San Martin nobles

n7axw wrote:There is nothing illegal about calling an election in wartime. It may well have happened off stage.

On the other hand, it was the mess in the Lords that was the problem. Once that was resolved, the Grantville government may well not have seen a need for an election.

Weird Harold wrote:

Hutch wrote:And just to complicate matters further, they might have held up a bit to allow the latest (and least heard-from) member of the Star Kingdom (Lynx) to get their nominations and nobles selected and ready for the Lords.

IIRC, they can't even seat all of the San Martin Lords because of the 10% per election limit. I think there is also a minimum time between general elections involved also.

I'm pretty sure that there has been at least one election since the High Ridge government collapsed -- they were beyond the five year maximum without a "state of emergency" already, and Grantville had no problem with wartime elections.

Weird Harold wrote:

Hutch wrote:And just to complicate matters further, they might have held up a bit to allow the latest (and least heard-from) member of the Star Kingdom (Lynx) to get their nominations and nobles selected and ready for the Lords.

IIRC, they can't even seat all of the San Martin Lords because of the 10% per election limit. I think there is also a minimum time between general elections involved also.

I'm pretty sure that there has been at least one election since the High Ridge government collapsed -- they were beyond the five year maximum without a "state of emergency" already, and Grantville had no problem with wartime elections.

Hutch wrote:And just to complicate matters further, they might have held up a bit to allow the latest (and least heard-from) member of the Star Kingdom (Lynx) to get their nominations and nobles selected and ready for the Lords.

Weird Harold wrote:IIRC, they can't even seat all of the San Martin Lords because of the 10% per election limit. I think there is also a minimum time between general elections involved also.

I'm pretty sure that there has been at least one election since the High Ridge government collapsed -- they were beyond the five year maximum without a "state of emergency" already, and Grantville had no problem with wartime elections.

SharkHunter wrote:I've completely forgotten when the 10% limit applies, was that just the Talbott systems or did it apply to Trevor's Star (San Martin) as well? I'm also wondering if there's a ratio in effect for San Martin in terms of "how many peers"?

SharkHunter wrote:I've completely forgotten when the 10% limit applies, was that just the Talbott systems or did it apply to Trevor's Star (San Martin) as well? I'm also wondering if there's a ratio in effect for San Martin in terms of "how many peers"?

War of Honor
Chapter One
wrote:"Of course not," Henke snorted with the rich contempt for aristocratic defense of privilege possible only for one born to that same aristocracy. "What? You really think that anyone who has as good a thing going for them as the peers do is going to vote to give half of her power to someone else?"

"Actually," Honor said seriously, "that's exactly what High Ridge is afraid of, and a lot of the Independents agree with him."

"That's what Mom said," Henke said in an exasperated voice, "but I just can't see it happening, somehow."

"High Ridge can. And so can Elizabeth and Willie Alexander. It's all a matter of numbers, Mike, and the San Martino peers could very well shift the balance in the Lords to a point that makes it possible for the Queen to pull it off at last. But the joker in the deck is the combination of the Constitution's limit on the creation of new peerages and the terms of the Act of Annexation which admitted Trevor's Star to the Star Kingdom. The Constitution limits increases in the total membership of the House of Lords to no more than ten percent between any two general elections, and the Act of Annexation specifies that none of the new peers from San Martin will be confirmed or seated until after the next general election.

"So what the Government and its supporters in the Lords are trying to do is to postpone that election as long as possible. At the moment, there's not much question that the San Martinos are very solidly behind the Queen and the Centrists. After all, it was our Navy, under Elizabeth and the Cromarty Government, which kicked the Peeps out of the Trevor's Star System and liberated them, and it was Cromarty and your father, as Foreign Secretary, who negotiated the actual terms of their admission to the Star Kingdom. Not only that, but San Martin had no hereditary aristocracy before its annexation, so it's not likely that the San Martinos are going to have the same . . . devoted attachment to the status quo in Parliament. Gratitude to the people they see as responsible for their liberation, coupled with that lack of aristocratic tradition, means the new peers would be likely—almost certain, in fact—to support a motion by Lord Alexander, as the leader of the Centrist Party, to transfer that power of the purse to the House of Commons.

saber964 wrote:There have been several mentions of this or that politician being washed out office in the post High Ridge tsunami on the various HD news programs like Into The Fire. Plus IIRC there can only be 5 T-years between general elections so if High Ridge came to power in 1915 PD that means the election would take place sometime in 1920 or early 1921 PD.

fallsfromtrees wrote:

saber964 wrote:There have been several mentions of this or that politician being washed out office in the post High Ridge tsunami on the various HD news programs like Into The Fire. Plus IIRC there can only be 5 T-years between general elections so if High Ridge came to power in 1915 PD that means the election would take place sometime in 1920 or early 1921 PD.

It is possible for the government to delay elections beyond five years if a declared state of emergency is in effect. There was such a state of emergency due to Haven War I, and when the High Ridge government took control, the reason they were not interested in concluding a peace was so they could continue the state of emergency, thereby allowing them to continue to postpone a general election. We don't know how long it had been since the Cromarty government had had a general election, so the 5 year period started running much earlier than 1915.

saber964 wrote:There have been several mentions of this or that politician being washed out office in the post High Ridge tsunami on the various HD news programs like Into The Fire. Plus IIRC there can only be 5 T-years between general elections so if High Ridge came to power in 1915 PD that means the election would take place sometime in 1920 or early 1921 PD.

fallsfromtrees wrote:It is possible for the government to delay elections beyond five years if a declared state of emergency is in effect. There was such a state of emergency due to Haven War I, and when the High Ridge government took control, the reason they were not interested in concluding a peace was so they could continue the state of emergency, thereby allowing them to continue to postpone a general election. We don't know how long it had been since the Cromarty government had had a general election, so the 5 year period started running much earlier than 1915.

Zakharra wrote:

The emergency also allowed the High Ridge government to divert money from military projects to civilian projects to basically buy the public. ie social welfare programs. Some of the funds was used to rebuild the destroyed Basilisk Station infrastructure that had been destroyed in the war, but much of the rest went into the High Ridge pet social system projects. They were also, I believe, trying to make it so the progressive tax structure that had come into being with the needs of the war be made permanent, so the wealthier people would be taxed at a higher rate. Basically, they took military money for social pet projects and as long as the emergency continued, they could continue to do that.

Zakharra wrote:The emergency also allowed the High Ridge government to divert money from military projects to civilian projects to basically buy the public. ie social welfare programs. Some of the funds was used to rebuild the destroyed Basilisk Station infrastructure that had been destroyed in the war, but much of the rest went into the High Ridge pet social system projects. They were also, I believe, trying to make it so the progressive tax structure that had come into being with the needs of the war be made permanent, so the wealthier people would be taxed at a higher rate. Basically, they took military money for social pet projects and as long as the emergency continued, they could continue to do that.