 Cheesy Mac
Reagan fought to keep her face impassive and free of signs of stress. Not only was this particular question incredibly difficult, but Reagan and Brennan didn't differ in opinion very much in this area... and he got to answer first. Not an ideal situation by any means.
She began, "I must say, that Minister Cooper does have a valid point - our country is beautiful and is filled with incredible points of interest that other nations would be at a loss to not experience. It is for this reason that, should I be elected Minister, I would like to pursue the construction of an International Museum of Wizarding History, to be housed right here in our very own Britain. By asking other nations to contribute pieces of history, and of course including much of our own history, which is so vital to the story of the wizarding community, we will be able to ignite the interests of other nations to promote such a museum, thus bringing in many more tourists to our amazing country. If we build it, they will come.
"In turn, we can use the income brought in by this museum to further advance our travel and tourism industry, as well as devote some to areas requiring an increase in funds - like health care via St. Mungo's Hospital and increasing the number of Law Enforcement officials to keep our community safe. I think it is important that we have a plan in place for funding before we open, and I'm going to borrow Minister Cooper's expression here, the 'Ministry's pocketbooks', because the reality is - the money in the Ministry's pocketbooks comes from the tax paying witches and wizards in our community. It comes from all of you. And I think it would be fair to say that a great deal of people would prefer to know that the Ministry was not merely throwing the people's money about without having made, at the very least, an attempt to supplement the funds being distributed to areas of travel and tourism."
Reagan paused before continuing, "It is incredibly important that the Department of Magical Transportation not only extend the Floo network and expand apparition centers, and of course, Portkey traveling, we must also increase the safety of these methods of transportation. For our numerous neighbors who use flying carpets regularly, though we do not allow them in Britain, we could do our best to accomodate them with a checkpoint at which they can entrust their carpet into our posession and then travel via Floo or Portkey or Apparition within the borders of our nation. They could later retrieve their carpet before their travels to their home nation. This is just one of many examples where we, as a host nation, could better accomodate our foreign guests, thus encouraging further future travel to Britain.
"As for methods that could be used to entice people to move here permanently? Well, I think one striking and powerful method would be to appeal to the parents of young children who are in the process of determining where to send their children for a strong wizarding education. Appeal to those parents, offer them a number of benefits and financial assistance for moving here with their child when they enter Hogwarts, and through the beauty that is our nation, we can convince that family to remain in Britain permanently. By doing so, we ensure that a new member of our community, that child, will become productive because we can trust that he or she obtained the very best wizarding education our world has to offer.
"It is my firm belief that visitors need only spend a short period of time within our borders before they realize the beauty and opportunities of our country. This realization will be the strongest motivator in their return here, whether temporarily as tourist, or permanently to become a resident. Let us welcome them eagerly and openly as we enter a new age of international friendship and cooperation." Reagan nodded to the questioner to signal that she had completed her answer.
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