Guelphian Quarterly, autumn 2013

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Autumn 2013
Issue No. 4

Date set for FICT ratification vote

From The Guelphian, Wednesday, 8 May 2013

Guelphia will go to the polls on 22 June 2013 to vote for the accession to the Forum for International Cooperation and Trade (FICT). The bill for Guelphia’s ratification of the Treaty of Ísðor has easily passed both Houses of Parliament this evening, with all the major parties supporting the vote. Prime Minister Matthew Jones, welcomed the result, and announced that he would campaign vigorously for a ‘yes’ vote once the campaign gets under way next week.

The only opposition came from independent members in the Senate, who felt that accession would lead to a derogation of Guelphia’s international sovereignty. The ‘No’ campaign is likely to be led by independent senator Jim Carraway, who was the most outspoken against accession in today’s debate.

Both sides will be allocated £150,000 of public funds to run the official ‘yes’ and ‘no’ campaigns. Information prepared by both sides of the debate will be distributed to every householder by Elections Guelphia in the coming weeks. The vote in the Senate came as the first opinion poll on the referendum result was held, with support for the bill currently enjoying a comfortable 58-42% margin amongst voters.

Guelphia formally applies for FICT membership

From The Guelphian, Tuesday, 2 April 2013

Foreign Minister, Tony Moore, formally advised the House of Assembly on Monday that the government had accepted all of the recommendations of the Senate report on Guelphia's membership of multilateral organisations. The much anticipated response from the government came some three weeks later than expected, with the Minister acknowledging the delay; "The government felt that it should take the time to consult all stakeholders before formally announcing our position formally". The Minister told his fellow parliamentarians. Mr Moore also stated that he had contacted the Secretary-General of FICT, Mr Cyprien Mâchefer, to inform him that an application had been forwarded to his office at 17:00 Tuesday afternoon Guelphian time (04:00 Wednesday GMT).

It is expected that if Mr Mâchefer accepts the application, it will be forwarded to the seven FICT member states for their approval through the General Assembly. The Minister said he hoped that Guelphia could help increase the influence of FICT on the international stage, and would provide additional stability to the organisation in the wake of the issues that plagued the organisation last year.

Football season is here again

From The Sportsman, Monday, 1 April 2013

The Guelphian football season will get under way this weekend, his the twelve teams of the Guelphian National Football Association (GNFA) competing in the 122nd Premiership Season. The GNFA runs the oldest semi-professional competition in Guelphia, and draws in excess of 250,000 spectators every year. Many international observers are surprised to learn that the competition is not an association football (soccer) tournament, but is instead an Australian rules football competition. The GNFA was first established in 1892, with Australian football having first been introduced to Guelphia by Australian tin and copper miners in the 1870s. Having quickly supplanted rugby and soccer as the most popular winter sport, Australian football, alongside cricket in the summer, has since grown to be the national game of Guelphia, a distinction this country shares only with the small Micronesian state of Nauru.

Last years premiers Shepton will be looking to go back-to-back with their premiership titles, having performed well in pre-season trial matches played throughout March.