The George Astor premiership has seen fewer cabinet changes than the premierships of many of his predecessors. However, two changes have occurred in the past week. After the resignations of Edwin Astor as Deputy Prime Minister and Klaus Mikaelson as Foreign Secretary, the Prime Minister immediately went in search of replacements. After reviewing several applications for each position, he decided on Bill Dearheart, a long time member of the region who has served many terms in Parliament as Deputy Prime Minister, and decided on Vaculatestar Telsontair, an NGE diplomat and fairly new member of the region, as Foreign Secretary.
For the past week, His Reverend Grace The Archbishop of Canterbury has been considering a Catholic offer of re-unification. Such a merger of the two Christian churches would be a significant, historical change to Christianity, since Britain has not been in union with the Papacy since the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in 1558.
The offer to merge was made last week by VRCC Prelature Pope Luke. However, the idea has not received a warm welcome from Anglicans. King Edward IX supported neither the Anglican nor the Catholic arguments. Instead, he opened a conference to have both churches discuss ways that they could unite, or at least become closer. At the conference, both sides have been presenting various theological views to help settle the disagreements between them. We are eagerly waiting to see what happens.
Parliament
A by-election for the Northern Ireland seat went through several tie-breakers, and ultimately came to Parliament for a final decision; with votes cast 3-2 in favor of Edwin de Clare, Speaker Klaus Mikaelson surprised everyone by voting for Andrew Callaway twice: once as MP, and again as Speaker to break the tie he created. When the issue of double voting was taken to Court as a legal question, the Justices ruled in favor of Speaker Mikaelson. Now, a week later, there is still unease about the vote. Several people have presented proposals to end the Speaker's double-voting power.
The Election Reform Act Amendment VII was recently passed in response to the case de Clare v. HM Government, in which the Justices overturned part of Section (15) of the Elections Reform Act, ruling that it infringed on the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. In a rather unusual ruling, Judge Silver Steps and Justice Jacob M. Stewart agreed to overturn part of Section (15) for completely different reasons; Chief Justice St. James concurred with most of the majority opinion written by Judge Steps, though she did not agree with the verdict.
In other Parliamentary news, the Citizenship Reform Act, written by Silver Steps and Constance St.James, was brought to the floor and swiftly passed. Criminal Code Act Amendment VIII was also passed, and Parliament is now considering entering UK into the C.O.P.S treaty.
This update was brought to you by the
~
Ministry of Foreign Affairs~
on behalf of His Majesty, His government and His citizens.
Respectfully, British Diplomatic Service
