Ozymandias Dempsey announced his candidacy for Minister at the beginning of August and was initially largely dismissed by political analysts, but in the intervening weeks has shown himself to be a serious contender for the election. Dempsey's credentials as an inventor (and not as a Ministry man) are relatively well-known, but what about his stances on the issues?

Some of Dempsey's policies, including his support of voting reform, thoughts on the marriage ban and stance on importation of medical creatures such as dragons, have been discussed explicitly in previous debates and covered in this paper. We reached out recently to detail his policies on a few less well publicized topics.

On Magical Property Expansion
Dempsey hailed London as a model for how he would handle expanding magical communities as our needs for property continues to grow. "Having individual magical households in otherwise Muggle communities is limiting for those who live and work there, and also makes the Ministry's job more difficult in certain situations, but forming all-magical communities like Hogsmeade is also unnecessarily limiting as it forces our diverse community into one homogenous area. As we expand magical territories I believe we should pursue hidden magical neighborhoods, like those in London, in most major Muggle cities."

On Werewolves
"Any policy reform on werewolves must begin by better incentivizing the registry," Dempsey said. "We have the resources to safely contain werewolves during the full moon, but hardly anyone avails themselves of those resources. The werewolf registry ought to be classified, and those on it should be able to floo directly to the containment area without walking through the Ministry Atrium."

On Education for Halfbreeds
"Preventing half-human children from being properly educated in magic does not make those children less likely to disrupt our society — the opposite, in fact," Dempsey said. While he allowed that there may be room for "additional accommodations or restrictions" to make the coexistence of half-human and fully human students more productive during school, he opposed a renewal of the education ban in no uncertain terms.

On Trade Policies
Dempsey advocated strongly for open trade policies generally, with restrictions and tariffs allowable on a per-product basis rather than targeting specific exporters. "The economy of magical Britain cannot be rivaled and we should be unafraid of competition in this sphere," he said. "Artificially limiting trade ultimately only limits our own potential on the world stage."

In addition to his recent endorsement by Professor Valenduris, Deputy Head of Hogwarts, Dempsey was also endorsed by lawyer August Echelon-Arnost. This endorsement goes some way to assuaging fears that Dempsey lacks political expertise, as Mr. Echelon-Arnost has been involved in politics in several capacities throughout his career, including managing a campaign during a previous election.

We also took the opportunity to ask Dempsey for a response to Chief Warlock Lestrange's shortlist of candidates — which notably did not include him. "Given our differences in politics I consider the exclusion a compliment," Dempsey stated. "But I do not believe I would have any difficulty working with Lestrange if elected. A healthy degree of antagonism is productive. Debate sharpens ideas, and Britain deserves our sharpest thinking and best ideas."