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AH Run-downs, summaries and general gubbins

oof, understandable

but still, that's got to be a pretty significant issue with clones

why do oilmen hate clones so much, anyway?
that's mostly my fault; really the only hyperconservative businessmen around that time i'm aware of are texas oilmen lmao
 
We now go to the TL of "He's Just not that Into EU" , and the forum of SealionBooks.co.uk and the Bolt variant therein.

Party Rundown September 5th 2019

Right you horrible lot. Sideways is on holiday so you're stuck with me. Thanks again to Roem for a fantastic thread frontispiece

HM Government
Labour: Now that we're out of the EU (but in the single market) a lot is coming back to haunt Corbyn. Like his awful handling of the Sailsbury poisonings last year. And how he's too left wing. and how he lucked into government. oh and oh fuck what has his brother said now.

Supply and Confidence:
SNP : 7 weeks out from Indyref2 Nicola Sturgeon is outside Downing streat dressed as the Grim Reaper playing Metallicas for whom the Bell Tolls

HM Most Loyal Opposition
Conservative: Boris Johnson is the worst. He's too pro-deal and pro Europe but also too pro leave and he did both to little and too much for Remain/Deal/A PROPER BRITISH BREXIT. Knives aren't out yet but he is somehow failing to overtake Labour in the polls

NEW ENTRY ALERT MOTHERFUCKERS
Liberal Democrat/Progressive Alliance: Soubry and Moran finally bit the bullet and got their Parties engaged. EDIT: Shit fuck I didn't know that about Layla Moran I'm so sorry, this wasn't meant to be... well fuck. Also the inevitable "Progressive Democrats" doesn't sound awful but will we have to go through "The Liberal And Progressive Democrats" for a few years first

Regional Parties.
Plaid Cymru: Still just one of her. Liz Saville Roberts is currently taking the words DEVO MAX FOR WALES, taking out the vowels and repetitions and making a sigil.
DUP: Torn between wanting a harder permanent deal but also not wanting a border between Norn and GB.
Sinn Fein: John Finucane basically said on the radio he's Relieved there's no hard border but also annoyed there's no hard border because it'd present a case for reunification.
Alliance: Stephen Farry is annoyed that the new Prog-Dem Alliance is called the alliance. this must be how *Looks to wikipedia* Oliver Napier felt (Did I do Good @Ulster )

UKIP: I keep forgetting that Neil Hamilton is the "Highest Ranked" UKIP Member, especially with no by-elections on the horizon.
Greens: Caroline Lucas is probably pondering teaming up with Alliance 2.0 for a one off run at electoral reform
 
Political Situation In The United States of America, 2021

President and Vice President of the United States:
Governor Zephyr Teachout (Democratic Reform) of New York and Congresswoman Deb Peoples (Democratic Reform) of Texas

Congressional Leadership:
Senate Majority Leader John Yarmuth (Democratic Reform) of Kentucky

Senate Majority Whip William Barber II (Democratic Reform) of North Carolina
Senate Minority Leader Charlie Baker (Republican) of Massachusetts
Senate Minority Whip Karen Handel (Republican) of Georgia
Speaker of the House Faya O. Rose Touré (Democratic Reform) of Alabama
House Majority Whip Mark Dayton (Democratic Reform) of Minnesota
House Minority Leader T.W Shannon (Republican) of Oklahoma
House Minority Whip Dan Patrick of Texas

The Parties

Democratic Reform [Social Democracy, Populism (American), Liberal Syndicalism, Anti-Interventionism, Market Socialism, Social Progressivism; Centre-Left to Left-Wing]
The Party of Leland and Teachout has come a long way since it was simply a squabbling delegation of representatives from the Reverend Jackson's hap-hazard People's Party and the Harrisite 'Reform Democrats' seeking to banish the looming spectre of the new largely European phenomena of 'Neoliberalism' from their slowly dying party. Founded as an alliance between the last bastions of the New Deal and Civil Rights-era Middle Classes built during the Democratic Presidencies of Franklin Roosevelt, Fred Harris, and Gaylord Nelson and based in the labor movement on one end and an alliance of radical working class students and underserved minority groups loyal to the Reverend Jackson and his People's Party on the other, the Democratic Reform Party initially had low hopes after their poor post-refoundation electoral performance in the 1998 Midterms. Of course, the charismatic personality of Mickey Leland, a revival of labor amid an economic recession, and a wave of anti-austerity and anti-war sentiments driven by President Shelby's anti-cult policing actions in Japan and the American-Soviet proxy war in Indonesia would change the party's fortunes for the better part of the decade. Now largely based on the coalition that Leland built on the back of the "People's Reforms", the Democratic Reform Party is likely at the Apex of it's power in the last decade and a half right now. While DeVos had successfully chipped away at the Lelandite Welfare State in a similar manner that Armstrong and Shelby had slowly privatized away many of the social services established during the Harris Presidency, the DeVos Administration's deep corruption, the very same thing that had brought down the DRP's 2016 Campaign, and quickly worsening standards of living had soured the American public on Neoliberalism even quicker than the United States' brief and failed experimentation with the doctrine in the the 80s and early 90s. Micheal Bloomberg's strong 2020 third party campaign and the dumpster fire that was the Clarke campaign certainly didn't help the opposition any. Now Teachout, an arguably far more radical President than Leland or his unlucky successor Pritt, has taken the office riding a wave of discontent among Labor; And Teachout has a great deal of ideals to ensure that populist programs like the National Health Administration, the Community Banking Initiative, The American National Communications and Oil Companies, and the Wage Boards are rebuilt, expanded, and never fucked with ever again.

Republicans [Conservativism (American), Social Conservatism, American Nationalism, Economic Liberalism, Christian Right, National Conservativism; Right-Wing]
Oh the Grand Old Party? Not looking to hot right now. Which is kind of funny if you think about it, because not to long ago the Republicans had successfully channeled the anger of an entire generation of religious Americans into massive downballot successes amid one of the most stable economic and geopolitical periods in American history less than a decade ago. Ping ponging from different flavors of conservatism ranging from Nixon's progressive conservativism to Foss's prairie populism to the weird rural technocrats of the Carmichael and Romney days, the Republicans finally settled on their modern form of Populist religious conservativism sometime around the late-70s. Having had their traditional rural base winnowed by the economic reforms of the Harris Administration and their dreams of breaking into the Solid Democratic South crushed by the Civil Rights Act of 1973 and the Basic Democratic Rights Act of 1974, the Republicans realized their only way to maintain political relevancy beyond being an advocacy group for small business and landowners was to build a broad coalition on one of the only things that still broadly united Americans beyond their sector of employment; Religion. This mode payed dividends for the party in the days of Armstrong when old-school 'Rugged Conservativism' stilled reigned as the dominant economic philosophy (although Armstrong privatized AmericOil, the publicly-owned American oil company, for example, his Administration enforced strong anti-trust mandates when doing so), allowing the party to be the face of 'American Values' and standing up to the Soviet Union rather than purely a front for the interest of business. Played in combination with Harris's implementation of term limits for Supreme Court Justices, Armstrong was able to codify much of the social doctrine that dominated American life until the era of Leland (the Schafly LIFE Act, the National Anti-Drug Campaign, the Religious Schools and Churches Act, the State Educational Administrative Independence Act, the Right to Refuse Act, etc.). But, this program has turned sour for the party as the Democrats cast of Neoliberalism from their party and the movement was forced to take it's thinkers and institutions somewhere else. Now, the party is managed and directed by it's layers of it's privatized bureaucracy, serving as a merger between the interests of large businesses who seek lower taxes, economic deregulation and privatization, and a strong military front against the ever present threat of the Soviet-led Communist bloc and Christian Conservatives desiring the codification of Christian social doctrine into law and the end of libertine cultural dominance. DeVos's Presidency was almost a caricature of the worst functions of the Republican Party, starting off as a high-riding moral crusade against liberalism's cultural excesses and "irresponsible economic policy" before becoming a combination of economic mismanagement, personal corruption, pointless interventionism and seemingly relentless authoritarianism and violence on behalf of an increasingly unpopular and uncommon worldview. Now, after one of the Party's worst performances in four decades and facing political irrelevancy once again, the GOP is left with the same question it was forced to ask itself at the end of the 20th Century; Where to go now?
 
Political Parties of the Punjabi Republic, 1895

Born in the fires of revolution, in the anger at the Great Indian Famine and the state failure to respond to it, the Punjabi Revolution, the overthrow of the imperial monarchy of Punjab by its army and the declaration of a republic by General Prem Nath Kaul sparked a revolutionary period in which the subsidiary monarchies were overthrown in a death tussle. By 1895, with the feudal rebellions crushed and the revolutionary state finally settled down, order and liberty may finally be achieved....

Prem Nath Kaul: If the Punjabi Revolution, the Punjabi Republic, was the work of one man, it was Sardar Prem Nath Kaul. He is a man of great ambiguity. A Kashmiri Pandit, yet an avowed Punjabi nationalist. A devout Hindu, yet the grave foe of the clergy. As a young man, he absorbed the irresistible ideals of liberty from the West and viewed republicanism as the panacea of all of Punjab's problems, yet he made his name as a soldier fighting in the name of the Maharajas of Punjab. He was sworn to the serve the Maharajas, yet he personally overthrew two Maharajas, tore off their turbans, and forced them into exile, declaring a republic. He declared upholding Punjabi greatness to be his lifelong mission - yet, when he tore off the Koh-i-Nur, that symbol of Punjabi greatness from the head of the last Punjabi Maharaja, he pawned it off and spent the money on famine relief. When Punjab's British neighbours, concerned about the example this gave to subjects of the British Raj, asked him to establish a monarchy, he refused and condemned monarchy as a great crime - yet he is greeted like a king, and to criticize him is to criticize the state. He upheld democracy as the greatest virtue - yet, he overthrew an inefficient government of civilians and became head of state himself. His decrees, passed swiftly through a legislature, are the law of the land, and Punjab's great modernization is ultimately the work of him. Ultimately, he is Punjab, and Punjab is him.

Legal parties

Jamhuriyat Sabha
: The ruling party of Punjab. Before the 1890 coup d'etat, Punjabi politics were badly fractured between a dozen parties, with many deputies in the payrolls of foreign interests and various aristocrats, and disarray in the halls of the Majlis-i-Qanun was a constant. But when General Prem Nath Kaul marched into the Majlis, and forced it to accept centralizing reforms, he assembled his supporters into a single party , one meant to represent the whole of the republic. It is, as such, highly heterogeneous, consisting of everything from Francophilic intellectuals who greet one another with Punjabi corruptions of "bonjour", to former peasants who speak nothing but rustic Punjabi. But if there is one unifying factor, it is allegiance to the republic, to the modernization and centralization of the state and people.

Insaaf Sabha: Established in 1892 by Prem Nath Kaul's good friend Baljit Singh Ahluwalia, this was intended to enshrine multi-party rule as a custom of the republic. It quickly issued a manifesto, declaring its allegiance to all the same values of the Jamhuriyat Sabha except for one - where the Jamhuriyat Sabha advocates a highly statist model of modernization in which the state directly constructs and funds factories and creates conglomerates of companies to serve the interests of the state, the Insaaf Sabha advocates a decentralized system of privatized modernization, in which the ingenuity of the nation is left to take ahold of the resources of the nation and modernize the state itself. Yet, its members regularly dine with government officials, and its electioneering is tame and docile in much of the nation. It regularly purges proscribed citizens from its membership rolls, to prevent its takeover by malicious interests. It is nothing if not loyal.

Kamchari Ate Kisan Sabha: The rapid industrialization process begun even in the Imperial period led to the rise of workers' and peasants' movements. In line with the workers and peasants movements emerging in the British Raj, it began to organize itself, and in Punjab itself it quickly became revolutionary. The overthrow of the imperial monarchy quickly saw workers' and peasants' riots, and later representation in the Majlis-i-Qanun. It proved a factor for instability in the hearts of the state, and following the 1890 coup d'etat, these movements were suppressed. Yet, they continued to exist, and in 1892 Prem Nath Kaul requested the formation of an official party to represent and organize for the interests of workers and peasants. This new approved party agrees with the Jamhuriyat Sabha in all ways except for one - it seeks for common workers' and peasants' ownership of all state lands and resources. What policies best bring this out are much debated, but nevertheless overall it agrees with Prem Nath Kaul's modernization efforts. Its deputies hold regular spats and vicious debates with members of the Insaaf Sabha which often need to be brought under control, while their respective journals are harsh enemies of one another. Indeed, it almost resembles free and fair debate.

Proscribed parties

Akali Singh Sabha
: The former Punjabi Empire was one which recognized Sikhism as the official religion of the land. The clergy of the Akal Takht, the highest order of the nation, held great authority, famously even punishing the founder of the Punjabi Empire, Ranjit Singh, for marrying a Muslim nautch-girl. But the Punjabi Revolution changed all of that. Sikhism was stripped of all recognition as official, and while it continued (and continues) to have a cultural dominance despite it only being Punjab's third-largest religion, the Punjabi Republic quickly sought to take over its assets and turn it into an organ strictly subsidiary to the state. This irked many Sikhs, who viewed this as an attack of their religion. This was further worsened when, as part of the revolutionary desire for linguistic uniformity, the Guru Granth Sahib was transliterated from Sikh liturgical script into a new, modified Perso-Arabic script, as well as the enforcement of certain standardized turbans as the only official headwear. This quickly sparked rebellion and political organization, and the formation of the Akali Singh Sabha in the name of protecting the faith and restoring its dominance. The Akal Takht acted as if it was being besieged by enemies of the Sikh faith. Following the 1890 coup d'etat, Prem Nath Kaul quickly established a compromise in which Sikh liturgical script would be allowed strictly for liturgy, as well as a recognition of the Akal Takht. It was in a sense, a resignation of the clear might of the republic and an abandonment of the desires to restore Sikhism's status; yet, it maintained a firm Sikh presence. Immediately afterwards, the Akali Singh Sabha was dissolved, and its members told to either leave politics or join official parties.

Hindu Rakshak Sabha: The Punjabi Empire was a state in which Hinduism had a semi-official status as a second religion, and in the subsidiary hill states, it was official. But the Punjabi Revolution changed that. For all of Prem Nath Kaul's immense Hindu piety, he was a Kashmiri Hindu, and as a result he was highly divergent from standard Punjabi Hindu practice. His ways seemed foreign. And, above all, he was an enemy of caste-based discrimination, which he regarded as a distortion of Hindu doctrine, and he sought to end this through measures as extreme as forcing surnames associated with Dalits onto Brahmins. This quickly resulted in the creation of Hindu organizations, which only became more frantic as the Punjabi Army crushed the largely Hindu subsidiary hill states and integrated them into the nation. The Hindu Rakshak Sabha, flush from cash from feudal lords not just in Punjab, but also the British Raj, quickly emerged, even if it failed to become truly popular. But when the Punjabi Republic attempted to enforce translation of all Hindu texts into Punjabi and the abandonment of the Hindu liturgical script in favour of the standard Perso-Arabic, this inflamed opinion and resulted in frantic defences of Sanskrit and Sanskritized Hindustani in liturgy. However, following the 1890 coup d'etat, this extreme aim was dropped, and Hindu liturgical script was allowed for exclusively liturgical purposes, to the joy of many, and assuaged Hindu opinion. But at the same time, the Hindu Rakshak Sabha was harshly and punitively repressed, in an effort which proved successful.

Majlis-i-Muslimeen: Despite making up a plurality of Punjabis, under the Punjabi Empire Muslims were often excluded from power, with the exception of within Muslim subsidiary states. Though some Muslims were appointed to administration, it was disproportionately low. Muslim reformist currents coming from Turkey, from the Malay Archipelago inevitably affected thought, and caused both currents towards and against orthodoxy. The Punjabi Revolution brought this political atmosphere to the forefront, and Islamic reformist currents quickly received a considerable ear. Islamic associations quickly grew across the nation, especially after the Nawab of Bahawalpur was dethroned after a failed attempt to turn his state into a British puppet state. And they clashed, and emerged onto the political stage, establishing educational institutions. However, as part of linguistic uniformity projects, the Quran was translated into Punjabi, and the muezzin was forced to call in Punjabi, while the Perso-Arabic script was altered to allow for easier printing. Islamic education institutions were nationalized, and brought inline with state education. This quickly inspired a backlash, as both reformist and anti-reformist Muslims created the Majlis-i-Muslimeen to project the Islamic faith. However, following the 1890 coup d'etat, the state accepted that the Quran would be read in Arabic, as would be said the muezzin call. The Majlis-i-Muslimeen quickly fell apart, and reformists joined up with the Jamhuriyat Sabha.

Rajshahi Sabha: The first act of the Punjabi Revolution occurred in 1882; it saw Prem Nath Kaul overthrow Maharaja Jawahar Singh overthrown and replaced by his brother Dalip Singh as "Maharaja of the Punjabi". However, Dalip Singh quickly wanted more power than the newly-assembled constituent assembly wanted to concede to him and all but dictated what he sought the new constitution to be; when he requested Prem Nath Kaul dissolve the assembly, Kaul instead arrested Dalip Singh; carrying him on his back from the imperial palace in Lahore, he tore off Dalip Singh's turban, including the Koh-i-Nur, and pushed him onto a train that would take him to Karachi, and from there to Europe. But Dalip Singh's dreams did not die; he assembled a political party which aimed at making him Maharaja again. It achieved only middling success, even if it entered into vote-sharing deals on occasion. Following the 1890 coup d'etat, it was characteristically dissolved.

Hindustan Azad Samaj: The Punjabi Revolution quickly had reverberations in the neighbouring British Raj. The neverending publications of new materials in this revolutionary situation inevitably led to them spreading across to the British Raj, and with Punjabi being similar enough to Hindustani to be about understandable, this quickly resulted in a political impact. While most subjects of the Raj who sympathized with the Punjabi Revolution contented themselves with purchasing a picture of Prem Nath Kaul, there were some who wanted to go further, to move to Punjab to be directly involved. And so, here they were directly involved in the revolution; they joined its armies and became deputies where they formed an informal party consisting of Hindustanis with a continued affectation towards their homeland. But, in the late 1880s, Punjabi nationalism quickly became increasingly linguistic. The Hindustani language was too similar to Punjabi to be tolerated as anything other than a foreign language. And as Punjabi was codified, it also grew more distant from Hindustani; even in informal speech, the French-derived "merzi" displaced native words for "thank you" that were common between Hindustani and Punjabi. Hindustani deputies, in this period, were also radicalized. They wanted the Punjabi Republic to go further, to go to war to liberate the inhabitants of the British Raj. They strongly supported the 1890 coup d'etat for this exact reason, believing Prem Nath Kaul would crush the British Raj and all its feudalism just as he crushed the hill states. But ultimately he had no desire to export the revolution; he viewed maintaining Punjab's independence and unity as a difficult enough task, and he clearly saw that the reformist movements in the British Raj were O'Connellite in nature, averse to violence. And so, he had the Hindustan Azad Samaj dissolved; a small price to pay for better relations with his British neighbours.
 
[INBOX] [TXED-SERU-GOVT-NA_COMP_WEEKLY] 2021-11-01 09:00 TX-ST

Every week, one of the professors of North American Comparative Politics gets to submit a paper, presentation, or other document of work produced by one of their students to be read by the audience of this newsletter. This week, Professor Herman Bryant Ötinger [Rural Politics in the Great Lakes] submitted the following paper, by his student Oksana Ogienko Ximénez:

Tertium Quid: Unaffiliated Politicians in the Indiana Congress

PRÉCIS
: Electoral politics in the American state of Indiana has been historically dominated, in fact and in attention, by two major forces: the center-right Whig Party, hegemonic since the 1850s, and the left-wing People's Labor Party, which has, in one form or another, served as its opposition since the 1910s. The two take up very well-defined roles, the Whigs forming government for eighty-eight years of the past century and the People's Labor Party leading government in the remaining twelve. Indeed, the Whigs' coalition of rural landowners, urban burgherish interests, and the best-off members of the working class has been so stable as to name one of the so-called 'Big Four' models of North American politics. [1]

These analyses, though, pay relatively little attention to the third force in Indiana politics: 'unaffiliated' members. No Indiana Congress since the 1980s has held fewer than twenty members who refused to caucus with either major party, most of them either elected under no party label at all or using party labels like Greene County First. Unaffiliated Representatives and Senators often play vital roles in governance: for example, in 2022, a group of five unaffiliated Senators allowed Senate Majority Leader Susan Raymond to pass the annual Educational Appropriations and Regulation Act over the objection of several rural Whigs who opposed its expansion of subsidies for religious education to Catholic and Jewish schools. [2] Moreover, during times of close party competition, both parties negotiate with unaffiliated members of Congress in order to govern and pass legislation: for example, during the People's Labor Party's most recent spell of government in 2007-08, they provided no fewer than nine unaffiliated members of Congress with committee chairpersonships in exchange for their support. [3]

Many analyses break unaffiliated members into four major groups: [4]
  • "Localist" members, who act as delegates from their cities or regions and agitate for 'porkbarrel' spending and the preservation of locally-important industries.
  • "Personalist" members, who run without affiliation for idiosyncratic personal reasons rather than policy; most of the elected members are either former elected officials of or otherwise connected to one of the major parties, most commonly the Whigs.
  • "Reactive" members, who leave their parties (usually the Whigs) en bloc out of opposition to controversial legislation: most recently, 2017's Social Responsibility Act led eleven Representatives and two Senators, most from poor districts, to leave the Whig Party. [5]
  • "Southern" members, who tend to be conservative on social issues and friendly to Southern Anglo states in foreign policy; they represent culturally distinct areas of the state near the Kentucky border, and have been argued to act as an informal third party. [6]
This analysis profiles four members of the Indiana House of Representatives [7] through interviews (both with the representatives themselves and other relevant figures) and analysis of news articles, then uses statistical analysis of voting behavior to develop definitions and identify patterns. We failed to find any significant statistical difference between the voting behavior of "localist" and "personalist" members, both of whom vote with levels of party loyalty within two standard deviations of the party mean; [8] however, cohorts of "reactive" members did vote as blocs with low levels of party loyalty, as did "Southern" members, though there was not much overlap between "reactive" and "Southern" members. [9]

[1] For the 'Big Four' models, see Fish 1962 and Michaelson et al. 1976; for a modern evaluation, see Forbes and Ramirez 2019.
[2] Reinhardt 2022.
[3] Indiana Blue Book 2007; see also McCombs 2021.
[4] For example, Prince 2018.
[5] Monkman 2017.
[6] Evansville Democrat-Sun editorial 2014.
[7] Those four members are "localist" William Brown, "personalist" Mary Claire Hoffmann, "reactive" David Monkman, and "Southerner" Evangeline Wilderson.
[8] "Localists" were compared to the Whig Party; "personalists" were compared to their parties of origin. Of note is that "personalists" with People's Labor pasts had substantially lower levels of party loyalty than ex-Whigs.
[9] Different cohorts of "reactive" members (i.e. members who became unaffiliated in reaction to different political acts) also did not overlap, with the exception of the 1999 and 2014 cohorts, who became unaffiliated in reaction to similar bills. However, this analysis is limited to the few members of the 1999 cohort who were still in elected office as of the 2013-14 session.
 
This Unironically Exists As A 20-Part Kindle Series, I Know It

The UK parliament was deadlocked in 2019 with Johnson unable to get the numbers for his Brexit deal and nobody else able to form a government. An election wasn't held, leaving the country paralysed. Scotland uses the crisis to declare Unilateral Declaration of Independence and request the EU "defend it" from British response.

European Army airstrikes commence within the hour, striking military bases and power stations across England and the government centres in central London - troops begin to land by sea at Aberdeen and Glasgow, while Police Scotland rounds up prominent unionists so they can't visibly protest Scotland's Popular Readmission Into The EU. Government paralysis prevents any response and Jeremy Corbyn declares "the People's Government" that surrenders to Brussells "and renounces imperialism". The British Army tries to fight on but has no logistical support.

Large parts of London and other cities declare for the People's Government, and Johnson is forced to flee with the core of his men and Prince William (the Queen refuses to leave London) to unite with the Brexit Party and declare a resistance government out of Hartlepool. The military and the thousands of New Home Guard resistance fighters are reorganised to hold much of the north, midlands, Wales, and Ulster.

The death toll is horrific but European advances grind to a halt, and in the spring the EU uses the excuse of a minor flu-like virus to declare a 'lockdown' across its landmass and in occupied English cities, giving it the excuse to extracate itself from the Second Battle of Britain. The battered United Kingdom and the various resistance groups across the isles prepare for the much-rumoured Operation Agincourt, hoping to drive Europe back across the border before the rigged "Second Referendum" will divide Britain into weaker, divided "modern European states" - already referring to much of the free country as "occupied Northumbria".

There's only a narrow window before people will be arrested just for saying they're English...
 
This Unironically Exists As A 20-Part Kindle Series, I Know It

The UK parliament was deadlocked in 2019 with Johnson unable to get the numbers for his Brexit deal and nobody else able to form a government. An election wasn't held, leaving the country paralysed. Scotland uses the crisis to declare Unilateral Declaration of Independence and request the EU "defend it" from British response.

European Army airstrikes commence within the hour, striking military bases and power stations across England and the government centres in central London - troops begin to land by sea at Aberdeen and Glasgow, while Police Scotland rounds up prominent unionists so they can't visibly protest Scotland's Popular Readmission Into The EU. Government paralysis prevents any response and Jeremy Corbyn declares "the People's Government" that surrenders to Brussells "and renounces imperialism". The British Army tries to fight on but has no logistical support.

Large parts of London and other cities declare for the People's Government, and Johnson is forced to flee with the core of his men and Prince William (the Queen refuses to leave London) to unite with the Brexit Party and declare a resistance government out of Hartlepool. The military and the thousands of New Home Guard resistance fighters are reorganised to hold much of the north, midlands, Wales, and Ulster.

The death toll is horrific but European advances grind to a halt, and in the spring the EU uses the excuse of a minor flu-like virus to declare a 'lockdown' across its landmass and in occupied English cities, giving it the excuse to extracate itself from the Second Battle of Britain. The battered United Kingdom and the various resistance groups across the isles prepare for the much-rumoured Operation Agincourt, hoping to drive Europe back across the border before the rigged "Second Referendum" will divide Britain into weaker, divided "modern European states" - already referring to much of the free country as "occupied Northumbria".

There's only a narrow window before people will be arrested just for saying they're English...

Good to see you, D.C. Alden, though I think this generally has less Eurabia fearmongering than your previous novels
 
1635987603955.png
World Powers of interest, c. 2040

Europe

1. the Russian Federation
President: Igor Rotenberg (Единая Россия)

The death of Putin left as big of a mess as you'd think. Konstantin Malofeev threw the biggest shitfit possible when United Russia - predictably - rigged the election in their favour. Now it's open warfare between two equally two fascistic powers. I mean, sure, there's Lobanov and whatever's left of the pro-Bondarenko militias, but lets be honest, they have as much of a shot as the Cannibal Kings camped out in the Ural's.

2. the France Republic
President: Ugo Bernalicis (Belle Époque)

The old folks who took part in the Yellow Vest protests of the '20s were pretty chuffed when the rest of the world had their own 'petites révolutions', even tho they weren't the reason why they happened, or the first ones to come up with it, or the first to even be that effective. Macron didn't even stand down due to the riots; he just plain lost reelection, as did Zemmour, as did Autain, even Bayou, who many people still speak fondly of. Nothing is certain in the now tropical clime of la République. C'est la vie.

3. the Federal Republic of Germany
Chancellor: Paul Ziemiak (Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands)

Nobody's really sure about Germany. On one hand, they've become a one-party state, on the other, they did that by systematically purging the rising alt-right elements out of office. They've seemed to have shed their generational guilt and are a lot more like their neighbour, the Netherlands, but instead of windmills they have wind turbines.

4. the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Prime Minister: James Cleverly (Conservative)

A Labour PM hasn't been elected since 2005, which is par for the course. Even with several decades of Boris Johnson and Priti Patel, the reds still couldn't muster up the party unity needed to make the final push, even while most of Merseyside is underwater and migrant worker camps are popping up all over the cotswolds. Far as we know, Alex Sobel has put more effort into stopping Shona Jemphrey than he has for the Prime Minister.

5. the Kingdom of Norway
Prime Minister: Bjørnar Moxnes (Rødt)

You just had to go for their fucking oil. That takes guts. You know they just aren't all peaceniks who sit around smoking their legal weed, right? They're the descendents of VIKINGS. The North Sea's bounty is THEIRS. Just because they have a very (VERY) leftist government in power doesn't mean they're gonna roll onto their bellies and let you take it. They didn't want to start one of the most intense Climate Wars in European History, but by Odin's Eye they'll finish it!

Asia

1. The Peoples Republic of China
President: Hu Haifeng (中国共产党)

To be transparent and honest with you (ironic, right?), the Great Dragon that formerly menaced the West by simply existing has stumbled a bit. Something about the massive population of worker lemmings reaching retirement age, I dunno. Luckily the coming war with the Phillipines, an irony in of itself, has distracted from the absolute failure of "Global Market NuEconomics with Militant Characteristics" (really ironic, huh?).

2. Japan
Prime Minister: Shinjiro Koizumi (自民党)

Out of all the countries featured, Japan has probably changed the least. They suffered another nasty earthquake in the late 20's, but nothing too major, other than a growing vocal minority of people who want the country to start producing nuclear weapons.

3. the Workers Republic of India
General Secretary: Arya Rajendran (मार्क्सवादी-लेनिनवादी एकता गठबंधन)

Out of all the countries featured, India has probably changed the most. After Thackeray forcibly annulled Bishnoi's election results and totally ignored the masses baking on the many streets of Maharashtra, enough was enough. The Naxals slinked from the jungles and into populated metropolitan areas, and thirsty citizens were hydrated by the blood that flowed from the Central Secretariat. It was particularly gruesome, yes, but progress is being made, even if it means a few 'anti-revolutionaries' have to be put to death in town squares.

4. the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Prime Minister: Saad Hussain Rizvi (تحریک لبیک پاکستان)

They're none to happy with the developments in their neighbouring rival, especially with a nascent nationalist sect strongly considering making Akhand Bharat happen one way or another. Bangladesh, already suffering a crop blight, is sat nervously in-between the two, trying to figure out which will come for them first.

5. the Republic of Turkey
President: Ekrem İmamoğlu (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi)

After Russia, many predicted the death of Erdoğan would leave a similar vacuum for open warfare with competing factions, or maybe even a localised revolution like elsewhere on the continent. Not so. They simply replaced him with Yavaş, and when he died, the brought in Çelik. After İmamoğlu inevitably kicks the bucket, they're probably gonna promote Şahin. Business will continue as usual.

6. the Federation of the Philippines
Chairperson: Renato Magtubo (Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas)

This one was unexpected. Duterte was too bitter to die by mortal hands, which is probably why it was a UTI that got him in the end. The communist rebellion was long-suffering having been causing problems since the sixties. It was one of those special cocktails of things going right (or, from a western perspective, things going wrong) that allowed for New People's Army to finally overthrow the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino. You'd think they'd be more concerned with reestablishing order on their own turf, but no, right now it's with sending as many able-bodied militiamen as possible up into India's Red Corridor.

7. the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Supreme Leader: Kim Kang-Dae (조선로동당)

Things have changed, tankies will insist. Instead of their omnipresent leader calling the shots, the oldest son of Kim Jong-Un, who the rest of the world didn't really know existed two years ago, has allowed the people to take part in a National Assembly. What do you mean it's all for show? All that news about it being a front for more international aide is just CIA propaganda. Nice try, anarkiddie, they chuckle, before logging onto Wikifeet to once again bump up the score of Yo-jong for the ninth time today.

Africa & the Middle East

1. the Arab Republic of Egypt
Prime Minister: Haitham Mohamedain (إجماع مصري)

2. the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria aka Rojava
Co-Presidents: Jihan Khadro & Juzif Lahdo (حزب الاتحاد الديمقراطي‎)

2. the Republic of Azania
President: Marshall Dlamini (EFF)

"South Africa" is the name made by the colonisers, the Afrikaners. A new government felt the country as more deserving of a name that reflected its indigenous population. Oddly enough the only people who got pissed at that were racist who weren't even from there, and their opinions don't really matter when their busy fighting a growing insurgency of the offshore Pirate Kingdom.

3. the Free State of New Riyadh
Prime Minister: Raif Badawi (عدالة)

One of the more interesting consequences of the World Revolutions was the downfall of Saudi Arabia, the Friedberg-Seltzer personification of capitalism. It wasn't even the oil running out, there's still plenty. There were just a lot of very angry, very underpaid migrant workers.

4. the Republic of Angola
President: Vera Daves (Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola)


the Americas
1. Canada
Prime Minister: Laurin Liu (Alliance '40)

2. the United States of America
President: Javon Price (Republican)

3. Mexico
President: Samuel García Sepúlveda (Movimiento Ciudadano)

4. the Republic of Cuba

President: José Daniel Ferrer (UNPACU)

5. Venezuela
President: Javier Tarazona (Socialista Democrático)

6. the Federative Republic of Brazil
President: Guilherme Boulos (Partido Socialismo e Liberdade)
 
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My Top 5 British Political Satires Since The Thick Of It

5) Kicked Upstairs (2022-)

Synopsis: A Marcus Rashford-alike football player involved in charitable campaigns is given a peerage, and struggles to transition to a political career with the help of his diffident assistant.

ANTONY BOLDSTREAM: I get it! So when the matter is considered a money bill, it's essentially as if the Government were lofting the ball in from range!
ZACK COPPERFIELD: I have no idea what you're talking about, my Lord, but the division bell is sounding, we have to hurry down.
BOLDSTREAM: I'm straight out of the Premier League, mate, why are we bothering with divisions? First or Second, surely they're irrelevant?

My review: Essentially just the one joke, but pitched well at the 'lazy secondary school civics teacher' market.

4) The Magic Money Tree (2018-2019)

Synopsis: High-concept show which created the micro-genre of 'political fantasy'. The Government discovers a secret wardrobe deep in Whitehall which leads to a magical (and, more importantly, mineral-rich) kingdom. The programme follows a team of civil servants as they gather resources and argue about the appropriate allocation of same.

ZAYNA: I still think we should stick a hydro-electric dam in the Resource Stream, even at the cost of messing up the migration patterns of the Salmon Which Are Literally Made Of Crack Cocaine.
GARETH: Who cares about renewables? A coal-fired power plant would be a perfect way to utilise the huge numbers of Darkgems we acquired from the dragon's hoard, while also providing jobs to the dwarves of deprived former pit villages.

My review: Very laboured in execution, despite the creativity of the premise. And yet again, ITV show themselves to be well behind the competition in terms of modern-looking CGI - an essential in this sort of show. I would also say that the introduction in series two of an elderly talking donkey with strong views about an Elvish conspiracy for world domination was a wild misstep.

3) Daughter of Elysium (2021)

Synopsis: A pro-European Tory MEP dies and is replaced by a Brexiteer cryptocurrency enthusiast who immediately defects to the Libertarian Party - but he retains the staff of his predecessor, including the deceased's centrist daughter, with whom he embarks on an odd-couple romantic relationship.

CRISPIN: Damn it all, Vanessa - we have our differences politically, and I'm sorry for being irreverent about Strasbourg in my last speech. But at the end of the day... my love for you, I feel, is the basis for an ever closer union. My passion will never be funged - and that's why I'm offering you this small token of my affection.
VANESSA: Oh, Crispin! Yes! I will marry you! And even if it doesn't work out, we can always seek a lengthy, acrimonious divorce!

My review: While the message that right-wing and centre-right people do, in fact, have a lot in common... isn't the most earth-shattering contention in human history, I was impressed by television's ability to poke fun at the blockchain so soon after it became a thing. And I really enjoyed the cringe-comedy scenes in which Crispin is taken to a gay orgy by a Polish political ally.

2) Down To Earth (2013-2015)

Synopsis: The Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition are replaced by extraterrestrials in skin-suits, following in the hallowed traditions of Men in Black and that episode of Doctor Who with all the farting. The pair grapple with Earthling customs while balancing their loyalty to the mother-ship with their growing affection for their human love-interests.

DAVLAX CAMEROID: I don't understand these complex human traditions! Why is it that you are expected to eat a pig, while I am verbally abused for merely displaying my affection for one - just as I now do with the being known as 'Samantha'?
HEAD MILLIPEDE: And why should we be challenged to recite the price of a 'pint' of cow liquid every year? I wish we were back home on Planet Tussenuff!

My review: A good silly sitcom, and elevated by the subtle hints that Austerity is in fact a means of transferring Earth's wealth to the aliens. I mean, it wouldn't make sense otherwise!

1) Out of the Red (2019-2020)

Synopsis: A centrist Labour MP loses his seat for bankruptcy, but is given a large bribe by a shady supermarket magnate to turn it into a matter of principle and found a new moderate party.

JIM: I say to you, the good people of Proleborough South, that I reject the scurrilous lies of the press - the tabloids are telling you that I'm bankrupt of ideas. I tell you instead, ladies and gentlemen, that I am going into administration!

My review: A rare example of an equal-opportunities satire, with all sides of the spectrum coming across as venal, corrupt or insincere - and especially TIG. The show absolutely hit the zeitgeist in 2019, although the second series (in which the protagonist seeks to save his seat by joining the Lib Dems) was a bit of a damp squib on account of the fact that nobody cares about the Lib Dems enough to want to see them taken down a peg.
 
Synopsis: High-concept show which created the micro-genre of 'political fantasy'. The Government discovers a secret wardrobe deep in Whitehall which leads to a magical (and, more importantly, mineral-rich) kingdom. The programme follows a team of civil servants as they gather resources and argue about the appropriate allocation of same.

The isekai we need but do not deserve
 
Political Parties of the Punjabi Republic, 1895

Born in the fires of revolution, in the anger at the Great Indian Famine and the state failure to respond to it, the Punjabi Revolution, the overthrow of the imperial monarchy of Punjab by its army and the declaration of a republic by General Prem Nath Kaul sparked a revolutionary period in which the subsidiary monarchies were overthrown in a death tussle. By 1895, with the feudal rebellions crushed and the revolutionary state finally settled down, order and liberty may finally be achieved....

Prem Nath Kaul: If the Punjabi Revolution, the Punjabi Republic, was the work of one man, it was Sardar Prem Nath Kaul. He is a man of great ambiguity. A Kashmiri Pandit, yet an avowed Punjabi nationalist. A devout Hindu, yet the grave foe of the clergy. As a young man, he absorbed the irresistible ideals of liberty from the West and viewed republicanism as the panacea of all of Punjab's problems, yet he made his name as a soldier fighting in the name of the Maharajas of Punjab. He was sworn to the serve the Maharajas, yet he personally overthrew two Maharajas, tore off their turbans, and forced them into exile, declaring a republic. He declared upholding Punjabi greatness to be his lifelong mission - yet, when he tore off the Koh-i-Nur, that symbol of Punjabi greatness from the head of the last Punjabi Maharaja, he pawned it off and spent the money on famine relief. When Punjab's British neighbours, concerned about the example this gave to subjects of the British Raj, asked him to establish a monarchy, he refused and condemned monarchy as a great crime - yet he is greeted like a king, and to criticize him is to criticize the state. He upheld democracy as the greatest virtue - yet, he overthrew an inefficient government of civilians and became head of state himself. His decrees, passed swiftly through a legislature, are the law of the land, and Punjab's great modernization is ultimately the work of him. Ultimately, he is Punjab, and Punjab is him.

Legal parties

Jamhuriyat Sabha
: The ruling party of Punjab. Before the 1890 coup d'etat, Punjabi politics were badly fractured between a dozen parties, with many deputies in the payrolls of foreign interests and various aristocrats, and disarray in the halls of the Majlis-i-Qanun was a constant. But when General Prem Nath Kaul marched into the Majlis, and forced it to accept centralizing reforms, he assembled his supporters into a single party , one meant to represent the whole of the republic. It is, as such, highly heterogeneous, consisting of everything from Francophilic intellectuals who greet one another with Punjabi corruptions of "bonjour", to former peasants who speak nothing but rustic Punjabi. But if there is one unifying factor, it is allegiance to the republic, to the modernization and centralization of the state and people.

Insaaf Sabha: Established in 1892 by Prem Nath Kaul's good friend Baljit Singh Ahluwalia, this was intended to enshrine multi-party rule as a custom of the republic. It quickly issued a manifesto, declaring its allegiance to all the same values of the Jamhuriyat Sabha except for one - where the Jamhuriyat Sabha advocates a highly statist model of modernization in which the state directly constructs and funds factories and creates conglomerates of companies to serve the interests of the state, the Insaaf Sabha advocates a decentralized system of privatized modernization, in which the ingenuity of the nation is left to take ahold of the resources of the nation and modernize the state itself. Yet, its members regularly dine with government officials, and its electioneering is tame and docile in much of the nation. It regularly purges proscribed citizens from its membership rolls, to prevent its takeover by malicious interests. It is nothing if not loyal.

Kamchari Ate Kisan Sabha: The rapid industrialization process begun even in the Imperial period led to the rise of workers' and peasants' movements. In line with the workers and peasants movements emerging in the British Raj, it began to organize itself, and in Punjab itself it quickly became revolutionary. The overthrow of the imperial monarchy quickly saw workers' and peasants' riots, and later representation in the Majlis-i-Qanun. It proved a factor for instability in the hearts of the state, and following the 1890 coup d'etat, these movements were suppressed. Yet, they continued to exist, and in 1892 Prem Nath Kaul requested the formation of an official party to represent and organize for the interests of workers and peasants. This new approved party agrees with the Jamhuriyat Sabha in all ways except for one - it seeks for common workers' and peasants' ownership of all state lands and resources. What policies best bring this out are much debated, but nevertheless overall it agrees with Prem Nath Kaul's modernization efforts. Its deputies hold regular spats and vicious debates with members of the Insaaf Sabha which often need to be brought under control, while their respective journals are harsh enemies of one another. Indeed, it almost resembles free and fair debate.

Proscribed parties

Akali Singh Sabha
: The former Punjabi Empire was one which recognized Sikhism as the official religion of the land. The clergy of the Akal Takht, the highest order of the nation, held great authority, famously even punishing the founder of the Punjabi Empire, Ranjit Singh, for marrying a Muslim nautch-girl. But the Punjabi Revolution changed all of that. Sikhism was stripped of all recognition as official, and while it continued (and continues) to have a cultural dominance despite it only being Punjab's third-largest religion, the Punjabi Republic quickly sought to take over its assets and turn it into an organ strictly subsidiary to the state. This irked many Sikhs, who viewed this as an attack of their religion. This was further worsened when, as part of the revolutionary desire for linguistic uniformity, the Guru Granth Sahib was transliterated from Sikh liturgical script into a new, modified Perso-Arabic script, as well as the enforcement of certain standardized turbans as the only official headwear. This quickly sparked rebellion and political organization, and the formation of the Akali Singh Sabha in the name of protecting the faith and restoring its dominance. The Akal Takht acted as if it was being besieged by enemies of the Sikh faith. Following the 1890 coup d'etat, Prem Nath Kaul quickly established a compromise in which Sikh liturgical script would be allowed strictly for liturgy, as well as a recognition of the Akal Takht. It was in a sense, a resignation of the clear might of the republic and an abandonment of the desires to restore Sikhism's status; yet, it maintained a firm Sikh presence. Immediately afterwards, the Akali Singh Sabha was dissolved, and its members told to either leave politics or join official parties.

Hindu Rakshak Sabha: The Punjabi Empire was a state in which Hinduism had a semi-official status as a second religion, and in the subsidiary hill states, it was official. But the Punjabi Revolution changed that. For all of Prem Nath Kaul's immense Hindu piety, he was a Kashmiri Hindu, and as a result he was highly divergent from standard Punjabi Hindu practice. His ways seemed foreign. And, above all, he was an enemy of caste-based discrimination, which he regarded as a distortion of Hindu doctrine, and he sought to end this through measures as extreme as forcing surnames associated with Dalits onto Brahmins. This quickly resulted in the creation of Hindu organizations, which only became more frantic as the Punjabi Army crushed the largely Hindu subsidiary hill states and integrated them into the nation. The Hindu Rakshak Sabha, flush from cash from feudal lords not just in Punjab, but also the British Raj, quickly emerged, even if it failed to become truly popular. But when the Punjabi Republic attempted to enforce translation of all Hindu texts into Punjabi and the abandonment of the Hindu liturgical script in favour of the standard Perso-Arabic, this inflamed opinion and resulted in frantic defences of Sanskrit and Sanskritized Hindustani in liturgy. However, following the 1890 coup d'etat, this extreme aim was dropped, and Hindu liturgical script was allowed for exclusively liturgical purposes, to the joy of many, and assuaged Hindu opinion. But at the same time, the Hindu Rakshak Sabha was harshly and punitively repressed, in an effort which proved successful.

Majlis-i-Muslimeen: Despite making up a plurality of Punjabis, under the Punjabi Empire Muslims were often excluded from power, with the exception of within Muslim subsidiary states. Though some Muslims were appointed to administration, it was disproportionately low. Muslim reformist currents coming from Turkey, from the Malay Archipelago inevitably affected thought, and caused both currents towards and against orthodoxy. The Punjabi Revolution brought this political atmosphere to the forefront, and Islamic reformist currents quickly received a considerable ear. Islamic associations quickly grew across the nation, especially after the Nawab of Bahawalpur was dethroned after a failed attempt to turn his state into a British puppet state. And they clashed, and emerged onto the political stage, establishing educational institutions. However, as part of linguistic uniformity projects, the Quran was translated into Punjabi, and the muezzin was forced to call in Punjabi, while the Perso-Arabic script was altered to allow for easier printing. Islamic education institutions were nationalized, and brought inline with state education. This quickly inspired a backlash, as both reformist and anti-reformist Muslims created the Majlis-i-Muslimeen to project the Islamic faith. However, following the 1890 coup d'etat, the state accepted that the Quran would be read in Arabic, as would be said the muezzin call. The Majlis-i-Muslimeen quickly fell apart, and reformists joined up with the Jamhuriyat Sabha.

Rajshahi Sabha: The first act of the Punjabi Revolution occurred in 1882; it saw Prem Nath Kaul overthrow Maharaja Jawahar Singh overthrown and replaced by his brother Dalip Singh as "Maharaja of the Punjabi". However, Dalip Singh quickly wanted more power than the newly-assembled constituent assembly wanted to concede to him and all but dictated what he sought the new constitution to be; when he requested Prem Nath Kaul dissolve the assembly, Kaul instead arrested Dalip Singh; carrying him on his back from the imperial palace in Lahore, he tore off Dalip Singh's turban, including the Koh-i-Nur, and pushed him onto a train that would take him to Karachi, and from there to Europe. But Dalip Singh's dreams did not die; he assembled a political party which aimed at making him Maharaja again. It achieved only middling success, even if it entered into vote-sharing deals on occasion. Following the 1890 coup d'etat, it was characteristically dissolved.

Hindustan Azad Samaj: The Punjabi Revolution quickly had reverberations in the neighbouring British Raj. The neverending publications of new materials in this revolutionary situation inevitably led to them spreading across to the British Raj, and with Punjabi being similar enough to Hindustani to be about understandable, this quickly resulted in a political impact. While most subjects of the Raj who sympathized with the Punjabi Revolution contented themselves with purchasing a picture of Prem Nath Kaul, there were some who wanted to go further, to move to Punjab to be directly involved. And so, here they were directly involved in the revolution; they joined its armies and became deputies where they formed an informal party consisting of Hindustanis with a continued affectation towards their homeland. But, in the late 1880s, Punjabi nationalism quickly became increasingly linguistic. The Hindustani language was too similar to Punjabi to be tolerated as anything other than a foreign language. And as Punjabi was codified, it also grew more distant from Hindustani; even in informal speech, the French-derived "merzi" displaced native words for "thank you" that were common between Hindustani and Punjabi. Hindustani deputies, in this period, were also radicalized. They wanted the Punjabi Republic to go further, to go to war to liberate the inhabitants of the British Raj. They strongly supported the 1890 coup d'etat for this exact reason, believing Prem Nath Kaul would crush the British Raj and all its feudalism just as he crushed the hill states. But ultimately he had no desire to export the revolution; he viewed maintaining Punjab's independence and unity as a difficult enough task, and he clearly saw that the reformist movements in the British Raj were O'Connellite in nature, averse to violence. And so, he had the Hindustan Azad Samaj dissolved; a small price to pay for better relations with his British neighbours.
As a native of India, and one of Punjabi origin, this is amazing.

One thing I do wish you highlighted more was stuff such as the Arya Samaj and Ahmadi Islam's influences on Punjab politics - they were both different from the mainstream of their religion (Ahmadism of course, being more different due to shunning the idea that Muhammad was the last Prophet).

This is otherwise, really cool. However, the factors that caused the Akali Movement are a bit too different to actually come into play ITTL - namely exploitation of Sikh religious sites by Hindu landowners et al.

My last question is - does the real-life Ghadar movement that began in Californian exile have anything at all to do with Punjab's revolution?
 
As a native of India, and one of Punjabi origin, this is amazing.

One thing I do wish you highlighted more was stuff such as the Arya Samaj and Ahmadi Islam's influences on Punjab politics - they were both different from the mainstream of their religion (Ahmadism of course, being more different due to shunning the idea that Muhammad was the last Prophet).

This is otherwise, really cool. However, the factors that caused the Akali Movement are a bit too different to actually come into play ITTL - namely exploitation of Sikh religious sites by Hindu landowners et al.

My last question is - does the real-life Ghadar movement that began in Californian exile have anything at all to do with Punjab's revolution?
Thank you.

My thoughts on this timeline is that, with a divergence involving the Sikh Empire surviving (only to be overthrown of course), Arya Samaj, Ahmadi Islam, and the Akali movement are all butterflied away. I tried to embody at least some of the energy of the Akali movement in the Akali Singh Sabha, because some of the issues behind it like Sikh religious self-governance are still active ones.

The Arya Samaj is something I envisioned that, if it exists at all, failing to take hold in Punjab in the same way in the absence of it being within the British Raj. But on the other hand, the Hindu reform energy it captured was not specific to it - perhaps there’s another Hindu reform movement active in Punjab that, while not having the specific neo-Vedic theology of the Arya Samaj, may still be a product of those reform currents. I’ll need to think about it.

On the other hand, Ahmadi Islam is just something that sort of happened from what I can tell - a charismatic preacher declaring himself the Mahdi and attracting a large following through his charisma. And this divergence is far enough that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad would have very different life experiences. But then again, a revolutionary scenario in which an old order is dramatically torn down is fertile ground for new sects, and it might be fun to include such a Muslim sect with a theology reminiscent of the Ahmadi. Even if certain aspects of Ahmadi theology, such as the claim that Kashmiris are a lost tribe of Israelites, would have very political connotations in this Punjab.

The Ghadar Party is also a thing I envisioned being butterflied away - it was very much a Punjabi party struggling against the Raj, and in a timeline in which Punjab never gets conquered by the Britishers, it does not exist. But its energy is a big part of Punjab’s revolution.
 
(Dear gods this escalated!!)

Right. How the hell do I explain the Anglish Political Crisis to someone from abroad.

A few explanations for folks from the major powers

Cimese: We dont have the endless network of beauracratic exams like you do, there are no academic requirements to hold office.
Terranovans and Romans: We are not a Federation. We are still a unitary state. This should perhaps change.
Atlanteans: Nor are we a Confederation of separate entities, we dont have direct democracy either or those many things you radicals love.
Germany: We aren’t as homogenous as you, despite being like, half your size.


So, ever since the great reform act in 1954, the Council of Representatives (Formerly the council of ealdormen) has been elected every five years. They are the legislative body of the Kingdom of Angland. They discuss and pass legislature, They also approve any appointments to the Council of Advisors (Formerly the council of Thegns), the upper house, which is an advisory body of elder statesmen, nobles and so on. The leader of the largest party in the Council of Reps is appointed by the Monarch (Cynedryth VII) to lead government if they are capable of commanding enough seats to have a majority (350+).

The Representatives are elected to each Shire (a subdivision about the size of some of the smallest Imperial Territories,) The Shires vary in size from Eorforwicshire with 50 seats down to some Shires with just 1. Each citizen over 18 votes for a party and this is proportioned out by seats. So if a party got 60% of votes, they’d get roughly 60% of seats (obviously This is more accurate in the larger Shires).

This is where it gets complicated. Prior to the 1950s, Angland had a very different system with much more power in the House of Thegns (who were exclusively nobles) and more power resting with the Monarch (who these days is mostly ceremonial). Thegns would also have much more power over their individual lands, often controlling the Eoldermen people could vote for, how local matters were dealt with and so on. Centuries of dividing the country up by Shire and local identity however meant that Following the soft revolution of 52 however the more empowered commoners did often stick to local identities not by their Thegn but by their Shire.

This is further complicated by the nature of Angland. Which is not technically one kingdom but five or six depending on who you ask. The title of the Queen is “Cynedryth the seventh, by the wisdom of god, Queen of the Angles and the Saxons, The Britons, the Albish and the Peoples of the Isles,” and Culturally in its biggest sense is made up of the following rough regions.

  • Angland: The Heartland of the Kingdom, the oldest continuous part and the part the royal family rules over first. Some folks
    • Also includes East Anglia, some of whom see themselves as different
  • Wessex: Not West, but definitely Saxon. Following the harrowing of the Norse the Anglo Saxon lands were split between Angland and Wessex, the latter of whom took over, Kent, Sussex and Wessex too but I digress. Unified under 1 throne with Angland since 1512. Not formally unified until much later
    • Some people still see themselves as West or South Saxons independently too, this crosses over with viking settlement of the region as with East Anglia
  • South Britain: traditionally British but of the Anglish church. Was a vassal Kingdom to Wessex for the longest time
  • North Britain: Predominantly Catholic, the Anglish church never got as far as North Britain. However they share a language with South Britain.
  • Strathclota: The first bit of Alba to come under the Anglish throne
  • Alba: North of the Forith but on the mainland, definitely not Strathclota and they will remind you of that.
  • The Islands: The Western Isles, seen by the rest of the Kingdom as a bunch of vikings.

Note: Mann, Orkney and Shetland are not part of the Kingdom of Angland. Mann is a lovely little Tax haven of a Kingdom and Orkney and Shetland are self governing territories of the Triple Crown.

Now, each of these territories still has a very strong identity. This is further complicated by the differing opinions. Some of these Opinions are enough to go across Shires and regions, sometimes they aren’t.

So lets start in 2020, the last time we had an election. Before then the government was headed by the Traditional Alliance with the First Minister being from the Wessex People’s Party (the first since the reformation of the political system) with the Trads leading government for about fifteen years

So lets deal with the parties of the Kingdom who managed seats in the 2020 election: There are so many more but they have local representation at best.

Pan-Anglish Parties
Workers: Your typical workers party. Pro industry, pro workers rights, pro guilds, moderate socially. Especially popular in the cities.

Environmental Progressive Party: Formed from merger an offshoot of the workers and the several regional Envionmental parties. Pro-Environment but socially progressive. Massively on the rise. Which is arguably a problem

Oaken Party: Pan-Anglish, but not that big. Imagine the Traditional Alliance if they hated industry. Pro Environment, socially conservative, some of them border on Neo-Pagan or pseudo-pagan Christianity. Have almost as many Thegns as Reps

Pan Anglish Alliances:

Traditional Alliance: The other main folks who tend to form governments. A grouping of similar parties who due to being more ...well, traditional, cling to their regional identities more but paradoxically support a unitary state ruled from Dunholm.
Anglish Traditional Party: The big boys of the Eorforwic countryside. Pro business, pro tradition, anti immigration
Wessex People’s Party: Damn near identical to their Anglish cousins but spell stuff in the Wessex Dialect. Supplies the caretaker FM.
Alba Forever: The newly rebranded party of the Albish right. Hemorrhaging votes to Albish Progs and Independence
British Traditional Party (translated from the British): Not that powerful due to the Workers ruling over a lot of traditional mining towns in South Britain
British Social Party: Catholic, but diehard monarchists… despite the monarch being the head of the Anglish church


The Federal Accord
Weird name for a fairly straight forward group. Various parties of various regional parties who are pushing for a break to the chaos of the Dunholm Parliament by giving powers to the various regions to operate semi-independently. Not sure if this would solve things but there we go.
Radical League: Technically a pan-Anglish party but also part of the Accord who have fast become the big boss of the Accord. Support a Federal Kingdom of Angland, directly elected upper house, removal of all powers from Thegns.
Alba Progressive Party: The more left wing/progressive side of the Albish rights movement
Wessex Together: the more moderate Wessex regioanlists
Angland Rise: AR aren’t very popular, given the dominance of Angland within the wider Kingdom. Quite socially conservative and harp on about Wessex and the Britons dominating Angland. Which is awkward given their allies
Catholic Party: The Conservative North British Party but pro independence. Never supported radical separatists, you cant prove it
The British Alliance: a Non-religious pan-British party that are rising in popularity over the past few decades
Jutish Party: Your fairly standard Kentish issues party, has one rep in Sussex too
Cernow Party: The Cornish rights party, no one takes them seriously east of the Tamar
Islanders Rights: Have all of one seat, the one seat the Islands get.



Regional Parties not assigned to a bloc/ stand in less than a majority of regions

British Environmental Party: The EP’s little British cousin
Albish Independence Party: Ideally want a lot more than just more power. Are calling for independence for all Ablish, including the Islands and Strathclyde, the latter of whom are majority pro-Kingdom
End the Kingdom: ETK support Wessex as independent republic
Anglish Workers Party: Hate the big workers party for no given reason
British Labour Party: Split off from the Workers. Significant dominance in the coal mines of South Britain


So we’d had fifteen years of Traditional Rule variously with the more Liberal or occasionally regional parties, throwing the latter a bone to the regions. This was changed by three things

The formation of the Federal Accord, the burying of social and economic differences and pushing for a platform of federalisation of the Kingdom as one united negotiating bloc.
The floods of 2018 leading to a rise in support for both Oaken Environmental Progressives (who had themselves only formed in 2017)
The swing back towards the Workers after the recession of the early 2010s.

The Worker’s party hold the most seats in the Council with the Trads narrowly second (albeit spread across their members). The other big two are the EPP and the Federalists. Three or more of whom are needed to form a government (or two of whom and some of the other members)

The Workers have tried to form an alliance with the EPP and the Federals but disagreement has fallen apart on Green issues between the workers and the EPP and the more traditional Workers and any plans for spreading of power through the regions. Some progress was achieved but then the more conservative elements of the federals disagreed with the social progressives in the workers and EPP. Some agreement has been found between elements of the Federals and the Traditionalists, however the Traditionalists are unsurprisingly some of the most anti-federalists in government.

This has been going on for five hundred days now. It is looking like the Federal Accord might fall apart and a shaky agreement focused on social issues and a constitutional convention may lead to a Workers-EPP-Radical- Albish Progressive-Wessex Together-BEP government. This is more than enough seats for a majority in theory but in practice is has to contend with anti-federalist workers, disgruntled environmentalists and the more hardline regionalists.

In 1772, Prince Aedgar of Glecaster commented

the Kingdom of Angland is an island who hates each other only unified by their love of the most holy throne.

This is perhaps still accurate.
 
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Any questions/comments on the ahove? I know the start of this TL and I have an idea of how i want it to end up but in between is...vague
 
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