moderate Party and Unus.The party is rumoured to be in civil war with a potential collapse of the party in the near future.

The election results are as follows:
House of Commons:

Party	%	Local Seats	List Seats	Seats	Increase Decrease	% of Seats	Seat % Change	Votes
The left	2.38%	5	12	17	-12	2.27%	-1.30%	1811415
IUAC	0.01%	0	0	0	-1	0.00%	-0.12%	5026
PSD:*	21.14%	134	25	159	1	21.20%	1.74%	16089625
Liberal Party:*	13.10%	69	29	98	-4	13.07%	0.51%	9970392
Moderate Party:*	35.01%	234	29	263	31	35.07%	6.50%	26646064
Union of Democrats:	2.35%	16	1	17	-94	2.27%	-11.40%	1788582
Unus	16.45%	102	22	124	34	16.53%	5.45%	12520073
AFD	9.56%	40	32	72	-16	9.60%	-1.24%	7278688
Total:	100.00%	600	150	750	-62	100.00%	-	76109865

House of Duchies 2024:

Party	Seats before election	% of Seats	New Seats	Increase Decrease	% of new seats	Seat % Change	% of vote House of Duchies	Votes House of Duchies
The left	8	2.96%	3	-5	1.25%	-1.71%	2.40%	1833353
IUAC	9	3.33%	0	-9	0.00%	-3.33%	0.01%	5047
PSD:*	46	17.04%	42	-4	17.50%	0.46%	21.11%	16133889
Liberal Party:*	34	12.59%	24	-10	10.00%	-2.59%	13.64%	10424066
Moderate Party:*	76	28.15%	76	0	31.67%	3.52%	34.26%	26182484
Union of Democrats:	39	14.44%	7	-32	2.92%	-11.53%	2.84%	2174026
Unus	45	16.67%	56	11	23.33%	6.67%	16.63%	12708797
AFD	10	3.70%	32	22	13.33%	9.63%	9.12%	6968893
Total:	270	100.00%	240	-30	100.00%	-	100.00%	76430555

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Roscoes given to workers

Roscoes has restructured to dilute shares and give shares to the Roscoes Welfare Association which will be renamed the Union for Roscoes Workers. The restructuring will see the business move to the following ownership:

Ownership	Ownership	Voting Shares	Voting Share %	Non Voting Shares	% Non-voting	Total Shares	% Total	Board members
Roscoes Family Trust	59.72%	7,465	29.86%	75,000	3.80%	82,465	4.12%	6
Union for Roscoes Workers:	0.00%	12,500	50.00%	1,000,000	50.63%	1,012,500	50.63%	10
Roscoes Foundation	0.00%	-	0.00%	199,856	10.12%	199,856	9.99%	-
Kligenberg Industries	21.92%	2,740	10.96%	345,616	17.50%	348,356	17.42%	2
Cadbury Trust	2.70%	338	1.35%	44,460	2.25%	44,798	2.24%	0
National Duchies Fund	15.66%	1,958	7.83%	310,068	15.70%	312,026	15.60%	2
Total:	100.00%	25,000	100.00%	1,975,000	100.00%	2,000,000	100.00%	20

Workers will own 50.63% of the business having 10 of the 20 members on the board to become semi-worker owned and controlled. The Roscoes will take the greatest hit in value with their shares being worth 102 billion Euros down from 1.478 Trillion Euros. Rachel Reubenstein-Roscoe Co-Ceo along with Co-Ceo Ruth Cadbury said in a joint statement "We believe it is time to give our business to the workers as a legacy of our families values. We have run the business in accordance with putting the worker first and benefiting future generations. The shares have been gifted under deed restriction that they cannot be sold by either the Union for Roscoes Workers or the Roscoes Foundation or any of their sucessors. We hope this will keep the businesses values and ethics safe in the long term . No more voting shares may be issued on the stock market by covenant in order to protect the business from outsider infiltration." It is rumoured businesses like TUI have been considering also moving to semi-worker owned model.