Chapter 621 Parliamentary War of Public Opinion
The matter of the National Assembly blew up in the north like a gust of wind. With Purficott's intentional or unintentional connivance and fueling, this matter soon became a hot topic among the people in the north.
The Parliament of Nobles and the Elected Parliament are not unfamiliar to the citizens of Victoria. The former is regarded as the highest authority in the empire.
Both of these are largely due to the impact of the Industrial Revolution, but Victoire did not set off a revolution like France did to overthrow the aristocratic rule.
This can be regarded as the result of the brilliance of the royal family and nobles of Victoria, as well as the efforts of Perficott's parents and their generation.
The feudal aristocracy transferred power to the new bourgeoisie, and parliament was its most important manifestation.
Although the aristocratic parliament still holds great power and the democratically elected parliament does not actually have particularly great power, it is still regarded as a symbol of social progress.
Even in the eyes of both parties, the two are actually the product of political compromise.
And now, someone is finally going to break this old compromise and realize 'democracy' in the true sense. How can this not make some people feel happy?
"This is really great!"
"We should let those noble men see who has the final say now! Their time has passed!"
"It is undeniable that the nobles have indeed received elite education, and they also have sufficient knowledge and ability, but this is only a part of the nobles, and more nobles are uneducated and unskilled dudes. The empire should appoint talents based on everyone's talents. Not because of their bloodline and origin! ”
"Not only the nobility, but also the days when capitalists controlled public opinion are over! We need parliamentarians who can represent ordinary people!"
Looking at the various comments in the newspaper, Purficott shook his head, put down the newspaper and started eating breakfast again.
"It seems that today's news does not interest you, Miss." The old housekeeper watched Purficott put down the newspaper, then stretched out his hand to tidy up the newspapers and put them aside so that they would not interfere with Purficott's breakfast.
In response, Purficott just shrugged and said with a smile: "They are all things I already know, so naturally they have no appeal to me."
Quite a few of these remarks were actually released on her orders, and the rest were basically published with her permission.
After all, newspapers and other media in the entire Northern Territory are all under the control of the Northern Territory Lord's Mansion. Do you want to bypass her and speak out? I can only say that I am overthinking it.
However, it is not that no one is aware of this, so they try to establish their own newspapers to publish newspapers, or they try to generate leaflets and pamphlets on their own, but it is illegal without reporting, and most of them fail to do so.
Only some tabloids with a real background or that Purficott thinks can be used as catfish to stimulate the public opinion environment in the north can obtain official approval and have legal licenses to publish newspapers.
But even so, the mouthpiece of the North is still in the hands of Purficott.
After all, the logistics in the north are all transported by officially controlled caravans, and all caravans belong to the lord's mansion. Under such circumstances, the delivery of news newspapers depends entirely on Perficott's mood.
If she didn't care, all the newspapers would be delivered on time, and if she wanted to interfere, she would only have to delay the delivery of the newspapers she didn't like for a day or two, and things would be completely different.
News is time-sensitive, and the effect of knowing something immediately is completely different from knowing it a few days later.
The logistics controlled by Purficott can ensure that the news she wants to be delivered in time can be delivered within the time limit, while the news she does not like may be delivered a little later.
After all, with the current environment in the north, it is normal for the caravan to be delayed for a day or two due to wind and snow or something like that.
It’s not that no smart people have thought of this, but before the cold winter, there were still people who could use the channels they controlled to smuggle. After the end of the winter, under the blockade of wind and snow, except for Perficott, who had the northern merchants equipped with robots in their hands. Outside the team, anyone else’s desire to establish a stable logistics channel is tantamount to wishful thinking.
Although it is not impossible, it requires a huge investment of costs and resources, as well as a means of transportation that can maintain normal traffic in wind and snow.
In the entire Northern Territory, apart from the robots made by Perficott, only airships can do this kind of thing.
However, the use of airships requires the cooperation of the airport. It is impossible to airdrop the cargo directly, or the airship lands in the wild, right?
Some people have indeed tried, but it is okay to transport a small amount of materials and maintain an unstable smuggling route, but it is difficult to establish a stable logistics channel through this method.
Therefore, with Purficott's two-pronged approach, the entire northern news media cannot be said to be completely under her control, but it can also be said that she can influence the news that people receive at will.
As for content such as "social elites are more qualified to hold parliamentary positions" and "the rich bear more responsibilities and should also enjoy more power", there are some in the newspapers, but most of them are not in prominent positions, and the content is in the newspapers. The proportion is not large, and it is not easy to notice at first glance.
This can be regarded as a little trick of Purficott. She leaked the front page headlines of the newspapers under her control to those political views she supported, while the contrary ones were placed on other pages or even in the newspaper. And the fonts are also compressed, which makes it difficult for readers to notice it at first when reading the newspaper.
So naturally, the opinions that people who read newspapers can accept are more concentrated on what is reported on the front page of the newspaper.
After all, many people will not necessarily buy the entire newspaper and read it directly. Instead, they will read today's newspaper after taking a look at what is written on the front page at a newsstand or the like.
Especially for nobles, they would not read the entire newspaper directly. Instead, their butler would give them a brief summary of the noteworthy contents of the newspaper at the breakfast table, or make newspaper clippings.
If there is no special requirement to pay attention, many people may subconsciously ignore the content filled in the gaps in the report.
Those who were instigating public opinion to promote the reform of the National Assembly did not expect that Purficott would play such a sinister role. They thought that their propaganda was not strong enough and their voices were not loud enough.
However, some of them are quick to see opportunities. After all, there are real political animals among them. A keen sense of smell and being able to detect changes in the wind direction in a timely manner are also the basic skills of these people.
They were keenly aware that someone in the North was adding fuel to the fire, and at the same time they could feel how powerful this force was, even involving the officials in the North. This made them naturally think of the existence of the Northern Lords, and they also naturally understood the meaning of the Northern Lords.
Therefore, some people naturally stopped insisting on continuing to promote elite politics, and instead focused their energy on promoting the reorganization of the National Assembly and electing members they supported.
In their view, since this is the intention of the Northern Territory officials, and perhaps even the Northern Territory Lord himself, there is naturally no way to disobey it.
Moreover, they themselves want to coerce Purficott to support the reorganization of the National Assembly. Now that she has secretly made her attitude clear, there is no need to debate whether to support elite politics or allow ordinary people to become members of the parliament.
Locking in the quota of members in advance and successfully conveying one's power and voice to the yet-to-be-formed National Assembly is something truly worthy of attention.
It can be said that these people are smart. They have seen that the general trend is irreversible, so they immediately turned the ship around and started to benefit themselves as much as possible.
But smart people are often in the minority. There are always some people who think that they are the smartest and the most awesome.
They feel that they are the ones who should rule this country and even the world, and they don't pay attention to others at all.
Even for Purficott, they only awed her power and means, but never truly respected her.
Even if they were aware of Purficott's obscure statement at this time, they still chose to ignore it, and insisted on excluding ordinary people from the election of members of the National Assembly.
It can be said that the reorganization of the National Assembly is still an undisclosed matter. These people feel that they can control the National Assembly and even manipulate the country to make Perficott bow to them.
For these people, both the Assassin Brotherhood and the Northern Intelligence Agency have a large amount of information, and even have all these people under their control.
It can be said that Purficott could physically remove them overnight if he wanted to.
But Purficott didn't do that. She didn't like to use terror to control and influence everything, although she knew clearly that it was very useful and efficient.
She just had someone make the best fools an offer they couldn't refuse.
Some of them quickly learned to shut up, but others felt that Perfectcott did not dare to kill him, so they still danced fiercely, and even showed fearlessness that they were not afraid of anything.
For these people, Purficott could only say that it was okay to leave a little noise occasionally, at least to prevent the situation from seeming to be her own.
In Purficott's view, as long as the parliament ensures that it can control the majority and ensures that the bills it supports can be passed smoothly when voting, bills that it does not support will be vetoed. This is enough.
As for those who have different opinions, it is a convenience to keep them.
At the very least, he can get rid of the stigma of being a dictator and at the same time show that he supports freedom of speech.
In fact, this is indeed useful, and at least a considerable number of people applaud Perficott for allowing different opinions to emerge.
Even a newspaper that was originally an illegal tabloid took the initiative to register and obtain official permission for newspaper distribution. This also showed the other side's support for the rules established by Perfectcott.
This is the impression that Perfectcott wants to give people.
As long as you abide by the rules, Purficott will not target you and will treat you as an equal.
This is actually not a show for Purficott. For her, as long as she obeys and doesn't stand up to her, even if she has objections, Purficott will not show any deliberate targeting.
After all, she is not the kind of person who can't listen to opposing opinions at all, and since she wants to play politics, gagging is actually the worst way to play.
Allowing freedom of speech has given Perfectcott a very high reputation among the people at the bottom and the middle and lower classes.
Not to mention that the members elected by Purficott in the National Assembly elections this time do indeed represent the people at the bottom to a certain extent.
Under such treacherous circumstances, a tug-of-war between various forces has begun, and preliminary elections for members of parliament have also begun in major cities in the north, and people who can represent the city have begun to be selected to become local councilors.
The National Assembly does not directly enter the national level of governance after being elected by everyone. Instead, it must go through the two extremes of local councilors and city councilors before it can truly become a member of the National Federation in the north.
Of course there are drawbacks to this election method. After all, Purficott has experienced enough elections in later generations. He has even done things like casting fake votes and stealing votes. What else can't be done? came out.
But I have to admit that this kind of electoral system is still somewhat useful. At least the MPs that Purficott hoped for have been pushed out by her and have begun to participate in the process of promoting the reform of the National Assembly.
As for the various unscrupulous methods used for the election, they are relatively mild at present, and at the same time, they are not as exaggerated as direct poisoning.
In this regard, Purficott could only say that those who violate laws and disciplines will be punished, and at the same time ordered the military and police in the north to dispatch and begin to strictly control social security issues in several major cities in the north.
As the reorganization process of the National Assembly progresses, some criminal conflicts are gradually increasing, and naturally there are people who want to take the opportunity to cause trouble.
Purficott will naturally not be merciful to them. Everyone plays within the rules, so she doesn't mind playing with these people, but if someone doesn't follow the rules, she can also press the table back.
At least in the north, she was so confident.
(End of chapter)