The Unity Party/April 2009 TUP Manifesto
This represents The Unity Party's program of reform for the parliamentary session April 26th-May 25th
Contents
The Unity Party Congress Manifesto - April 09
The Unity Party is the only party to produce a full manifesto for congressional elections, with policy not promises. In the last manifesto we promised to deliver health reforms and we have delivered. The cost of the NHS has been reduced to a fifth of the previous cost with four times the health benefits. There is now a Ministry of Home Affairs which keeps the public in touch with the affairs of state, a policy built partly on our last manifesto and partly based on changes introduced by TUP Prime Minister Malta_1990. A vote for TUP is a vote for real policy, real change and hope for the future.
On 25th April, vote TUP in your region
Military Policy
The Unity Party believes that a military force must match the purpose for which it is designed. The current makeup of the UK military is designed based on a defensive Britain, and as such has a very small group of elite soldiers who fight abroad and a wide range of soldiers with little battle experience who exist mainly to defend the UK and her allies from a direct attack by fighting from home. We believe that a strong Britain must be capable of taking the offensive and not a perpetual defensive position. Whilst UK Paratroopers are renowned worldwide, they are small in number and cannot match the battle strength of countries with similar populations but much better organisation and more frequent wars, such as Spain.
As such we believe two radical changes should be made to UK military policy. Firstly, we believe that to engender a greater sense of loyalty and belonging units should be named and not lettered/initialled. Instead of simply being Squad A of Company B you will be Churchill Squad, fighting in Wellington's Rifles. Naming regiments will give soldiers in the Royal Navy and Royal guard a patron they can believe in and someone they can fight for. It is sometimes argued that real life and eRepublik names should always be kept separate. However, it is a fact that we all live in the real world and that we play this game for entertainment. We feel that a victory for Wellington's Rifles will be far more meaningful than a victory for Company B.
The second major reform is to our current operational units. We believe in adopting a Romanian style legion-setup. To see what I'm talking about, see this article here. We would keep the Royal Navy, Royal Guard and the Paratroopers. However, their forces will be supplemented by other fighting forces such as the Romanian groups Dracones, Mountain Hunters and Lupii Carpitinii. These groups in Romania were formed by loyal Romanian citizens who follow the orders of their Ministry of Defence. Similar groups could be founded here on the same basis. We believe that not all citizens want to join a regular army, but instead, want the brotherhood of a small group of friends. These citizens should be utilised for the good of the UK. The Romanian legions are supplied by companies owned by the legions and manned by the legion members. We could do the same here. We believe that these reforms will do more to bring the UK population into the armed forces, to have an armed society where every citizen is a soldier.
Foreign and Alliances Policy
One of the most important duties of congress members is to approve alliances with other countries. We as an Atlantis country are part of a mega-alliance which will defend us from attack, and some of our alliances will always be with larger Western countries. However, the main advantage of an alliance for us is that it gives our citizenry the opportunity to fight from home, to gain rank and to gain wellness.
The Unity Party believes that we should first and foremost be seeking alliances with countries which are very vulnerable to attack, so that we can fight from home. The advantage of this is that we also protect the weak countries of the new world, which has been a long-standing commitment of The Unity Party.
Information Policy
We believe that it is the duty of the government to keep the public informed of its actions. It was for this reason that this term we introduced the Ministerial Reports Bill, which has now come into force. We believe that the other side of this is that the public responds and contribute to the governance and support of the UK.
We believe that we should introduce an article policy. The principle is a simple one, but will hopefully draw more people to the forums. We believe that the forum using public, who writes the majority of the articles published which reach the top five, should be obliged to finish all articles with this simple addition:
- Join the forums at forums.erepublik.co.uk to take part in the debate.**
This will hopefully increase the public awareness of the forums, at no cost and using the existing media.
Tax and Financial Policy
The Unity Party knows that to the ordinary citizen tax and health are the most important factors. That is why we always have a strong tax policy, to show our commitment to the concerns of the voting public.
Import Tax
Import tax should be zero on hospitals and defence systems, as the government is the only buyer. Although our systems are mostly domestically produced, high import tax only limits our abilities to quickly buy a defence system if it is needed. The British housing market is strong, so we don't need to lower the current 99% tax rate on housing. The Unity Party proposed and lowered import taxes on wood and oil this term, in order to introduce competition into the market and ensure a healthy supply of wood and oil for domestic users. Our decision has been rewarded with a strong market and an increase in supplies of wood for our construction companies and oil for the now booming moving tickets industry. Average wages have risen almost 25p across the board this month, and the pound has gained significantly in strength. The wage offers for lower level workers in the construction and moving tickets industries have increased as well, showing that the extra profits made from cheap supplies of materials has been passed onto workers. We believe that we should increase our moves in the direction of free trade by lowering import taxes on weapons and gifts to 75%. We estimate that our home grown businesses will easily compete with this tax change, and it will further stimulate our economy by introducing limited competition into those sectors.
VAT is a pointless tax in many cases. However, the key area in which VAT is important is the food industry. Every citizen must buy food, and so every citizen pays VAT every day. To help new players, we believe that food tax should be as low as possible. For this reason, we are undergoing a comprehensive review of food tax to work out the best way to encourage new players and allow them to have a larger disposable income to invest in our economy.
Health Policy
After introducing wellness fast last month the whole TUP health policy needs to be reviewed. Our policy has been a huge success, with acclaim from NHS directors around the country. The challenge now is to teach players who have received treatment on how to maintain their wellness through a mixture of housing, food and gifts.
Our goal is to maintain a population with wellness above 90 at all times. The cost of maintaining health can be quite low. A single individual can maintain their health with Q2 food and one gift a day, even with no house, provided they work in a Q1 job. We need to teach citizens the best way to maintain their own health, and take the burden off the state.
Entertainment Policy
The Unity Party understands that this is a game and it is our duty to make it as fun as possible. In addition to all the normal functions (fighting, founding a company, writing a paper), we want to encourage players to take part by introducing new entertainments. For this reason, our President Malta proposed an 'eUK Day' as a monthly event where all citizens can participate in all manner of games. We have thought of a few different events that we think would make good additions to the day, that our congress members would like to introduce next month.
National Lottery
Once a month there will be a national lottery. There will be thirty balls in the machine and four will be drawn. The top prize will be £500, for four matching balls. Three balls will be £75 and two balls will be £5. It will cost £2 to enter. The odds of winning the top prize are quite low, so we can afford to back such a high prize. Any proceeds will be used for charitable donations.
Art competition
Once a month we will have two Art competitions, for new players (under level 12) and old players (over level 12). The players will compete and the result will be judged by forum poll. New players will win a Q1 house and their art piece will be published in the media. Old players will earn the title 'Designer General by the appointment of the Crown', or something similarly impressive, and can claim to be the best artist in the nation.
Literature competition
Once a month we'll have a literature competition, with three categories: Poetry, Prose and Educational. Contestants will be asked to submit an entry in one of the area, and the best in each area will win 
2 GOLD.
So on the 25th of April, Remember to VOTE TUP
For a Stronger, Fairer Britain. For the United Kingdom
The Unity Party on the Wiki
The Unity Party is the largest party in the UK and the twentieth biggest in the world, with around 400 members.
Click on the links on the right to read more about The Unity Party, its goals and its ideals, or click here to go to The Unity Party on eRepublik.
