It was a close call in the end, with 567 yays to 483 nays. The present administration, the Protective Party headed by Prime Minister Jacobi, had needed to form a coalition with several smaller, independent parties to secure a certain victory. Even then there was a small revolt in the party ranks as numerous members of Jacobi's faithful turned against him on the issue.
But victory was achieved, nonetheless, and only one thing remained - newly-appointed Foreign Affairs Minister Ken Gables did the honours, and dispatched Bretonia's official application to the alliance.
***
Bretonia is a constitutional monarchy directly governing some eleven star systems, with the population of almost ten-and-a-half billion spread across eight of them. With the bicameral parliament at its head, Bretonia has a long history of high civil, economic and political rights, favouring many aspects of classical liberalism in its style of governance. Economic interests are high on their list of priorities as a result, though virtually uncontrolled industrial development over the centuries has irreparably damaged the environments of two heavily populated planets, and social welfare programs are minimal where they exist at all.
In terms of foreign affairs Bretonia has traditionally preferred only to involve itself in issues that might directly affect their own interests (which almost always tend to be of a financial nature), and generally do so with diplomats and comm systems rather than warships and guns. This enduring sense of neutrality presumably stems from the isolation Bretonia endured for much of its existence, thanks to its unfortunate location within the Great Barrier. Such disinterest in galactic affairs should not be misconstrued as a form of pacifism though, for the well-funded Bretonian Royal Armed Forces are maintained to a high standard of quality and training, in the event that words fail to find purchase with potential adversaries.
Rather than burden the unfortunate soul reading their application with excessive information, however, Minister Gables simply attached pertinent links to databases such as the Bretonian Ministry of Information, and the Bretonian Newsnets, so that they might pick and choose whatever information they wished to know.
***
OOC bit:
After years of meandering about aimlessly I've finally decided to take the plunge and join some other people to meander about aimlessly with. ESUS is the best fit for Bretonia out of them all, and probably the best... well, period.
I only have a handful of questions really:
- Why does all the text grow to a ridiculously sized font when I'm logged in, but not when I'm logged out?
- Is there a time limit in effect when it comes to completing the tests?
- Is there any particularly smelly ESUS member that I should try to avoid?
- Chicken, or egg?