Durham government
Contents
The Durham Government
The town of Durham is run by a consulate of three consuls:
All decisions must have either a 2/3 or unanimous vote by the consuls. If a consul becomes inactive, the other two appoint a substitute to use the vote of the inactive.
Their most recent achievement has been the implication of an immigration system.
Current Issues and Projects
Citizenship- The first law passed by the Consuls was the citizenship program. In order to vote or hold office you need to be a citizen. This is also a way for foreigners to join the Durham community. To apply simply tell the government representative in the census office. All native Durhamites will receive citizenship no questions asked if they are not pkers or a member of another government group.
Taxation- Currently undecided and no vote has been called on it yet. Tomn has been vocal in his support of the idea and Ron is against the idea.
Casino- After a recent game change the Durham Government has opened a casino. It has a simple 50/50 game but variations on this theme are being planned.
Enemies of the Government
These people are KOS
Update
New elections were held in March and Ron Burgundy was elected Governor of Durham. He started a new message board for Durham which can be found at this address http://z9.invisionfree.com/Durham/index.php?&act=idx.
The Burgundy Administration a retrospective
There is little information available about Ron Burgundy or the government he tried to create. The following is an account of the details of the Burgundy Administration told by Sgt Nicholas Angel who has known Ron for most of his characters life.
When I first met Ron it was during his first foray into the politics of this island, the creation of the Channel 4 News Team. I was eager to join up with the C4NT and be apart of what I hoped to be the next big group on the island. It was not to be however, recruitment was low and we lacked an objective to give us purpose. So after spending some time in Durham I returned to my home in York. It was shortly after this that Serious Sam killed me and started the CM CP war. Being a member of the YC and the CP I was in conflict about how to respond to the CM. Burgundy however did not have that conflict, he marched into the town and killed Gunshow which created a stir from the CM. I'll never know what Ron had hoped to accomplish with that assassination, the C4NT had four members which meant the enemy outnumbered us at least 5 to 1. In an effort to prevent the conflict from expanding into Durham I persuaded Ron to disband the group. He wasn't eager to do it but he could see the potential for catastrophic repercussions. I didn't hear much from Ron during the next couple months he rejoined the Independent Republic of Fort Creedy and carried out a rather peaceful existence. This is probably how Ron's life would have ended dull, unnotable, at the most a mere footnote in history. However, fate had other plans for Ron, the chain of events that lead him to becoming Durham's second governor began with the announcement of a new election to replace the old governor. It wasn't the election itself that interested Ron but rather the only candidate running Tomn, and his threats against Fort Creedy. When Fort Creedy made the plea for international aid Ron responded by getting together some of the guys from the old C4NT and a few native mercs. It was an interesting group of oddballs and misfits. It's a shame the fight never occurred I would have liked to have seen how we would have fared against Durham. Tomn backed down and peace reigned in the peninsula and elections resumed. Burgundy was unconvinced however and decided to run for governor. He later told me that it was his intention to stop Tomn from getting power not to win the office. The election was a disaster and with no clear winner the three candidates formed a power sharing system. They named the new government a consulature and at first it was successful. The group established a citizenship system which allowed foreigners to rightfully claim that they were Durhamites, and a casino to give people another way to have fun in the game. All this time Burgundy still didn't trust Tomn and had us stick around. I don't know if Tomn still wanted to attack Creedy, but Ron thought he did and devised a plan to stop him. Ron sabotaged any effort on Tomn's part to increase his power and we were prepared to launch a coup the minute Tomn succeeded in thwarting Ron's efforts. The consulature quickly became useless as the consulates became polarized and incapable of passing law. Tomn left the game during this period and consulature served no role other than representation to foreign powers. The people became so dissatisfied with the consulature that a new election was called for to get a working government in place. Ron wasn't done with his goals and launched a re-election effort. His candidacy was a lost cause, I think he was the only one who thought he should be Governor. If it wasn't for Malice's return to Durham and his revitalization of the Pistoleers, Ron's career probably would have ended here. Ron saw Malice's return as an opportunity to expand the government and achieve something before the election. Unfortunately Ron's jubilation was short lived, the Independent Republic of Fort Creedy signed an alliance with the Royal Court of Ratkam. The Fort wanted protection from the Durham Government's aggression. Ron never got over this, he felt betrayed by their actions especially given that Tomn was gone and Burgundy's history of support for the fort. I would have liked to have known more about the events that followed but I wasn't there. From what I could gather from other sources pkers attacked the fort under the banner of the Pistoleers its unclear whether or not they were actually members of the group. This unfortunately coincided with Ron's apparent paranoia of an attack from the fort. This almost caused a war between the two groups, fortunately peace was brokered but the damage was done. The Pistoleers had disbanded and with them left any hope Ron had of expanding the government before the next election. Ron's paranoia of a potential attack from the fort didn't end there, in fact I don't think he ever stopped worrying about an attack. This lead him to building closer ties to Derby and the colonial militia. The election was delayed three months because of the conflict and when the elections resumed Ron had a new level of support that gave his candidacy a greater chance than it had when the elections were first called. The election was every bit as annoying and petty and spiteful as a U.S. presidential election. After a long and painful process full of arguments and allegations of corruption. Ron was re-elected and became the 2nd Governor of Durham. Ron quickly set up and started his two best achievements of his second term, the creation of a message board for coordinated efforts and communication, and the creation of the Durham Police Department. I was placed in charge of the Police force as a reward for my loyalty to him all this time. Ron was an Imperial type of leader he made unilateral decisions and didn't keep us informed about most of his actions. This makes record keeping difficult but as far as I can tell he didn't do anything after that. It was an ideal libertarian type government, I don't know if that's what Ron had intended but it was almost a libertarian utopia in Durham. The government may have had a small role in the lives of the public but it was efficient and effective.Durham became dull and peaceful, crime was low and the groups in the town posed little to no threat. Burgundy was an effective politician the second time around. He was a much better diplomat and no wars were waged during his second term. After a long period of peace and boredom a new election was called and the chaos resumed. Then Burgundy left the game for awhile and the elections were carried out and concluded leaving DarkFerret as the Third Governor of Durham. Looking back on it all it is my opinion that Burgundy was a good guy but he probably should have stayed out of politics. He never got elected to begin with, the only reason he got in was because they couldn't do a recount of the vote, he was bad at speeches, his mouth and faulty intelligence got us into a long protracted conflict. He miraculously won a second term, during which he did almost nothing, and what little he did do was decided unilaterally with no transparency. Ron may have been elected but he ruled like a king and luckily for us he didn't abuse his power. He remains one Durham's most effective politicians and what he accomplished during his term has had long lasting positive consequences.
