How to Sign In & The Biography System

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Blakesley
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How to Sign In & The Biography System

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The Biography System

How to sign in: posting a biography

To sign in, you must post a sign in thread here. Post should contain the minimum following information:
Name: [your character's name]
Avatar: [the avatar your character uses]
Age: [how old your character is (and their birthday if you want to]
Sex: [your character's sex]
Ethnicity: [your character's ethnicity]
Marital Status: [your character's marital status]

Party: [your party]
Primary Tribe: [the primary tribe that your character associates with - see discussion of tribes here and the list of tribes here]
Secondary Tribes: [the secondary tribes that your character associates with - if any]
Brexit Position: [did you back leave or remain?]
Constituency: [your constituency]
Year Elected: [the year your were first elected]

Education: [your character's education, this can be as simple as "attended university" or a detailed educational history]
Career: [your character's career, this can be as simple as a one work description ("Banker") or a detailed description of their work history]
Political Career: [your character's political history, including local, frontbench, and parliamentary positions - or none of the above if you choose not to have them over than being an MP]

[After this point you can have a narrative-style biography of your character]
As a general rule, more fleshed out biographies will earn you more influence points as you start the round. However, if you don't want to put too much detail into your biography, that's okay! You can earn plenty of influence from playing the game. However, if you want to flesh out your biography some more, see the details below about what an MP looked like in 2019 (credit to Amelia for much of this). These are general guidelines, not hard rules - but remember to try and keep things realistic.

Expanding your background: personal details

Even in 2019, politicians are predominantly pale, male, and stale. However, they are less so than they used to be. As such anyone can play a woman, but take note that most Labour women were elected in 1997 (ahh the Blair babes) and most Conservative women were elected in 2010. Likewise, Parliament is becoming more diverse. And much like women, most of that diversity began arriving on the Labour benches in 1997 and the Conservative benches in 2010. And while most MPs are Christian at this time, there are a number of Jewish MPs and MPs from other religious backgrounds are beginning to enter Parliament.

Openly gay or lesbian MPs are acceptable in any party, but bear in mind that Tory MPs are unlikely to have been able to be out and senior in the party until quite recently. Unfortunately, there are still no openly trans MPs. Most MPs are married, but it is no longer seen as inappropriate if they are not.

If you want to think about your family background, a good place to start is knowing that most MPs are vaguely middle or upper class. The more upper class you are, the more likely you are to be found on the Conservative benches. Of course, you can also be upper class in the sense of being the child of university academics - and that's completely acceptable for Labour. Conversely, there are working class MPs and you're more likely to find them on the Labour benches - but there are a growing number of working class Tories.

In terms of age, you were likely first elected somewhere between 35 and 55. You can be elected below 35, but that's pretty unlikely. Also, in 2019, Mhairi Black is the baby of the House, so you're limited to being no younger than 23. If you're entering the "peak" of your political career in 2019, you're likely somewhere between 40 and 60, with a few terms in Parliament under your belt already (so you probably should have been elected in 2010, or maybe 2015, at the latest).

Expanding your background: education

If you MP was born after 1944 and before 1955, it is highly likely they went to a Grammar School or a Secondary Modern. After 1955, they went to a Grammar or Secondary Modern which eventually turned into a Comprehensive (blame Anthony Crosland and Margaret Thatcher for that). After around 1970, it was very unlikely your character went to a Grammar School. This is excepting the Grammar Schools which were allowed to survive. Of course, the alternative to all of these options is that you attended a public school. If you did so, you likely come from an upper class family and are more likely than not to be a Conservative, but Labour famously had members attend public school (hi Tony Blair).

If you went to a Grammar School, it is likely (although not certain) you went to university or a polytechnic. Poor kids got scholarships to go to university so remember to include that in your bio. If you went to a Secondary Modern, I’m sorry: you probably didn’t go to University unless you benefitted from the Open University or Ruskin College later in life. Life is tough. If you went to a public school, the burden of family history very likely dictated that you went to university. And if you went to a comprehensive, you can have pursued higher education or further education. Life truly is your oyster.

Expanding your background: career

Now this may appear confusing and it is the part where realism may fade away. So I’m going to split it into Labour and Conservative for simplicity.

Labour: Labour MPs are usually public sector workers, educators, trade unionists, or former political advisers. They are unlikely to be big business owners or high powered businessmen (like CEOs or CFOs) because they get put in the Lords when they donate a cheque.

Conservative: Conservative MPs are more likely to be business owners or businessmen (yes, men because patriarchy, but women are involved now as well). They are more likely to be landowners and come from gentle farming stock. There are no Conservative trade union officials or trade union leaders.

Careers such as doctors, journalists, athletes, Armed Forces, lawyers and writers can be members of both parties. Senior diplomats (ambassador or high commissioner rank), judges, and senior civil servants do not become MPs except in rare circumstances; so rare, in fact, that we are banning your characters from having those jobs. In fact, this extends to field and fleet grade officers in the Armed Forces: generals go to the Lords, not the Commons. If you want to be like Harold Wilson, you can be a minor or mid-tier civil servant but there needs to be a long gap between your civil servant role and becoming a MP (at least 5 years, but more like 10).

Increasingly, MPs are coming from "professional" political backgrounds such as think-tanks and political/special adviser roles - feel free to take these on, within reason. And remember, you get tied to your boss - so if you advised Tony Blair in 2003, don't be surprised if you get Iraq thrown back at you.

Expanding your background: political careers and frontbench experience:

Your character will join Parliament in any of the elections since 1974. Since Gerald Kaufman was the Father of the House and was elected in 1970, you cannot be elected before that. If there was a by-election in your seat, you can join Parliament at that by-election (providing your party won). All results remain the same so if you picked Bristol East in 1979, you were rejected by the voters in 1983 (sorry).

Since many of you will become frontbenchers, realism dictates you will have spent at least one Parliament (meaning you were elected in 2015) or more. How many times has a MP become a senior (Shadow) Cabinet member within 2 or 3 years of being elected? It's very rare. So focus on a longish parliamentary career (and remember that most people don't end up on the frontbench until they are 35+) and fill it in with some lower (shadow) frontbench positions. Of course, the rise of Jeremy Corbyn really messed this up for Labour, so if you are a member of Momentum or the Socialist Campaign Group, you may find that you were rapidly appointed to a senior role after the 2015 election - even if you never had frontbench experience. Socialism is one hell of a drug.

There are a few rules regarding what frontbench positions you can hold. In general, Great Offices of State (Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary, and Home Secretary) involve explicit A-Team permission and may engender a higher level of scrutiny. Likewise, given the nature of the round, Brexit Secretary is off limits (so you can Brexit right out of that ambition).

Conclusion

In general, we want you to feel free to design your character however you want, within some general constraints of realism. If you have any concerns about these rules (or want to plead for an exemption), please contact the A-Team and we'll answer any questions you may have.
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