Progressive Conservative Party Dissolved
At a press conference earlier today, Progressive Conservative Party Leader and Opposition MP Commoncold0 announced the dissolution of the Progressive Conservative Party. He stated that the party “hadn't made the progress [he] hoped it would”, and that with no forseeable end in sight to this, that dissolution was “probably the best course of action to take”. This now leaves Ostentia, which just a month ago had seven major parties, with only four political players on the stage, the left-wing Boo Party, the centrist AAPA and Alliance Parties and the right-wing Centrist Conservative Party. This will likely have an interesting effect at election times, with the PCP's vote share likely being split between the CCP and the centrist parties. Commoncold0 further stated that he was not wired to operate under the “same old politics as usual”, a sly criticism of the current system whereby he believes parties exist for the sole purpose of getting their leader elected. Perhaps there is also issue with his own Electoral Unreform Bill, which will switch Ostentian elections to a system of preferential voting. It will certainly be interesting to see how the departure of the centre-right party will affect politics as a whole.

Polls Unsure of What's Going On
Today's PEC Polls are interesting, primarily because we have not one, but two polls. The PEC were kind enough to give us the outcomes both with and without the Progressive Conservative Party's vote share, they being able to due to the way in which polls are conducted. The first set of polls, with PCP share taken into consideration, is as follows:
AAPA 21.7 (-3)
Boo 24.8 (+0.2)
CCP 22 (+1.6)
PCP 18.1 (+0.7)
Alliance 13.3 (+0.5)
As we can see, all parties except AAPA are up at the latter's expense, the Boo Party now leading with the CCP in relatively distant second, and very close to AAPA. Even the PCP seems to still be relatively popular, and its dissolution will undoubtedly cause some puzzlement throughout the country. It is hard to say, however, what exactly has caused this drop for AAPA, though it could well be to do with the “basic” legislation the CCP has been proposing, filling seemingly large gaps in the country's legal system.
We now bring you the polls WITHOUT PCP influence, to see a rather different picture:
AAPA 29.2 (+4.5)
Boo 29 (+4.4)
CCP 25.9 (+5.5)
Alliance 15.9 (+3.1)
Naturally all parties have gained at the expense of the PCP due to its centrist and liberal stance, but most benefited is clearly the CCP. However, in this version of polls, AAPA do not suffer such a drop in ratings, and hence retain their lead, but only by 0.2 points, pushing the Boo Party into a close second and the CCP into a distant third. The Alliance Party still languishes in last place, yet has mad some gains, which, in terms of proportionality, are seemingly greater than the other party's. As mentioned in another article though, the PCP's departure has had a big effect on politics as a whole.

The Week in Politics™
Since last time, many things have happened in terms of bill propositions and movements. DMHowe's Freedom of the Press Bill was defeated. A governmental bill dealing with Wills was passed, as was a bill dealing with organ donation. The Ostentian-Exilian Pact, which had been forgotten about and had actually passed several weeks ago, was passed. Motions detailing electoral reform, the National Health Service, and further discussion has been had on a proposed Compulsory Education bill. Ostentia and Wo have agreed to enter a mutual defence pact, which is awaiting vote. The government is attempting to define death, as well as gender. Rather importantly, a Constitutional Court has been proposed, to deal with issues of constitutional importance. Currently passing through Parliament is a bill detailing contracts, which has met with little opposition aside those who claim it as unnecessary. Meanwhile, many other pieces of legislation have been discussed, for a full transcript please see Parliamentary Records. Likewise with Questions, though issues this week have involved primarily budget and defence. As already mentioned, the Progressive Conservative Party has dissolved.

Points to anyone who gets the reference. :P

AoE2 defeated person. I always tried to make them trade with me, they didn't :(...

Yay, an AoE 2 reference!

And where is this supposed announcement about the dissolution of the PCP? As far as I can tell this is the only reference to it.

I thought I'd let Cieran have a scoop for his paper so I didn't make an official announcement. It's true though. PJ, feel free to shut down the PCP press office and move its topics into general politics.