ad HOC Official

Newspaper of the TSR

House of Commons

Edition 8 ● December 2012

Birchington ● ad HOC Editor

A by-election is imminent in the HOC, following the

banning of Independent MP Internetguru.

The Speaker, TheCrackInTime, informed the House of the

developments a few days before Christmas. The election

is expected to begin in final week of December, delayed

due to the festive period.

It is expected all parties will be fielding candidates in the

election, in an attempt to gain both a seat and influence

in the competitive House of Commons.

It remains to be seen if further Independent candidates

will stand in the election as no declarations have yet been

made, but Independents have been an increasingly

important feature in recent general elections.

Toronto353

Birchington

BY-ELECTION DUE IN HOUSE OF COMMONS

Unsure what the HOC is?

Don’t worry – you can find

a beginner’s guide on

PAGE 4

DEPUTY SPEAKER ELECTION RESULTS

PAGE 4 ● THE FULL STORY

Get to know some of the

HOC’s most influential

members. Interviews on

PAGES 3 & 5

The latest goings on in the

HOC, all on

PAGE 4

ALL THE LATEST NEWS

CHRISTMAS QUIZ

WHAT’S ON

INTERVIEWS

Festive fun on

PAGE 7

GET INVOLVED tsrhocnews @gmail.com

PAGE 3 ● INTERVIEW WITH THE FORMER SPEAKER

ad HOC December 2012 | 2

Thanks for reading this new edition of Ad HOC. I hope you enjoy this latest roundup of news, views and interviews from the House. As 2012 draws to a close, I’d like to say a huge thank

you to everyone who has helped in any way with Ad HOC this year – it has been a great success and I look forward to our future in 2013. Enjoy reading, and keep sending in your content!

from the EDITOR

Best wishes, Birchington Email: tsrhocnews@gmail.com ● PM: u=169550 CARTOON

Steve Bell

CONTENTS

Page 6: Opinion & Debate

Page 7 Christmas Quiz

Page 4: House News

Page 5: More interviews

Page 2: Editorial Comments

Page 3: Interview with the former Speaker

ad HOC December 2012 | 3

Interviews WE QUIZ THE FORMER SPEAKER

Paddy__power served as the Speaker of

the TSR House of Commons until

November.

Firstly, how did you discover the HOC? I regularly spoke with an old member of the house on other threads (he incidentally left TSR at the same time as I joined it, or possibly changed accounts) and he informed me of what the HOC was and what the state of the place was at the time. I decided I would see if I could take UKIP over for my own amusement and succeeded. The rest is history.

How was your time as Speaker? It was fine. Not particularly interesting. I was

able to have a good read through the subforums

though and learn what cretins some people are

(well, have that opinion reinforced in many

cases) so that was something of a redeeming

factor.

As an experienced member, how do you

think we can attract and retain new

members of the HOC?

Ultimately we can't do a great deal. The best we

can do is be visible to ensure that a large

percentage of people who would be interested in

joining are aware that we exist. Activity is

important for retention but is also dependent on

it. Good luck with that.

What would you change about the HOC to

improve it?

It would have it be full of considerably more

interesting people.

Finally, what’s your favourite political quote?

I don't have one to be honest. I will provide a quote I agree with but it is by no means my favourite. “If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.” - Noam Chomsky

Interview by Birchington ● ad HOC Editor

GET INVOLVED AND JOIN A TSR PARTY TODAY! You can apply in the ‘Usergroups’ section

Paddy’s Choice

ad HOC December 2012 | 4

House News DEPUTY SPEAKER

ELECTED Birchington ● ad HOC Editor

The election to decide TheCrackInTime’s successor as Deputy Speaker

concluded at the end of November.

The vote was highly contested, with seven candidates standing in the

first round. Topical issues included debates on how to raise the

House’s profile and membership, as well discussion of the individual

strengths of each candidates and their plans for the Deputy Speaker

role.

MPs were asked to vote following a question and answer session. The

first ballot eliminated five of the candidates, Alofleicester,

Davidmarsh01, Rakas21, TopHat and xXedixXx. UKIP Leader

Toronto353 and Lib Dem Leader Birchington went through to the

second round of voting, with Toronto353 proving victorious.

WHO’S

WHO

TheCrackInTime

Toronto353

Davidmarsh01(Labour)

Rakas21 (Conservative)

Libertarians

Jesusandtequila Socialist Party

Abiraleft Liberal Democrat

Birchington UKIP

Toronto353 Green

CLS1994

HOC Speaker

HOC Deputy Speaker

Prime Minister

Leader of the Opposition

Other Party Leaders

This month, the Green Party had success with their Alcohol Harm Prevention Bill and their Building Economic Growth (Amendment) Bill. The Labour-Socialist government enjoyed success with their Finance Bill, which reforms tax bands and attempts to combat tax evasion. The government also repealed Police and Crime Commissioners. Elsewhere, the Liberal Democrats successfully passed a motion condemning the Israeli government for air strikes on Gaza. The party is currently in the process of preparing its Plastic Bags Levy Bill for a second reading.

HOUSE UPDATE

FOLLOW THE HOUSE

@mhocnews

ad HOC December 2012 | 5

More Interviews

Moleman1996 is the Chairman of the TSR Conservative Party and an MP in the HOC.

How did you discover the HOC?

I'd originally signed up to try and find some French GCSE resources back when I was doing it in year 9 (I was abysmal) and saw the HOC mentioned, thought it looked ok. Then I went away for almost a year, found myself back on to the site for some other purpose and this time decided I’d join the HOC and have a proper look around.

What would you change about the HOC to improve it? I did suggest the idea of bringing in Trade Unions to give us some more interesting scenarios about a year ago, but since activity is at a low, I doubt it’d work at the moment. I think stronger links with the MUN are also needed.

What plans have the TSR Conservatives got for the New Year? The TSR Conservatives will be aiming to follow up with bills on any of our manifesto that has been left untouched, but in particular you can expect some bills to follow on taxation. We'll be as busy as ever with new ideas in the New Year, and new members are of course welcome to contribute as always.

Do you think your party on TSR is being

affected by the current unpopularity of

its real life equivalent?

Mazzini is an MP for the TSR Liberal Democrats.

Firstly, how did you discover the HOC?

AD HOC QUIZZES TWO MORE MPS

Unfortunately I do. TSR tends to be left-leaning on average anyway, so the tough but necessary decisions being taken by our real life counterparts have hit us hard. Many voters on TSR often vote simply for the party they support in real life, or against parties that they don’t like, so the unpopularity of the real party hit us hard in the last election.

What future do you think conservatism has in Britain, as we move towards greater secular liberalism? I think that Conservatism has a great future in Britain; however certain people with conservative leanings must also learn to accept change. The purpose of conservatism is to retain the best in society, and this does mean changing that which is not right. I believe that Conservatism holds a more important place than ever with the world entering the 21st century, and that we have a responsibility to preserve the best of society, but correct what I would see as "mistakes" that currently exist. For example, I applaud the efforts of the current RL Prime Minister to legalise Gay Marriage, however I would also agree that certain aspects of family life need reinforcing.

Finally, what is your favourite political

quote?

“The enemy isn’t conservatism. The enemy isn’t

liberalism. The enemy is bulls**t." —Lars-Erik Nelson,

political columnist

I can't quite remember, I think I must have been browsing TSR on a boring February afternoon and come across it. I joined the Lib Dem usergroup and got involved further like that.

CONTINUES ON PAGE 6

Interviews by Birchington ● ad HOC Editor

ad HOC December 2012 | 6

Opinion and Debate

Afcwimbledon2 ● TSR UKIP MP

THE PATH TO UNIVERSITY JUST KEEPS GETTING HARDER

What would you change about the HOC to improve it? I would try to get rid of inactive MPs through an

amendment I've had up my sleeve for a while and

haven't got round to submitting. I'd also get rid of the

bickering, especially between certain members of the

House, because it puts off potential members. I also

think the TSR staff could/should do a banner about

the House on the homepage so that people who don't

trawl the forum(!) would find out about us.

What plans have the TSR Liberal Democrats got lined up for the New Year? You'll have to wait and see... No cheeky stealing our ideas!

Do you think your party on TSR is being

affected by the current unpopularity of

its real life equivalent?

Yes, definitely... Especially at general elections, I think

it's safe to say that most people just vote according to

the name they see, not by reading each party's

manifesto - and because most TSR parties are located

at different points on the political spectrum compared

to their real-life counterparts, this can alter the vote

share for each part of the spectrum significantly.

What future do you think liberalism has in Britain? I think liberalism definitely has a future in Britain... as long as Cleggy boy pops his clogs (or should that be Cleggs?), politically, anyway. I think laissez faire politics and classical/economic liberalism have had their heyday and social liberalism is the way forwards.

Finally, what’s your favourite political quote? My favourite political quote is a quote I believe from a

Roman politician, although I forget which. It's

something like this: "The cleverest politicians are not

at the top, but second-in-command".

Rising Tuition Fees, Harder GCSEs, and Controlled Assessments – just 3 things that Michael Gove and his Mickey Mouse Government department for Education are chucking on us for the sake of votes from Daily Mail readers; well Mr Gove seems intent on making things even harder for us Sixth Form students. Why? Well his latest scheme to keep the Daily Mail reader’s happy is to reduce resits to just 1 and stop all January exams.

The buck stops now. We fought and lost over Tuition Fees, we put up with Controlled Assessments. Scrapping January Exams is one step too far. It’s time to fight back over yet another stepping stone for each and every one of us and our paths to jobs, university and the opportunity to reach into the stars.

Michael Gove has made it once again a little bit harder for us. A Levels are hard enough with January Exams as it is. How can we be expected to cope with the added pressures of having to learn everything for one huge exam in May? I certainly wouldn’t be able to cope.

While you could argue this brings things into line with GCSEs and the future English Baccalaureates, A Levels are significantly more content rich and are also held in a significantly shorter space of time. A lot of us struggle now – is it wise to make that struggle even worse?

And although this may not directly affect you and

me, there are plans to totally scrap A Levels

CONTINUES ON PAGE 7

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01phj47/Mark_Steels_in_Town_Series_4_Corby/http://ww

w.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01phj47/Mark_Steels_in_Town_Series_4_Corby/http://www.bbc.co.

uk/iplayer/episode/b01phj47/Mark_Steels_in_Town_Series_4_Corby/

ad HOC December 2012 | 7

altogether and force people to do a generalised further education Baccalaureate. I don’t need to tell you how absolutely ludicrous this is.

I am probably one of the more Conservative -

What better way to

celebrate Christmas than to have a festive quiz?

Here at Ad HOC Towers, we agreed. Our festive quizmaster, Matthew Lowson, has spent the last week posting questions in the main House of Commons forum.

In first place, with 52 points: JSB123!

supporting members of my Sixth Form but even I know that Gove is making a huge mistake. We need to tell him before yet another stepping stone is added and the path to University and our potential being reached grows yet further.

Thanks to everyone who that entered and took part – we had some interesting answers! Hopefully everyone took part with the Christmas spirit in mind, and avoided the temptation of Google!

In second place, with 47 points: BEAUX1!

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6

AD HOC EDITORIAL TEAM Editor: Birchington

ANY QUESTIONS? PM TCIT (THE SPEAKER)

Do you disagree with this?

GET IN TOUCH This is your newspaper, so send in your views and opinions!

The Ad HOC

Christmas Quiz

Our winners are...

THANKS ALSO TO OUR FINALISTS TEHFRANCE AND MAZZINI!