Secrecy, lies and meetings

The Duchy has been raked over the coals in the press for Secrecy, not keeping the public informed, not keeping the Bored informed. The reason for this? The Duke and his minions hatched a plan for closing villages. Of course, they hatched this plan without involving the villages or, more importantly, the parents and taxpayers of those villages. The public was irate. The Bored was irate (maybe). The GOM (Grand Old Man) of the Bored voted against Duke Phfffr (Gasp!) Silver, an on again off again Bored watcher, can't remember the last time the GOM voted against Duchy administration. She thinks that it was toward the end of King Hairboy's reign. Silver, a conspiracy theorist to the bone, wonders whether the school closing was supposed to pass. Or was it just a feint to conceal the Duchy's real intentions.
In the meantime, while everyone is screaming at the Duke for "lack of transparency", what is the Duchy doing about it? Let's see. The White Tornado was chastised for summarizing a public meeting...in public! The White Tornado is no longer allowed to have unsupervised contact with librarians. Doesn't seem to be a problem. Apparently all of the available supervisors are too busy being secretive to supervise the White Tornado's meetings. Silver has also been told that while she can continue working, she is not to be seen actually producing any work. Isn't this a wonderful Duchy!
In other news, after a cooling-off period, the SNEAC Peace talks resume tomorrow. The White Tornado has refused to participate.
On the rumor side, there was a rumor that the Black Queen had considered relocating to another Duchy. Supposedly she thought better of it. Apparently the Duchy is such a wonderful place to work, with friendly people and big budgets, that she just couldn't leave it. What???