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AH Run-downs, summaries and general gubbins

Something from that pair of lists where the Confederacy engaged in enthustiastic rewriting of history. It's kind of the idea that lead to the whole scenario, and was basically my way of rationalising something @Japhy said when we were all doing lists of our political development over time.

Abraham Lincoln

The 16th President of the United States of America, arguably the last of the First Republic, and the first of the Second. Elected in 1860, he presided over the first years of the American Civil, from 1861 until his assassination in 1864. The elevation of his radical Vice President Hannibal Hamlin led to the contentious 1864 Presidential election and the Peace Accord of 1865, that broke the United States in two.

Lincoln has become a symbol after his death, on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line. For Northerners, he became the ideal of a utopian America throttled in its crib, while for the South he is the Marxist Great Satan who subverted the First Republic and with his dying breath spawned the corrupt Second Republic which necessitated their New Revolution in the 1920s.

This symbolism has become more important since then, as the so-called Third Republic, in reality the censored heir of the Confederacy, has entrenched their rule and rewritten the history books. The resistance movement termed the Sons of Liberty are led by an anonymous Cabinet, presided over by a figure known only as Abraham Lincoln, as a propaganda device that strikes terror into the hearts of the sons of Dixie, while stirring the masses of the oppressed North into action.

For as long as the Great Liberator is remembered, as long as we fight for the True United States against the Junta of the Confederacy, Lincoln will never truly die.
 
For as long as the Great Liberator is remembered, as long as we fight for the True United States against the Junta of the Confederacy, Lincoln will never truly die.

Ohio claims they are due a president as they haven’t had one since Taft. Look at the United States, they have not had one since Lincoln.-Will Rogers, 1920
 
São Lourenço (commonly referred to as Saint Lawrence in English) is an island country off the coast of Africa. Uninhabited until its discovery by the Portuguese in 1500, Saint Lawrence was once home to some of the world's most unique wildlife and ecosystems including giant lemurs and elephant birds. However, deforestation and unregulated poaching have led to the extinction of most of Saint Lawrence's endemic species.

As part of the Portuguese Empire, Saint Lawrence emerged as a major sugar producer which together with Brazil allowed the Portuguese to control the world's sugar trade. The vast majority of Lawrencians are descended from the African slaves brought over from Mozambique and the Swahili Coast to labor in the lowland plantations and serve the minority of white Portuguese masters. In the highlands, relations between male Portuguese settlers and freed African women resulted in the creation of numerous mulatto farming communities. And in the ports, numerous Indian, Chinese, Malay, and Arab merchants arrived to ply their trade.

The Portuguese grip on Saint Lawrence was broken as a result of the Napoleonic Wars. Mulatto and white elites declared the independence of their nation from the Portuguese Empire, making Saint Lawrence Africa's first independent republic. Over the course of the 19th century, Saint Lawrence underwent great political instability, as numerous coups and counter-coups betrayed the great divides that continued to exist between whites and mulattos, liberals and conservatives. All the while Saint Lawrence continued to slip into the British sphere as the profits of the sugar industry diminished. In 1879, Saint Lawrence became one of the last nations in the world to abolish slavery under increasing pressure from the international community.

In contrast to the 19th century, the first half of the 20th century was rather stable, with the Americans backing the rule of the kleptocratic colonel Pedro Coelho. He allowed blacks to vote, so long as they voted for him. As a result of his corrupt rule, numerous guerrilla groups formed, and his death sparked a full-on civil war the 1970s-1990s. In the end, the militias ended the war with a peace settlement, agreeing to fight their battles with ballots rather than bullets in order to attract more Western, Indian, and Chinese foreign investment.

Today, Saint Lawrence is recovering from its civil war but remains one of the poorest countries in the world. Most of its inhabitants are rural subsistence farmers, and the majority of national exports comes from foreign-controlled resource extraction. 90% of the nation has been deforested. Despite the attempts by domestic and foreign charities to assist in land mine removal, it remains one of the leading causes of death for young Lawrencians. HIV remains an epidemic on the island, with the Catholic Church continuing to resist attempts to promote contraception. Literacy remains low, especially among blacks, many of whom are educated only in Portuguese instead of their native creole.

Despite all this, the beautiful island nation marches on towards a hopefully brighter future.

Parties

Party of National Salvation (Partido da Salvação Nacional): PSN are the descendants of the far-right black militias that received significant CIA funding during the civil war. Today they brand themselves as liberal conservatives, and officially discourage saluting portraits of the Chefe Supremo in public. Their newest leader, Jose de Souza, has a high approval rating following his deals with the Chinese government to build Saint Lawrence's first railroad since the 1890s as well as a brand new airport in the capital named after himself.

Saint Lawrence National Liberation Front (Frente de Libertação Nacional de São Lourenço): FLNS were the Marxist-Leninist guerrillas who launched a protracted people's war from the jungles against the Coelho regime. Today there isn't much jungle left, and the Frelinistas have changed their camo for suits. Although they are officially a democratic socialist party, the eight years they governed the nation were mostly characterized by the implementation of austerity to help avoid a default on the latest payment of IMF loans.

Communist Party of Saint Lawrence – Marxist-Leninist (Partido Comunista de São Lourenço – Marxista-Leninista): The Maoist guerrillas of CPSLML used to form the New People's Front, which worked alongside the PSN to fight FLNS. Today they get most of their votes from the north, and while they still claim to be Maoists in practice they are mostly just the political machine of Leninho, the parliamentarian nephew of their former mysterious masked leader.

Christian Democratic Party of Saint Lawrence (Partido Democrata Cristão de São Lourenço): The PDC are a predominantly urban highland party of mulatto and white conservatives. In the early years of the democratic period, it was a major party though it is increasingly losing ground to the PNS among its base.

Innovate! (Inovar!): The personal party of Felipe Moreira, the richest man in Saint Lawrence. It advocates for liberalism, free markets, and attracting foreign investment. Its main voter base are the small upper middle class and Moreira's numerous employees.
 
Siberian Federation, August 1994
Major Parties

Communist Party of the Siberian Federation: Party leader Yuri Nozhikov won last month's Presidential election, making Siberia the only one of the post-Soviet states where the Communists have retaken power. Nozhikov has promised to renationalize Siberia's industries and raise the standard of living, which has declined dramatically since the fall of the Soviet Union. However, the party has taken pains to convince foreign observers that they are moderate and won't bring back the Soviet Union.

Siberian Nationalist Party: The main center-right party in Siberia, which was the party of power after the Soviet Union fell. As is typical of parties of power it will probably flounder now that it isn't in charge.

The People's Will: No one is entirely clear on where The People's Will falls on the political spectrum. The party combines the left and the right under the banner of angry populism. As a result the party supports both an expansive welfare state and deporting immigrants.

Party of the Republics: A coalition of various parties that represent Siberia's numerous ethnic minorities. The party's main focus is preserving minority cultures and the autonomy of the republics, as well as ensuring that federal funds are allocated to those areas. The Party of the Republics supported the Communists in the last election, a choice that was controversial amongst members given the Communist's commitment to expanding the power of the state.

Minor Parties

Liberal Democratic Party of Siberia: Anti-Siberian independence and pro-reunification with Russia. This, plus the party's association with the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, means that they can't break 1% in the polls.

Legion of Saint Sergius of Radonezh: Rather worryingly this ultra-Orthodox clerical fascist party managed to win a majority in the Legislative Assembly of the Kamchatka Oblast.

Mikhail Prokhorov Bloc: As the name suggests this is a vanity project for Mikhail Prokhorov, oligarch and one of the owners of Norilsk Nickle. Obviously Prokhorov is opposed to the Communists' plan to renationalize Norilsk Nickle, and has repeatedly compared Yuri Nozhikov to Stalin.

Socialism and Prosperity Party: Ostensibly a social democratic party, in reality this is a sham party created by the last government to siphon votes from the Communists. Since that's failed the party really has nowhere to go.
 
For Want Of One Vote

Conservatives: Cameron's still actually gone and it's hard to think of anything else - he survived Gove's leadership challenge, he's survived the ferocious ERG backbench rebellions, he's survived standing next to Trump, and he even somehow survived having to sack May over Windrush. No wonder he left. Now it's war between Rees-Mogg for the ERG (you're never getting into power, Boris), Amber Rudd for the centre, and a few others who think they count. Where can this go? Based on polls, down.

Labour: Burnham's doing a good job of dominating the discourse, and fair play to him. His constant pressure on the Northern Powerhouse is bleeding the Tories up north dry. Every shiny Nice Thing the Labour metro mayors do is blasted across your Facebook. Everyone acts like Labour's going to win. And he's even stopped people talking too much about the vicious civil war between Burnhamites, disgruntled Cooperites, the hard-left, the Labour Leavers etc that always threatens to explode but is always just stamped down. What happens when they win and actual policy has to be done?

SNP: They have almost every Scottish MP and they have Holyrood and they have a large number of councils. That's good. It's also bad because half their base is asking "so when's the next referendum" and the bulk of Scotland, polls and some council elections are showing, are starting to go off them because they're now the establishment, and they can't easily say "but the Tories" when the Tories are hitting themselves in the teeth. For now, Sturgeon is on top but watch this space.

Liberal Democrats: Dracula Has Risen From The Grave! They should be non-existent but the close thing with the EU referendum, and now the Tory leadership battles, continues to bleed the more liberal and europhile Tories away at council and metro level. Problem remains that Farron himself is on the left-wing of his party and eventually, the right-wing protest voters are going to balk or the growing number of rightie members are going to ask for a new leader. Wuh oh.

UKIP: Carswell doesn't have Farage's, uh, "charm", but he does make for a calmer, more 'reasonable' leader and that's helping bleed off quite a few of the eurosceptic Tories - a policy he, as a proud rat, is driving and if you go "it looks like he's helping push Tory defectors into candidacy above UKIP's old base", yes, yes he is, and it worked this year. He's going to keep the Spirit of '16 alive and never stop being on daytime telly. The great terror is if we get an election, the Tories are a few seats short, and UKIP has just enough free seats. FEAR.
 
The World That Omsk (and Blue) Built
(For context, this is kind of a look-forward from a sort of really weird role-play game we did. First thread. Second thread.)

Omsk: The production of krokodil to keep the drug-addled masses of the Realm of the Red Bird both sated and falling apart are collapsing. The Big Bird himself is angry, and well. Turns out we never saw him angry before, even when he destroyed many places. Oh dear. Oh very much dear

Penguin Empire: The Emperor of the Penguins has died. A tragedy so massive it has brought Blue to weeping and an unofficial peace between nations. The funeral is arranged to be on Pluto early in the new year. Big names are going there. Big. Names.

Promised Land: Eerily quiet. Nobody is scared. Nobody is panicking. Everyone's just going around their business. Odd

Storks: Apparently there's a strike? That's why people aren't getting babies. Releases have tried to assure us it's just "internal negotiations". Maybe it's time for us to look into that old thing we used to have, pregnancy. I hear LBJ has ordered new research into it and why it doesn't happen any more, which has led to Storks warning him that if he continues, there will be no more American babies

Union of Socialist Republics: Victor Berger and Rosa Luxemburg are not speaking to each other. Something about immigration and minorities or something or another. Who knows with those socialists. And Debs is increasingly questioning why the USR relies a lot on Lovecraftian magic. He even said "Cthulhu is the super-bourgeoisie" once. Which got H. P. Lovecraft increasingly angered. Wait, why is Lovecraft part of the USR? Oh, he was a socialist before he died, and that's why he qualifies. Sounds off though

United Nations: Scrambling around to deal with the various global crises that have popped up. They're trying their best to call off the Empire, to calm down a drug-addled birdlike eldritch abomination and get the Storks to stop striking. Wow, we don't appreciate them enough

United States of America: The only genuinely democratic superpower (if you don't count the BlueSphere of course), they're looking at Omsk and worrying a LOT. Former President Nixon might run against LBJ. To be fair to Dick Nixon, he led the country for like, decades. Might bring him back in, he could save all of us [or at least the Americans...] from Omsk's anger as his realm collapses
- Democratic: The "Greater Society" will end poverty in America, and LBJ's "War on Drugs" will end any possibility of the Red Menace from seeping into America. Just give him his fifth term and everything will be fine. Just ask Humphrey. Right, Humphrey? Y-yes...
- Republican: Lyndon Johnson has failed yet again. We need to bring back the Hero of the Omsk War, Richard Nixon! Tenth term! Tenth term! Just ask Zombie Kissinger and the Headless Body of Spiro Agnew, they know who is the best president. And Americans know it too! Arroooo!
- Safirist: Still the third party, but surprisingly popular for a third party. Still thinks Blue's the best, no surprise there, big on allying with Her and all. Still not banned, despite some attempts [turns out a Blue person on the Supreme Court helps wonders]
- Socialist: Still fourth, and still not popular. Turns out when a lot of socialists leave for the USR, not a lot of socialist voters are left
- Omsk: Still banned, still trying to corrupt people and cause havoc in America. The last United States vs. Omsk Party of America went the same as the umpteen ones before it, namely the ban is upheld. The Omsk Party has promised to do another lawsuit. They don't give up do they?

BlueSphere: Apparently it's like, 3000 in the BlueSphere now. Wow, time moves fast there. And New Cyan has like, 500 boroughs now. Wow. That's one big NYC. Anyway, Blue has declared a Day of Mourning for the Penguin Emperor. This day of mourning was... three months ago. She has assured us every single citizen wore black on that day. To be fair, she is every single citizen. Or not. It's complicated

Dual Monarchy: Sacred colour blue, they're very, VERY concerned about both Germany and Omsk. King John-Jean [Jay-Jay to most Anglo-French] has receded into hiding, reportedly panicking about the news. Which does not help confidence much. Rioting has happened in Londrones and many cities in the former Britain while unions have decided to do a "panic strike" in the former France

German Reich: Rommel is dead. The vultures circle. Oh God, can't we have one peaceful time. Everything's happening all at once. Fuck. Anyway, his cabinet is all turning onto each other, claiming that they're the real Fuhrer and that the others are all "traitors to the Aryan race". Wilhelm "Deathshead" Strasse himself is coming forth to claim the position of Fuhrer, which... well, he was the one in charge of studying occult Germanic lore after Heydrich died, so yeah. We're not going to have a pleasant, or at least not supernatural civil war

Holy Empire of Mankind: By the Emperor! Turns out that the Empire has gotten more interested in Omsk and Blue and the fact they're kinda eldritch abominations, and that the reason they've avoided dealing with those for decades now was because of more... "diplomatic" people. Now those people have been "Dealt With" and the forces are coming in to eradicate them. Which has only made Omsk much more agitated. Fuck

India: Turns out the Janata Dal-BJP coalition doesn't want to work with the USR and has withdrawn India's application. I'm shocked! Well, not really. The Hindu gods has overall been calm lately, letting things go normally. Which is good news

Everyone Else: Nothing much seems to be happening, surprisingly enough
 
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Elections On A Small Island: 2003 General Election Aftermath

May 5, 2003

OOC: Note that this is in a slightly different, more realistic universe then the actual Elections On A Small Island one.

That was one heck of a result, wasn't it? Now that they've had the weekend to digest everything, let's see how the parties are reacting:

Major Parties

Socialist Workers: British Ostalgie has peaked! All that hard work during the last decade has finally paid off, and you can see it in their PR materials- red flags and banners everywhere. A Communist Party? (Please don't hurt me) Luckily it looks like they now accept democracy, so no more return to the dark days of Wilson and Roberts-Benn. And besides, they don't even have a majority...

Tory-National Progressive-UKIP "National" coupon: All that talk of possibly merging into a single National Party before the election when Douglas Murray's government was on the ropes appears to be popping up again. They've also congratulated President McCain on "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq, and say that if they somehow make government, they wish to have the UK join him there. Luckily, they didn't win...

Christian Workers: Are making a lot of noise about them providing supply and confidence to the presumptive Socialist Workers government. That will be interesting, the religious propping up a Eurocommunist government...

Progressive: No more Independent Tories, mostly! The last Indy Tory that didn't defect to the Green Regionalists in the aftermath of the election has joined the Progressives. To be honest, it was probably for the better that that coupon broke up because the only thing both of them agreed on was not invading Iraq and protecting against mass surveillance.

Green Regionalists: With all those Indy Tory MPs, they've sure really gained! Apparently want to use their extra influence to push for a "net zero immigration policy" and protecting all the green belts created in the 90s.

Minor Parties

Liberal: With 10 MPs, now approaching major party status thanks to their work on preserving civil liberties in the face of the last government. But even bigger news is that Charles Kennedy wants to take advantage of the provision in the Progressives' charter allow members of other parties to run for their leadership to run and win it, and merge the Liberals into the Progressives to push them towards an even more socially liberal and anti-authoritarian direction. If he succeeds, well, that won't go over well with the Progressives who like social engineering...

Common Wealth Labour: Mo Mowlam did one heck of a campaign despite still recovering from brain cancer. Sadly, she didn't gain any seats, but she's still one heck of a woman...

Conservatives: Maddie Marsden keeps proving that her party has zero audience other then her personal vote. They're probably doomed...

Vote Farron: Wow, they somehow managed to win a seat. I guess Farron the telecoms exec who owns Archangel knows how to really campaign with the youth via SMS, or something...

Accelerate!: I don't think Rick Perry has good instincts on leadership (surprising for a former Silicon Valley executive). If he did, why would he pick Nick Land as his deputy leader?

Who?

New Wellington Wells: Still pushing drugs. No, I don't care how much you say they "expand the human mind"; that's just silly. How many times does the National Constabulary have to come after you to learn your lesson?

Transhumanists: Still smarting over Rick Perry's dedefecting to them and setting up his own Accerlate! Party instead. But what can they do?

Norsefire: Listen, if you're going to be ultra-bigoted, at least do it respectably and join one of the National coupon parties. Wait, scratch that. They would just probably push them more right-wing...

Plaid Cymru: Has set their website to be solely Welsh today as part of a new campaign for the Welsh language.

Scottish National: The Tartan Tories are starting trying to court the Green Regionalist nationalist vote by campaigning for a Scottish Parliament. Maybe you should have tried that, I don't know, during the election campaign?

Four Freedoms: Want any new government formed to hold another referendum on joining the Euro. Like that's ever going to happen...

Mebyon Kernow: The usual blather about Western England stealing all their land.

Socialist Left: Are saying that the Socialist Workers are too socially reactionary. And to be fair, that is true. But no, no Briton wants to legalize human-animal marriage...

Libertarianz: With every new press release I am more and more sure that there name isn't a PR thing, but a real spelling mistake that they never recognized as one.

51st State: Why, God, why?

Continuity Independent Tories: Look mate, you're not going to make any headway against the Green Regionalists. You need to put aside your saltiness and accept the merger.
 
AV Won In 2011

Labour: Still unable to agree on what to do with Brexit after two years. If Corbyn [1] could get more domestic policies in this wouldn't be so bad for him but when he needs backing from the SNP and Lib Dems, well, good luck. 'Corbynmania's' really disappeared from the youth vote with Brexit down the line and rumour has it Article 50 may be "paused" - but that's been rumour since Labour won and the left exploded in joy & dreamed Nice Things would happen for all.

Conservatives: Still outnumber Labour [2] and still able to work with the DUP to vote things down, if Corbyn can't cajole enough MPs to his side - a force to be reckoned with. There are dark whispers that losing in 2017 was the best thing that could've happened as they don't actually have to do Brexit themselves. Still depressed their boundary changes [3] didn't work out as permanent Tory hegemony. They'll probably get past that DUP spat.

SNP: Finally over being slashed from 54 seats to 19 [4] - or at least, they hope you will be. Now they're loudly bigging up how much Labour needs them to pass law, look how impressive we are, please vote for us again in the next Scottish election please don't punish us in the councils like last time.

Lib Dems: AV was meant to help them, y'know. Sarah Olney [5] looks like a deer in the headlights of that one Green Goblin truck from Maximum Overdrive.

DUP: Almost hegemonic when it comes to unionist voters but those two Ulster Unionist seats are irritating them like a thorn in the lion's willy. They're still in a rage about legalisation of same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland, after too many Tories "betrayed" them on the vote; if only there was a National Assembly, eh? Despite all their rage they're still in the Tory-partner cage and may keep abortion from being legalised [6], go them I guess.

SDLP: Without AV, they'd be dead in Commons. They're actually doing amazingly well for their 'size', as they're a reliable two votes for a lot of Corbyn's policies - especially if they're ones for NI that the DUP won't like. Sinn Fein are rumoured to be a bit worried that the SDLP can claim things like marriage reform and Sinn Fein only has "didn't sit anywhere".

UKIP: AV was meant to help them too but they've gone from 0 to 0. Nobody wants them when Brexit's happening and all they've got now is a guy with a racist pug.

Plaid Cymru: AV was meant to help them and all, but they're down to two seats.

Greens: AV was.... sensing a pattern here. [7]


[1] The full impact of AV and what it spawned hasn't yet kicked in by 2015, so it doesn't affect his leadership bid.

[2] A hypothesis done for C4, "what if AV had passed", had the Tories at 303 to Labour's 286. Numbers are slightly different than that due to [3], and not the way the Tories hoped.

[3] Clegg backs them after AV goes through. They hadn't been finished until after 2015, unfortunately for the Tories not an election that'd play to the changes and the Lib Dems had made it harder to monkey things too much.

[4] C4's people said knocked down to 24 seats. It's worse than that due to boundary changes.

[5] AV just about helped her stay in power. Cable's around but nobody wants the old guy as the face of a party that looks half-dead, so he didn't run.

[6] The Tories are grimly whipping everyone to vote the DUP's way. Probably won't work out too well!

[7] In line with the C4 thing - AV doesn't actually help the minor parties and can actually hurt them, when there's an election like 2017's going on.
 
(and similarly)

Britain Voted Single-Transferable Vote In 2011 Look It Just Did Okay?

Conservative-UKIP Coalition: TIMBERRRR! We've had over two years of Boris & Nigel's unholy alliance and people saying maybe the goodie-Tories will split since their coup failed, and finally they actually have! Only twelve MPs are resigning but that's enough for twelve by-elections, possibly reducing the coalition to a minority government and causing new elections. Will that be enough to prevent the upcoming Hard Brexit? I bloody hope so. Will it save our teetering economy? Only if God's listening. Unfortunately whatever primordial death being Nigel worships is listening too and is whispering "now you have more sway in the coalition, talk more about Windrush, hissss"

Labour:
Now here's a thing: the hard left and centre left have been playing All Behind You, Jezza in the face of Boris & Nigel and it helped them dominate the mayoral elections. All conflicts and differences are quietly papered over in the face of a major threat, Momentum takes to the streets for old Blairites. But now they have to decide if they're going to run in the by-elections, whether it's important for Labour to win seats or to ensure the Tories lose those seats, and potentially they're going to be looking at power soon & will actually need to do things. Knives are being sharpened.

SNP:
Labour's comrades in arms in Westminster and boy, are Scottish Labour not happy about that because it means they have to wimp out in Holyrood. An unstoppable force, ready to have a "people's referendum" ala Catalonia at any bloody moment. This is actually bad news for them because a new election and new status quo might mean they have opponents the Scots will vote for again. 'Cybernats' like to assume no opponents will ever surface, because they're idiots ignoring...

National Union Party: Heidi Allen's secessionists also include Ruth Davidson and half the Scottish Tories, who were very fed up with the Westminster regime. If they do well in the by-elections, they'll inherit Scottish conservatives that Scottish conservatives will vote for despite snubbing Scottish Conservatives. The challenge here, of course, is "do well" and while Allen's chums are getting favourable press coverage, are there enough disgruntled conservatives in England and Wales who'll go for their Cameron-lite-with-added-Clarke (and literally too) and risk Labour? Time will tell.

Liberal Democrats:
Have officially stated that they will not run against the NUP. Farron's a liberal of the left (though a few rumours circulate) and Allen is centre-right, so no, this won't be Cam-Clegg II but they are being quite chummy out of mutual hate for B&N and Corbyn. Lib Dems continue to do better than they really should since A50 was triggered and should count themselves lucky they kept half their seats in '15, but, of course, Farron is 'clear' that it's because deep down, everyone's a Lib Dem.

DUP: RUN. They lost seats but it doesn't matter because they've got the exact government they want in Westminster. Luckily, that seems to be hurting them back in Ulster - the muck is rubbing off on them.

UU: Doing fine out of STV in Commons and hoping to make a territorial grab off the DUP at home. Lots of enthusiastic chat about the NUP, talk of 'sister parties' and the like - they better hope the NUP do well in the by-elections or their momentum's trashed too.

SDLP: STV had not been kind to them and right now, their only hope is to point at Commons and go "look how little left-wing Northern Ireland has a voice because we have one seat and Sinn Fein won't sit". Polls suggest that's having an effect, as is the continuing DUP-Sinn Fein war in Stormont.

Sinn Fein: Fuck Commons, it's all Stormont and Dail baby!

Plaid Cymru: Oh yeah, they're still here too. (Not for long, based on council elections - still being tiny in STV has shattered their morale and image)

Greens: And them. Corbyn's Labour has not helped them capitalise on their 300% increase of MPs (ho ho).

Alliance: They still have a seat! Good for them! (Sarcasm aside, they've been seeing a small uptick in interest in NI now they've shown they can actually win under STV in Westminster)

Respect: STV meant Galloway lost but not in a humiliating way, and we'll never be rid of the bastard.
 
(And for the hat trick:)

Yeah We're Doing PR In 2015 Too:

Labour-Lib Dem Coalition: Cooper and Clegg, grimly pretending to be friends as we grimly pretend we're happy with Clegg's there. The coalition is managing to push legislation through and helping keep the EU as a mostly-liberal counterweight against Trump - thank god the Tories' supply-and-control with UKIP collapsed before November 2016 - so we shouldn't complain that much, but Clegg really mars it. The bleed of the further-left voters to the Greens is quietly causing palpitations in Labour. Could all be worse! For a start, the next-election boundary changes might not have been boundary changes Labour was driving!

Conservatives: Fatally wounded by PR and fatally wounded again by buddying up with UKIP. They're down to the dregs of Miliband's Labour and stuck with Stephen Bloody Crabb as leader, Stephen Crabb, and everyone knows he won't last until 2021 and nobody knows who could replace him. Once, this would've been a wet dream for Labour but that was in the once-proud days of FPTP, before....

UKIP: Over ninety seats makes them the third-largest party in Britain and they're acting like they're already the second largest. Farage is on the media more than Crabb. Farage is willing to back Trump and appeal to some dirty views to make his party look dynamic, fighting 'elites', and it's working enough. So far none of the many, many scandals by first-time Kipper MPs and councillors has sunk them. I'd be afraid, guys. Bright side, nobody who used to talk about how PR would create nicer, fluffier governments talks much anymore.

SNP: Currently under severe pressure. PR gave them a huge boost of seats but the absolute state of BoJo's year in power kicked their legs out - more voters want Labour union government and no UKIP than a UKIP union government and the SNP promising maybe one day it'll go away. There's no rallying cause anymore and Sturgeon seems to have given up looking for one, the party going on the defensive for now.

Greens: The scrappy underdog of politics, beset by first-time MPs making gaffes and talking crap, but they're so enthusiastic and bolshie they can get away with it a lot of the time and they're now The Party of Youth (at least the photogenic youth on twitter), The Best Defence Against UKIP (HA). Give them this, they're spending their entire political capital on getting the government to respond to the IPCC report and getting there.

DUP: Between PR and seeing UKIP storm it, the DUP own every union seat bar one since 2016. Foster and Farage love getting matey, almost as much as Foster loves not sitting in Stormont and ineffectually whining that Cooper's forcing policies like "Northern Ireland should have marriage reform and abortion like the rest of the UK and Eire do". You'd think that would hurt the DUP but with UKIP, it's able to claim everything's going to change if you just hang on until 2021 and also Look At Those Dublin-Loving-Jews I Mean Globalist Liberals.

SDLP: Zero seats in 2015, four seats in 2016 - even two years on, they're terrified Sinn Fein will wipe them out again. Every policy seems designed with an eye on how to nobble SF and steal their votes, making them more radical than they used to be. So that's fun.

Plaid Cymru: After a brief flutter of hope in 2015, booted back from 5 to 3 as Labour and UKIP carve up Wales. Sorry guys.

Alliance: They've got one seat in Commons but that's more seats than the Ulster Unionists, and if you're a unionist who doesn't like the DUP they're the only game in town.
 
Parties of the Republic of the State of New York:

QBAMny.png

Major Parties (Both of which split from Hamilton's Whigs)
Bucktails:
The Party of the City Machines keeps chugging along, their firm hold on Executive Plaza and Senate ensure that even without the Assembly they still maintain their ironclad control of the nation's course.

Locofocos: The Party whose platform mostly consists of "Opposing the Bucktails at any opportunity" surprisingly agrees with their opponents on many policies, they just direct their pork more toward small towns instead of cities.

Minor Parties
Working Men's:
The Party of Working Men (and women! they insist, pointing at their two-person Female Caucus) they stand for progressive taxation, worker's rights, and rent control.

Republicans: The Party of Weakening the Executive, they range from people who want to scale back the powers of the Protectorship to people who want to abolish it entirely and enact a True Parliamentary System.

Regional Parties
Upstate Reform:
The Party of Upstate, They advocate for lower taxes, and further autonomy for the Upstate Commonwealths

Green Mountain: The Party for Vermont, they advocate for the [peaceful] separation of Champlain from New York.

Clamdiggers: The Party for the Long Island Sound and Low Taxes, their more radical elements put the "Digger" in Clamdigger.

Banned Movements
Yankee Liberation Front:
The Terrorist Group responsible for a series of attacks along the Connecticut River Valley.

Insular Union of Associated Seamen: This small group of Collectively-owned Fishing flotillas has been accused of "Economic Disruption" and promptly outlawed.

True Noyesian Church: The Oneida Community never really went away, just mutated.
 
ive had a very dumb idea for a vignette but im going to do lists as world building

the POD is in the 1900s, but i cant be arsed going back that far and this scenario is pretty ASB

its very late so ill do party descriptions tomorrow

Political Geography

It's been 25 years since the Worker's Republic of Britain and Kingdom of Great Britain came to an accord helped along by shifts in their own internal politics and in the attitudes of their international sponsors, the United States and the German Empire respectively. Since then, the Commonwealth of Britain has endured some political polarisation between North and South, a situation which shows little sign of stopping any time soon.

'District N' - The Former Worker's Republic

Labour Representation Committee - North Britain's dominant party, a status it has reclaimed since that blip 30 years ago. Thankfully, the coalition of socialists, communists and trade unionists have committed to the accord with the South, something which was in doubt for a long time. They have even welcomed the role that Conciliators have come to play in the Common Elections.

New Democracy - By Southern standards, New Democrats are dreadfully pink. But they are the main party of those of a conservative persuasion and exist somewhere on a continuum between christian democracy and christian socialism. They haven't led a Government for nearly 20 years now, and it doesn't look like that will change an time soon.

Tomorrow Movement - The LRC is a bit of a stodgy organisation of old-fashioned ideologues and industrial interests, and that has got up the backs of many young voters native to the North and minorities. They are still socialists but of a more libertarian bent, and call for forms of liberation that the LRC still find kind of icky.

International Workers' Front - Only have a handful of seats in either the Workers' Congress or the Common Legislature. Not that they care. The IWF are abstentionists, being anarcho-communists who do all they can to turn their constituencies into collectives. With varying levels of success.

'District S' - The Former Kingdom

National-Conservative - The Tories occupy the same position in the South as the LRC does in the North, though to a somewhat less dominating extent. This is partially because Social Credit is mostly competitive in rural areas, but also because they don't tend to do that well in big cities. The Nat-Cons are economically paternalist, with a corpocratic bent which effectively means they are fine with privatising oxygen so long as the Oxygen Industry ends up in the hands of a Good Solid Chap with a well-documented pedigree.

Liberal - Alongside National Democracy, they helped to birth the Commonwealth and they were similarly thanked for this task by being ground into the electoral dust. They are more successful than the New Democrats generally however, in the sense that the big cities are still solidly orange but in effect that means London and its satellites. Good old-fashioned Gladstonians.

Social Credit - Have never really reconciled themselves to the accord and often threaten not to take their seats in the Common Legislature, though they always do. The reason for this of course is that the World Concord British Conciliation Commission is a Jewish plot to steal Good British Babies and infiltrate our society with godless communism.

Forum For Freedom - Conciliation has gone on for long enough, it is time to abolish the Common Legislature. And Parliament, and the Workers' Congress for that matter. The time has come for the British people to take matters into their own hands. As in, with an app.
 
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Democrats: Still have the House but have lost the Senate and a few governors. From now on, things are going to be harder for Obama (so it's really good he got the ACA, marriage reform etc through early) but the plus side for him is the Obama-y-u-no-more-progressive faction took a whack. Even after the dull banality and McDuck spending of the McCain years, most white Americans don't want too progressive-seeming a government when the black guy's running it! Obama will now be hoping the upcoming Trans-Pacific deals go through and have dividends in time for 2020, and also that the Saudi-Yemen deals hold, and and and.

Republicans: Bellowing loudly about the Swing Back To Normality and looking ready to grind things to a halt (including or not including the Trans-Pacs, depending on the Republican). But never mind the actual business of government because six people, going on seven, have more important things to think about, BECOMING CANDIDATES FOR 2020. Kasich really ready to run, using that Swing Back To Normality talk to imply nobody wants to vote the harder right in - Rubio losing should've shown that but it takes a while to sink in - but that's also what McMullin's saying. FIGHT!

Other Parties: Ahahahahaha
 
A World of Sports

The Social Boys:
The once-dominant "Global Friends" stable continue to suffer in match after match, with lingering feuds disrupting tag-team matches and monstering by their opponents. I see where they're going with this but it's starting to drag on, what once was shocking and gripping is now just really depressing. Now the Latin Quarter show with Fantastic Fernado getting thrown through three tables in succession by General Bolsonaro was a show-stopper - literally, when Bols knocked the ref out - but do we really need another heel victor, when they're having to go so extreme to stand out?

What's Left: After all the ceremony of the scrappier underdogs of the Social Boys defecting and recruiting a wave of new wrestlers, I thought this was going somewhere. Instead while they've won a few matches, they mainly either get beaten or show up to heckle or actively chair-and-run the Social Boys' wrestlers. And when they get booed for it, they accuse people of being fans of the Centre of Violence and what's up with that? Unsure if these are faces or heels or what, the promo needs to sort that out. Though the crowd seems divided on whether to cheer or boo its young-stable heckler section, the Canary Novas, who I admit get some funny lines when they disrupt matches but usually get up my nose.

Centre of Violence: Currently suffering from a lack of care and maintenance by the company, so they're technically the other face stable but a lot of their guys are worn out & past-it. A number of them can still pull off the moves but they lack the showmanship; some of the crowds have just been dead, even when the Centre is winning, and Macron has really made a hash of his big title win against Marine Blueshirt. Not that there aren't a few good ones, but What's Left tend to disrupt their matches for that feud angle and it's just really not going down well.

Right Now: Traditionally the big heels of the promo but under the circumstances, a few solid figures like Angela of the North and new Dublin signee Leo had made the de facto switch to face just based on crowd reaction. It's worked for now but I don't think the promo can rely on that, not after the last few matches Angela had - it's just been grim. Also, can they pull the pin on the internal rebellion against the Stable Queen? That's been going on for a goddamn year.

The Alternative: I'll give it to manager Big Vlad and his crew, they are really working the crowd. I thought Don the Don would be it, he'd just flame out as a title-holder, but no, these guys are always doing something nasty that gets the fans on their feet. It's getting real dull seeing them win so often or pull a screwjob inf ights though, and how many champions can the stable pretending to be underdogs hold? Hopefully the last house match is a sign of change.

Additional Note: Can the promo sort out the heating problems in their venues?
 
Republic of The Arabian Peninsula, July 2001
Major Parties

Arab Socialist Party: President Yusuf Bitar has won his 3rd term with 89% of the vote. Even more impressively he got more votes from Riyadh then there are voters, and according to rumors even the dead turned out to vote for him.

Party of Law and Justice: I'm not saying that the Party of Law and Justice is a fake political party. I'm just saying that it's interesting that they told their supporters to vote for President Bitar.

Hizb al-Nour: The only legal Islamist party in Arabia, who are currently campaigning to ban cell phones, which they claim are a distraction from studying the Quran.

Illegal Parties and Paramilitary Groups

Muslim Brotherhood of Arabia: Due to years of government crackdowns it's hard to describe the Muslim Brotherhood as active. Most of its leadership is rotting in prison, and remaining members have been driven underground. Despite this, the government still claims they are a major threat.

Asbat al-Ansar: Have claimed responsibility for a car-bombing in Jeddah that left 8 people dead and 15 wounded. This is the worst terrorist attack on the Arab Peninsula since 1993.

Freedom and Democracy Movement: The party has published another manifesto detailing the government's misdeeds. While Amnesty International and other NGOs appreciate the effort the fact is that most Arabians won't be able to read it or even hear of its existence.
 
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