Richard A. Stewart
TNPer
United Kingdom Foreign Office:
35th Premiership of the United Kingdom
Monarch:HM Queen Constance I
Prince of Wales:HRH Prince Michael
***Prime Minister: Andrew B. Fraser
Deputy Prime Minister: TBA
Home Secretary: Andrew B. Fraser
Minister of Foreign Affairs: Edward Windsor
Minister of Defence: Michael R.E. Stewart
Minister of Culture: Tony Benn
Director of MI5: TBA
Attorney General: Richard North
WA Delegate: HM Queen Constance I
***Chief Justice: William Kudrow
Sr. Associate Justice: Daniel C. A. North
Jr. Associate Justice: Vacant
[c]
39th Session of Parliament
Speaker of the House of Lords
TBA
Lords of Parliament
Sir Andrew Fraser
The Marquess of Oxford
Lord Chris Mikaelson of England and Wales
Lord Klaus Mikaelson of Scotland
Lord Richard North of Northern Ireland
Speaker of the House of Commons
Charles M.S. Fraser
***Majority: No Organized Majority
Loyal Opposition: No Organized Minority
[c] October saw the 4th Constitution of the United Kingdom signed into law. The new constitution is a result of over a month of debating in a Constitutional Convention created by Her Majesty, Queen Constance I, and it was designed to create a new constitution that would increase activity for the United Kingdom whilst catering for the smaller forum population that the region currently has. The Convention was a great success with the Queen signing the new Constitution into law in late October.
The new constitution has brought particularly major reforms to Parliament. Firstly, Parliament has changed from a unicameral structure to a bicameral one. However, the UK is not following the traditional form in which the lower house is elected and the upper house is appointed, as the House of Commons is open to all citizens as a citizens' assembly whilst the House of Lords is a combination of both appointed nobles and elected members. The elected members of the House of Lords are now titled as Lords or Ladies of either England and Wales, Scotland or Ireland.
[img=320,180]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/81998000/jpg/_81998165_81998164.jpg[/img][c] After the implementation of the 4th Sovereign Constitution of the United Kingdom, a General Election was called in which the offices of Prime Minister, Speaker of the House of Commons, Lord of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland were all up for grabs. The election saw Prime Minister Fraser enter 10 Downing Street unopposed as well as Klaus Mikaelson, Richard North and Charles Fraser to the posts of Lord of Scotland, Lord of Northern Ireland and Speaker of the Commons respectively. The Lords seat for the Constituency of England and Wales, however, saw a run off election as both Chris Mikaelson and Edward Windsor ran for the position. In the end, Chris Mikaelson was elected Lord of England and Wales with 58.3% of the votes.
This term has also seen the creation of the Conservative Party, led by Edward Windsor, and the return of the UK Independence Party, led by Nigel Farage. Whilst it is still unsure in regards to whether or not these parties will become one of the 'big players', it has shown a renewed interest in regional politics for the United Kingdom as more and more people are interested in getting involved in the day to day politics and runnings of the region. [c]
Andrew Fraser has been elected as the first Prime Minister under the new Constitution and has already formed his Cabinet. PM Fraser entered office with a campaign for a fresh start and a bright future, and he immediately began to work on ensuring that those goals are met. The Prime Minister appointed Tony Benn, a veteran of the UK, to the position of Culture Secretary, Edward Windsor, a new face to the political field, as Foreign Secretary and Michael R.E. Stewart, the previous Prime Minister, as Defence Secretary whilst Richard Steward maintained his position as Attorney General.
The Cabinet has already begun work with the Ministry of Defence laying out plans for the future of Her Majesty's Armed Forces, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office creating the new update and beginning a foreign tour and the Ministry of Culture preparing for the 10th anniversary of the United Kingdom!Statement from the Prime Minister:
[c] After the appointment of Edward Windsor to the office of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, the Foreign Secretary immediately called an Ambassadorial Roll Call and also announced his intentions to undertake a Foreign tour in which he would visit a large proportion of the UK's embassies and consulates. The Foreign Secretary has stated that he hopes, by conducting this tour, he will show other regions that the UK is still committed to her allies and friends and that we wish to continue our ongoing friendship and build upon our ties with other regions. The Foreign Secretary also stated that he will be "using this tour as a means to build new relationships as I will also be going to regions where we currently do not have any diplomatic relations."
Secretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Edward Windsor, meets foreign leaders and diplomats during the Foreign Tour.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is also developing plans to ensure that more updates are distributed regularly to ensure that our foreign friends are constantly up to date about the events occuring in the UK. Plans involving the BBC, Ministry of Culture and Univeristy are currently being discussed.
1. Welcome, your Highness and thank you for taking part in this interview. I hope you are well?
Thank you for being interested in interviewing me! As for your question: I'm feeling fine at the moment.
2. What brought you to the UK?
My NS-husband of almost five years, Edward IX, was the Prince of Wales back in 2011 during the reign of Elizabeth III and I wasn't even a member of the forum. So, I felt obligated to join the region given his role and our NS relationship; however, I may have came here during the reign of Alexander I in one of those well known but slightly looked down upon moves wherein people request for you to join a region in order to vote for a candidate as a favour; although, this is something I vaguely remember, and most of it is probably fictitious at this point given how memory works.
3. What has appealed to you the most here?
Well, there are a few elements that has appealed to me, that is namely: the various individuals that have come and gone – and some that remain; the discussions I've had and read within the region ranging from the diverse groups within early Christianity to the current situation in Syria; and the legal system which I've found to be one of the best I've ever experienced and seen on NS and I've been a member of the judiciary in a GCR – as hilarious as that may sound.
4. What hasn't appealed to you?
How slow the government can be to fundamentally reform itself of which I think is partially a virtue gone awry. Along with how serious the UK takes itself sometimes.
5. How much would you say the regional community has changed?
These kind of questions are always hard for me to properly articulate. Prima facie, the common understanding of that Heraclitus aphorism comes to mind: you can't cross the same river twice. Basically, it is an issue of trying to get down to what is meant by, "change." There are some beats and rhythms that are the same, and there are some that are different; however, something that comes to mind right now is that things aren't as silly as they were from time to time with Mekhet being gone.
6. How much would you say the political field has changed?
This question is in a similar boat as the aforementioned one. I think party politics plays less of a factor now than it did in the past, but the system of politics has also altered given the different legislature structure established by the newest constitution. So, we have to wait and see how things will play out since I think it is too early to really come to any serious conclusion. Plus, I've never been that active within the political scene of the United Kingdom as I have been in other regions – so I'd take my comments within this area with a grain of salt.
7. What are your opinions about the 4th Constitution (in particular the open house of commons)?
I don't think I've done enough of a serious exegesis of the text to make a definite comment on it; however, overall I'm satisfied with it, and I'm a big supporter of really democratic institutions with proper restraints through robust individual rights; although, I think that the House of Lords' rules of procedure should factor in votes made by the Lords within the Commons in order to streamline the process if I'm understanding the Constitution correctly; and, I'm curious how much the overall mechanism's result will be overall since we've enacted four effective veto players in concert with our disposition of slow and gradual reform.
8. Do you think the region's political structure is a stable platform for the region to grow from?
Definitely, but I don't think that this is something we've come upon by sheer luck and/or reason; rather, I think even if we enacted a poorly thought out system that changes all the time that we could still experience growth if we focused mostly on recruiting; for, there are examples of this within NS; however, growth per se isn't what is “hard” about region building; rather, it is maintaining said growth and/or new status quo for extend periods of time that is the difficult task. NS has a colourful history of regions that died as quickly as they grew – even as said regions went upwards towards the 1,000+/- nations range.
9. With the region's 10th anniversary coming up, what would you say have been the top highlights of your time here in the UK?
I'm a bit a goofball, so events that come to mind are April Fools' Day pranks, and other regional cultural events.
10. What are your thoughts about the UK's future?
Optimistic. To be a bit extreme to make a point: I think even if the United Kingdom were to fall completely inactive right now and declared dead by all its current members, that there could always be a rebound that would be more active and larger than it is now.
11. Thank you for taking part in this interview, your Highness.
Thank you!
This update was brought to you by the
~ Ministry of Foreign Affairs ~
on behalf of Her Majesty, Her Government and Her Citizens.
Respectfully, British Diplomatic Service
