【MoFA】 An open letter about our Foreign Affairs.
Foreign Office
As things have come to a head, I thought today was the perfect time to go through the most recent MoFA updates, so that everyone can appreciate were we are upto, and also what's been going on in the world. First and foremost, I want to go over the UK's position in the world. I'll then release a further update in relation to recent wars/etc tomorrow.
Since our brexit out of Orion, we've been hovering between rocks, hard places, and Waynes, in the hope of something progressing.
Since then, we've had various promises from various Presidents, and reassurances that everything is fine.
It isn't.
Reassurances were given that communication with our allies was going well, and that our Government would ensure that we were getting closer and closer to where we wanted to be.
It wasn't, and we weren't.
Although the work that Nomad did last month did go some way to trying to reassure our allies, it was too little, too late. Pretty much every day, I've been speaking with our allies and friends, and doing my best to get the UK back to where we should be: and individually, our friends (both old and new) are supportive. The issue is, that what I have emphasised (and again, I'd like to stress, Nomad began to some degree last month) is seen as a refreshing change. The issue that's been relayed back from various murky figures across the eWorl
😛we're not seen as reliable. Whether this has been misconstrued, misunderstood, or girl got issues is beside the point: the fact it took me hours to explain how we weren't a satellite state for Colin and his credit card, or actively working to support Turkey should show just how little faith some of our friends have in us: and also demonstrate that some people who think they know what they're doing, clearly don't.
The point of a steady relationships, is to ensure that if a Government is inactive, incapable or just inept, that our allies can rely on our historical relations to reassure themselves we're not batshit. Admittedly, the worries they have about us are far-fetched, but the worrying thing is that the mutual trust and shared history isn't cutting it. The merry we're bored let's NE brigade has always existe
😛but it's never been given free reign nearly as much as in recent times. To be clear, Foreign Relations are murky. Some countries that we perceive as enemies, are friends of friends. Some countries we assume are friends, are actually enemies of friends. Thus, actions we took against various countries, in the previous couple of months, got us wiped.
The annoying thing is, we were told we'd be wiped, yet we did it anyway.
It was explained why it wasn't a great idea, but we did it anyway.
All in all, the general erosion some in Asteria have towards us is in my opinion, an overeaction: but countries can only overreact when they lack trust: and trust isn't just given willingly. So sure, leaving Orion was great because oh god boring, but the way it was handled was truly god awful. Since then, we've had intermittent communication with Asteria and allied nations until Nomad's term: either as a result of inept or inactive leadership within Foreign Affairs. Going forward, this can't continue.
- To the we're bored, let's NE someone brigade: durp in your feeds, not with our alliances. Stuff is complicated, what looks like an easy target can be anything but that: we ourselves have proved this against Sweden. But at the same time, what looks like a viable target, can also be anything but that.
- To the why aren't we in Asteria yet brigade: because they're pissed, and some of it is justified. Our 'organized military forces' are a joke, and I've only managed to be able to get people to fight for allies by shouting, funding their weapons and tickets myself. When we can actually help, they'd let us in without a second's hesitation.
- To the why don't we have stronger MPPs brigade: because those countries don't trust us enough yet. I'm trying my best to sort things, but ultimately it takes time.
- To the oh god USA TW baw baw baw brigade: let's be very clear that this isn't a training war. They invade us, let us RW ourselves, and send back tax revenue: that's it. There's not now, nor has there ever, been any understanding that we're equal partners in a training war. They want us to lose tax income so we remain weak: obviously negotiations to close it are complex, and depend on them basically being nice and closing the war before we crumble - as and when there are updates I will publish them all.
To summarize:
- a [insert thing you like] dies everytime we do something retarded, and we've done a lot recently, so Foreign Affairs stuff is taking more time than I'd like.
- If I get one more message asking why we haven't signed stronger MPPs or peace with ‘Murica, I'll kill something you like.
- Stop assuming that people will be understanding and forgetful about durp: everyone hates morons, what right do we have to ask people not to hate us when we're morons?
~jw
Comments
After literally spending 4 hours trying to explain we're not secretly working against Asteria, for the fourth time this week, to the fourth different person, I may have lost the patience needed to be nice about stuff.
I never got the memo informing me to stop secretly working against Asteria! When were you going to tell me our policy had changed? Are you fecking seriously saying that all my sneaking about behind our allies back over the last few months wasted! For feck sake next you'll be telling me that I'm not supposed to be planning the PTO of Ireland!
Horice DMfSAoAB (Deputy Minster for Sneeking About Behing our Allies Back) 🐓
Ickshnay on the treachnay!
Your making no sense man, are you drunk? Maybe that's why you forgot to pass on such an important message! What is this fecking country coming to when the acting CP can't even stay sober long enough to stop us poor feckers wasting our time. For shame, for shame!
Horice ex-DMfSABoAB 🐓
Could you provide more context to this claim? What actions have we taken that has suggested such a thing?
Was it the kicking out of Columbia? After all, Assteria did drop our MPP in favour of a Colum MPP. I suppose they could claim that we attacked one of their allies, therefore we were working against Assteria... Or was it helping out Norway and the Swiss against the Swedes and Finland? We all know that Pathetica are an Assteria satellite. I suppose that could be classed as working against Assterian interests too. Cuz apart from the Latvian Banter Wars, eUK hasn't done a great deal.
The Colin satellite state claim is the most head scratching though, I maybe wrong, but Colin has never struck me as being even the most faintly interested in us and we all know the eUK has a serious chip on it's shoulder about Credit Card Warriors as evidenced by the treatment of our very own Colin, Alfagrem, over the years...
After you left the consensus was that we maintained an anti Asteria position. In the months that followed Colin gave the eUK immeasurable help in trying to keep us afloat against constant attacks and prolonged wipes from Asteria and its allies.
Thanks. That would have been well over a year ago though...
Key emphasis on quoting, as opposed to believing:
Timing of our previous request to Asteria HQ for support to NE (that country we all know) coincided with Colin's spending to support Turkey: looks like we were working in tandem. NE and invasion of Latvia coincided with other anti-Asteria campaigns, and as Latvia were a RO ally, it drained their damage. Also cost us a RO MPP which we'd just signed, so they obv weren't too happy about that. Alfa's tanking against Serbia (for Chile) didn't help things either.
Again: I'm quoting, not believing. The essence of what I wrote isn't to give any credence to what they're saying: but rather to show, if they're willing to believe stuff which is as far from the truth as this, it shows there's an underlying issue of mistrust that we need to work on fixing.
'Timing of our previous request to Asteria HQ for support to NE (that country we all know)'
Latvia? Pretty sure we didn't request any support, we took our beating like men in aid of our Belgie friends. Retarded sure, but surely Assteria understand that most people in the eUK can't even play regular chess, let alone 4D chess... Our friendship with Belguim trumps Latvias and RO in my opinion.
I've lost count of the amount of 'allies' I've seem hitting big numbers against us. I don't hold it against the country. If I see a concentrated effort from numerous 'allies' from different MU's then I start thinking maybe something is up.
I can't tell if it's your painting of Assteria or if Assteria are actually retarded.
I don't know, I was talking with governments of 20 countries regarding kicking out Colombia, they were all cool with us. Only one Lithuanian guy asked why did we leave Orion
Counties I had no contract with are Peru, Romania, Portugal and China. I didn't like their attitude in some past negotiations, so basically they coučd go and... do something with something
And Aaron contacted me about some Romanian guy being concerned that we are Colin's puppets, which I actually find insulting, explained it to Aaron why. Tbh, a person should be a retard to come to that conclusion, but oh well...
When it's sink or swim they're all going to help out, but that's more to do with not liking the other side, as opposed to actually like us. The stuff you did last month was basically 'the first time we saw the UK being cool' as most people have put it - and it's a great start to fixing stuff, but it doesn't make it any easier to deal with the fallout of previous stuff.
I was just passing on info that there were some concerns about us. Unfounded concerns but it’s a retarded way of thinking that indeed that assumption was made of us
My god. Didn’t think it was possible but did our foreign affairs actually get worse after I left?
Tbh, I didn't see it this sh*t 😂 Kinda had a good working relationship with everyone and didn't get negative feedback from allies. Even was cool with the USA CP at that time. Guess I talked with different people...
Yeah but i was gone from June till September ;P
That was a good period 😃
Yeah, all the feedback I've heard from our allies and real friends lately has been fine. Even the pressing of a NE button seemed to have strengthened ties and communication with more countries then it alienated and if it did alienate our allies, none of em made it known to us.
Different circles, different opinions I suppose. Every time we needed help, set up a plan and carried it out, our allies showed up in force each time.
Like I quoted above: when it comes to push and shove, they're willing to help us if we're invaded or under threat: but that's a case of not liking the other guy as opposed to actually liking us - there's a big distinction that needs to be made between the two. As for different circles: I asked specifically for honest appraisals and spent hours talking through stuff, trying to get to the root of what was making me signing more MPPs or progressing further: this wasn't just a casual 'hey what do you think of the UK' talk that I'm assuming other people have ha😛 it was much more of a case of me saying stuff is obviously going on behind the scenes, otherwise we'd full of MPPs and not needing to negotiate with the US.
tl;dr: corpses make for bad drinking partners
Lol. Erep is dying slowly.
Wasn't I credited with calling the USA arrangement a "concession bumming" rather than TW? coulda been sure that was already established unless everybody forgot my achievements...hm...
Yeah, it's never been claimed that the USA was an equal partnership TW. We made it perfectly clear that it's a TW in so much as it's not a free for all, there is some sort of agreement on regions and we still retain the majority of our production and we are basically at the whim of the eUSA. TW is much easier and faster to type then to explain the real mechanics behind the 'concession bumming'.
You make it sound like eUK was riding high until we left Orion. We've been slowly drowning since before my return, we've had our ups, we've had our downs, but no progress has been made. No progress can be made. We lack just about everything an alliance requires (or should require), coordination, damage and reliability. As we've spoken about in BestPCP, we can't see a way to improve those things, simply because those players that could provide such things are not interested enough in the game anymore. There is only so many times you can run into a brick wall before you give up. Couple that with the Alliance scene at the moment, its not wonder we are stagnant when the rest of the world is also in the same position. We had talks about forming a new alliance, but the key players were more concerned about not rocking the boat and becoming a target, so that fell by the wayside.
I applaud your efforts James, it's just a shame that it took such a f*ck up from every PP in eUK in order for a fire to be lit under you. Why do you keep mentioning Turkey, whats happened with them and according to Assteria, us? You telling me that the 'best' alliance in the game is getting its knickers in a twist because someone allowed a couple of Turks? in to the country...
[removed]
I see it as propaganda. Jamesw is gonna ride in and right the wrongs of the past and make us awesome once more!
Truth of the matter is, the eUK is shite, we always have been expect nowadays we don't seem to want to do anything about it other then pass the problems on to the other side.
In all my time in this game, the eUK has been a burden rather then a provider when it comes to alliances, ONE, TWO, Sirius, Orion (although to be fair, the only time Orion did anything was due to us) . Not much has changed apart from lost personal relationships between high ranking players that quit the game or moved on to pastures new.
Looks like my comment got deleted. Hmm.
We were great, like 4 years ago - there's no-one who can undo admin. We were never a net burden until Sirius: before that we actually contributed more than our fair share: I'll be releasing a 'LOOK WE USED TO BE AWESOME' that we can all reminiss about at some point in the next few days: but the key thing I want to make clear is:
- Yeah, people will still help us: no-one is saying they won't. The issue is, why they're helping us has changed.
- We haven't been great for ages, but this is the first time that some of the countries we assumed actually genuinely liked us, have indicated that isn't the case (and that's a worry because we're shite without them)
- This isn't representative of ALL people in ALL Asteria contries: this is representative of SOME people, in SOME countries - yeah, it's far-fetched, yeah, it's annoying to have to convince someone that I'm not actually working in tandem with Colin: but if that's what they're worried about: that's what I'll re-assure about, and work to fix.
We were always a net burden. Since Feb 2012 at least. How many times did Poland need to come bail us out, how many times did they or another ally come and hole up on our shores as a deterrent. We have always been the weak link in any proper alliance we have been in (during my time playing). The only reason we even got close to alliances such as ONE, TWO and Sirius was due to personal relationships between the players that made that happen.
How do you make people actually care once more? That's the biggest hurdle to face 'Make eUK Great Again'. That boat has sailed. It's a managed decline nowadays.
PS: Please don't do me the disservice of assuming my propoganda would be this awful. It would have much more BOLD, tyvm.
I know what you are attempting and I applaud you for it Jim, I truly do, but you are wasting your time. The moment you stop doing what you do, the whole affair will grind to a halt because people don't care enough to carry it on.
If we want to have at least some respect internationally, we first need to fix internal issues. Better system of our military organisation should be first thing to work on it, then raising activity and then finally to choose in which way we want to go.
Its not easy and it wont be done in a month, but the process need to be started
#TrustTheProcess 😃
Interimo 4CP !!! 😃
We lost many players who was CP-s and many did the right thing governing the country.James can"t be blamed for not doing the job as best as he know,and relations with allies and to get respect of all of them and not be stagnant is not our lack of players nor the current ones,now it is hard times for UK and that"s why are relations with allies like this.
"James can"t be blamed"
does... not... compute...
Am I said something wrong?.
The great thing is that less and less people who remember this joke are alive. I shall outlive Keers and his goddamned blame jamesw. I SHALL OUTLIVE.
I will always remember. I will always blame
The eUK's position has, as I understand it, been clear for a long period of time i.e. from when we were in Pluto and ever since that the future position of the country internationally was to be in the pro Asteria camp.
I came to this view after discussions with our closest allies in Pluto and consideration of the views of those in the eUK that we should have remained allied with Serbia all along. This course has been set with varying degrees of urgency and success ever since. I wanted the eUK to progress relationships with Pacifica countries just as other Asteria and Orion countries had done with a view to broadening our appeal and friendships. I recall that in a previous war with the eUS, eUK had 2 MPP's with Asteria and the eUS had the other 5 and this annoyed me and I made this view clear at the time.
Before I left, I came to view that the eUK needed to spend considerable time solidly building - keeping its head down, working with allies, securing more MPP’s and doing nothing stupid like warring with potential allies. I rather got the impression I was in a minority of 1 with this viewpoint - which was part of the reason why, along with the fact I had gradually lost faith in the direction some of our allies were headed and that allying with Serbia was what the head told me was best for the eUK but not what my heart felt, that I decided to leave.
back when Poland and Serbia went there 'separate' ways, the general consensus was that we follow Poland. A lot of the PTO attempt around that time was based on those facts. We would be damned either way, picking one of your long term friends and ally over the other is never a good move.
On my return I was quite shocked to see us camping in the Assteria camp. It was surprising and a complete U-Turn to what I had known previous.
I was very surprised myself to be arguing for a pro Asteria alignment considering my views had been forged initially at a time when we were in Sirius. The problem we then found was that the resources you were instrumental in securing for us could not be held to our benefit without either significant finance or the right allies and over time we decided we couldn’t keep relying on bailouts from the likes of Colin or Zdlemmy and that there needed to be a long term solution. Ironically by the time we’d got properly moved to being pro Asteria the next resource wars and their outcome negated the movement we had made and we may have been better off from a warring perspective staying in the anti Asteria camp.
I did say at the time that the bonuses would either be a curse or a blessing. I think not coming up with a plan that we worked towards, ie, becoming a haven for allied producers (we tried it slightly but never really pushed it) was the real downfall. Had we a game plan that we all agreed upon and worked towards we could have been the next Slovenia. Unfortunately that next step was slightly too much for us.
There is an ex-Rugby player called Paul Tyndale.
Well he's called Mike Tindall, but very similar.
it pays to have friends in high places
No one wants to be shackled to a corpse. We're the Austro-Hungarians of 1917.