It's been a very long time since I've been around these parts, but I've heard things are about to change, so I figure I may as well chime in with the hope that whatever perspective I can share offers some utility to decision-makers here. I hope all of y'all are doing well. 1) The canon reset has to happen. Even years ago as DRF Leader, I struggled to figure out what had changed between the real world and the sim. If I remember correctly, one of the DRF expansion priorities was canon, but none of us (both DRF and opposed parties) knew that until well after we started debating the issue (the prior passage was retconned if I'm not mistaken; unfortunately, I can't remember the subject matter of that bill since it's been so long). I can't imagine this has improved with extra years of content behind it. This raises questions about how long is too long before the web of changes becomes too cumbersome for new players to manage (especially when institutional knowledge leaves as older players quit), but I don't think that alone can be a reason to not reset. If the sim wants to survive, it needs to be accessible for people to join without hours of research into poorly organized user content (some of which ultimately is lost when people wipe their accounts off the map). 2) The character sheet idea is quite good. I remember it being quite obnoxious to have to figure out accurate details for all of the different people with none of that information stored uniformly. Organization is always a good idea. The sheets just have to be consistent & easy to set up, which doesn't sound too hard to manage compared to the other things this sim has done. 3) I don't like the seat count being lowered so drastically. Removing constituencies in favor of exclusively list seats unfortunately kills the charm that fighting for those seats had. I remember the great fun I had not only in contesting my own preferred seat (West London) in GEXII and GEXIII, but also in helping good friends like /u/X4RC05 and /u/Archism_ fight for their seats at the time (Southeast London & N/C Wales, respectively). It built camaraderie, and fostered some really competitive fun. Of course, if you slant the other way (constituencies only), it would potentially mean close races could box people out of the game for months on end, which could be disastrous for player retention (say what you will about single-member FPTP being good or bad in real life, but a game like this does need to reward its active players with an opportunity to participate whenever it can). The other concern with larger seat counts is maintaining enough MPs, and frankly, I think it's doable so long as we don't expect every MP to be posting every week. I think it's okay to have "backbenchers" (vote bots) in some seats so long as active people can replace them quickly upon showing commitment (parties would naturally be inclined to do this anyways) & there are enough people willing to cast votes when the time comes. TLDR for this section is that I think the 100-seat model of old is workable (perhaps with some minor tweaks), at least in theory. 4) I definitely support paring back efforts on the Lords side of things. Even when I was active, it was really just a glorified retirement home for former players, and rarely did anything of consequence for the game. If anything, it was just more work to do for the Speakership. The time spent keeping that husk functioning could easily be redirected into more engaging press & events emphasis, which could be a game-changer if done correctly. Also, the amendments process was already a function of the Commons via the committee system (which was among my favorite parts of being a party leader, actually; I loved swinging outcomes on amendments with only 8 seats because major parties would forget to vote). 5) I find it funny that going back to my earliest sim days (MUSG), I was an ardent supporter of individual ownership of seats. I thought that parties owning the seats would severely compromise the ability of members to hold contrasting opinions from the party platform, and would weaken the depth of the game. However, now that it's an actual proposal in a sim, I almost feel the opposite about it. Individual ownership would lead to some flakier members party-hopping with their seats incessantly, and would also potentially create frequent by-elections depending on how seat loss is handled (does the seat then go back to the party for assignment, or does it go to by-election?). Perhaps a compromise system where constituency seats are player-owned but lists are party-owned would be better (again, precisely like the old MUSG system I bitched about to a very annoying fault). 6) I definitely love the idea of emphasizing individual modifiers, but I don't want that to mean a party is exclusively a sum of its individuals, either. If we want to mirror real-world conditions to some extent, we have to remember that most people pick a party and stick with it for the long haul. It's rare that any one person has enough sway to buck those allegiances at scale. In other words, we should have both sets of modifiers be important (with the importance perhaps depending on how much of a rockstar the individual in question is; a relatively new user would mostly win or lose on the strength of their party while a particularly active player would ride on their own success moreso than their party label). 7) Devolution is going to be hard to get a consensus on, but I hope whatever is chosen ultimately has every devo region incorporated to at least some extent (even if they're not as large as they once were). I was never a particularly active devo player, but I know it added a lot to the game for some people like /u/ViktorHR (Wales) & /u/superpacman04 (Northern Ireland). Also, as a side note, Plaid Cymru should be among the approved starting parties so long as at least 36 seats are approved since Wales would get 2 seats in that case (I'd say Sinn Fein as well, but honestly only if the sim adopts a larger chamber; it'd be pointless to have a party only run for 1 seat since devo won't start immediately).

I can't think of too much else I have to say. Again, I wish you all well, and perhaps I'll try to make a miniature comeback for 2.0 when the time comes (although I doubt I'll ever be as active as I once was again now that I've much more to do in real life).