NationStates Jolt Archive

Swadlincote, Midlonia, Parliamentary chamber.

“Here is be known that at a vote of 234 – 20 there is a vote of no confidence in the Labour government.” The speaker in his long black robes droned on. “As laid out in Midlonian law an election shall be called immediately.”

The chamber was packed with various men in suits, most of which were middle-aged, some sat on benches, some sat on the floor, some stood in the entryway, the entire Midlonian Parliament had turned out to take the vote of confidence. After the Kingdom has left the FKC the massive economic downturn from the drop in trading partners had resulted in millions of people loosing their jobs, the current cabinet had merely sat on their hands. After increasing flammetory remarks from the opposing parties a vote of confidence was called for. It had resulted in the Labour government being thrown out of power.

A couple of men drifted away as soon as the vote had finished. They began to walk down the long sandstone corridor past the busts of former Prime ministers.
The taller of the two men creased his brow and ran his fingers through his silvering hair.
The other, who was shorter and bald merely clapped his hands in glee and grinned.
“Now is our time Thomas, now is our time.” Chortled the bald man as he clapped his hands again.
“We’ll have to work hard at it if we’re to win.”
“Yes yes Tom, it’s down either us or those bastardly communists, and as far as I was aware, people liked to not starve every damn winter.”
The taller man called Thomas Frith nodded and grabbed a PDA from his pocket, it was beeping. He clicked a couple of the buttons and then read the message.
”Apparently there is a communist meeting on tonight, they’re deciding on what their platform will be.” He raised an eyebrow. “Harris is suggesting we use the Peace guard to, ahem, wreck their platform.”

The two men now began to descend the large marble steps down from the Parliament building, a large old fashioned looking luxury car had pulled up at the foot of the steps sporting a small flag bearing an iron cross. The driver, dressed in grey, leapt out of the open front and held open the door to the vehicle. The two men nodded their gratitude to the driver as they clambered aboard and as soon as the door was shut, they were away.

”The Peace Guard will be used to, ahem, disrupt that communist meeting, is that understood Thomas? Message Mr Nigel Willis immediately and tell him that will you?”
“Yes Ben.” The older man replied and immediately began to reach for his messenger.

Benjamin Musotana, leader of the Midlonian Nationalist Consortium Party nodded and smiled, and reached for a drink from the mini-bar in the back of the old-fashioned Luxury car.

Later that night

“So comrades! To business!” yelled a man in a red suit as he hammered a wooden hammer on a gavel. The chatter and cheering inside the old pub died down.
“In just a few short weeks we face the new election, it was recently shown that we were the most popular party at present, we must work on this and begin our assertion of power! We shall be prepared to take the reigns of this country that we love that has been under the hand of the capitalist for too long! I propose that we-” the end of the sentence was never completed as he was hit in the face with a bottle of Bass beer. He cried out in pain and ducked behind the podium as a chair followed soon after.
The people in the crowd turned around in their chairs to see around a dozen men wearing gas-masks and old army helmets staring back, each carried a rather nasty looking shock-baton and wore grey military fatigues.
They immediately began to turn over chairs and tables, hitting cowering Communist party members, one went over to the man in the red suit and beat him until he was unconscious. After just a few minutes of this brutal attack the “peace guard” disappeared into the night mist, just as Civil protection managed to get its act together and arrive. The unrest caused by what had recently been going on had pushed the mighty Civil Protection service to its very limit. The massive food riot in the outskirts of Swadlincote had chewed up a lot of Civil Protection resources as such the city was left improperly policed.
The protection teams gave medical aid to the various wounded communist members, then ordered them to disperse, their concentration had obviously provoked “civil unrest” in the eyes of the law, and as such the meeting was ruined.

OOC: just a first post to get the ball rolling, basically this is the start of the trek to Fascism in Midlonia :p

'...and who then shall save us?' Yelled Benjamin as spat flew from his mouth.
'The Communists with their seedy dealings with countries like Dyelli Beybi? The Liberals, with their dealings and loosening of drug laws? Or the Religious bigots who run the churches promising salvation from God? To these I say NO! NO! NO!' There was a cry of "no" from the crowd in the hall.

Benjamin was standing behind a podium with an Iron Cross on it. And behind that was a large flag.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v160/Midlonia/NewMidlonianflag.png

He carried on.
'And who shall save Midlonia from her years of ruin at the hands of the Socialist-minded Labour Party?'
'M.N.C! M.N.C!' cried the crowd.
'The Midlonian Nationalist Consortium is the only party that is prepared to act on it's promises. We will get you jobs, food and housing! We can re-build and reforge the nation that we are proud of, us as Midlonians should be proud of what we are, our culture, our heritage and we must preserve these while looking towards the future! We shall rebuild! We shall advance! We shall become stronger! Where-ever we go we shall dominate and be an example to all! We are Midlonians!' He threw his arms up into the air and the crowd of people burst into cheering and a standing ovation, Benjamin bowed a few times, then stepped down from the podium.
Behind the thick curtain to the side of the stage he took the towel offered to him.

'How are we in the polls?' he asked as he mopped his brow.
'We're now at around 35% popularity, we need to get around 55% of the vote in order to carry out what we want to do, that's the problem of the fucking system, too damn hard to crack.' Tom muttered quietly.
Benjamin sighed 'Then we keep trying, yes? We should force out some of the competition, or...' he paused and thought for a moment. 'I need to think that through, just get me back to my Hotel room.'
'Yes sir, the car is out back.' Tom motioned and Benjamin followed.

NBC Nightly News
New York City, North America, Tiburon
AUG 30 NCE 214
1213 GMT

http://www.urbanchallenge.com/aa/3press/nbcnews.jpg

"...we turn now to the Midlands, where the Midlonian Parliament successfully held a vote of no confidence against the Labor government. New elections are to be held in a few weeks time. Political parties in Midlonia are campaigning relentlessly for the hearts and minds- and votes- of Midlonians, with varying success. The Labor Party, traditionally strong, is coming extremely weak after the vote. The Socialist Party is an interesting case- during a rally last night, a group of unknown people wrecked the party, with police still investigating. However, their effectiveness is limited, since they have been facing a great deal of work these past weeks, especially with the Swadlincote Food Riot. Of particular note in the elections is the rise of the Midlonian Nationalist Consortium. During a rally last night, NBC News had obtained special footage, which we will display later in the program. Neither the Midlonian government, nor the Midlonian embassy, nor the Tiburonese government could be reached for comment. The State Department, in a related note, did elevate the travel threat warning to Midlonia from "none" to "low", although it did not mention any change in official policy to this Tiburonese ally. We turn live now to Dave Holbry in Midlonia. Dave?"

NRANews
New Port-Allanea, Greater Prussia, Allanea
SEP 30 NCE 214

http://www.nranews.com/nralogo.jpg

"Good morning, Allanea! Today, we're talking about Midlonia. Today, the Midlonian Parliament has finally deposed the socialist Labor government. Soon, the Midlonians are scheduled to have new elections, and political campaigning is already in full swing. While those elections may be in fact a downfall for the political Left of Midlonia, we are not yet sure this is necessarily a good thing - the opposition includes not only a Midlonial Liberal Party, but also a variety of non-liberty-supporting groups, among whom the most powerful is the Midlonian Nationalist Consortium. While not necessarily fascist - the Consortium is mostly supportive of the right to bear arms, for example - it is regardless a cause for concern for our experts. Of interest is the reaction of the Libertarian candidae for President, Lionel Roberts (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=441919), to the events. He has come out in full support of the Midlonian Liberal party, urging them to, and I quote, "Go out in full force, win this one, and repeal every gun law and drug law still blighting the fair Midlonian land." The President of the National Rifle Association of Allanea, Jordache McInton, has not been available for comment. We would also like to point out that NRAnews is the first Allanean broadcast station to report on those events as they unfold."

* * * *

Same time, in the Midlonian Capital

Pidor Rabinovich was maybe 17 years old, and was the youngest overseas reporter NRANews had. Regardless of his youth, he was not nervous - rather annoyed at the Midlonian Ministry of Public Firearms for the downright humliating procedures he had had to undergo to get his license - Screw that! I actually had to get a f**ing license! Barbarous! - but definitely not nervous, despite the fact it was his first overseas mission. He adjusted his Teen Dream pistol (dark-blue jeans toned) on his hip, turned on his camera, and walked down Kilwarby Street. He still had two hours before the MNC meeting he wanted to cover. Might as well take some pics of the city while I'm at it.

New Montreal Presse-Journal Devoir

MIDLONIA ADDS TO REGIONAL MELANGE

Elections in country seem to indicate end of centrist government; will fascism or communism prevail?

MIDLONIA - As if intra-regional war between Intelligent Neighbors and a coalition of ourselves, Independent Hitmen and SaVX wasn't enough, a political crisis has erupted in fellow Midlands member Midlonia.

The Labour party, recent in government until dissolved by an overwhelming vote of no confidence, seems to be on it's way to a long stint in the opposition. The main parties contesting the election seem to be the Communist Party, and the far right Nationalist Consortium, with the libertarian Liberal party in third place and seemingly out of contention for the moment.

A Communist rally was broken up last night by unknown assailants, police seem to have no leads as to who or what group ordered the attack. The NMS government has expressed "hope that this political affair can be solved peacefully, without repercussions on the regional or international stage. Frankly, we're already in shit up to our eyeballs, and we don't need a muffed election next door to add to our problems." The spokesman announced hopes that the "generally positive trade and diplomatic relations enjoyed by our countries will continue during and after these elections."

25, Kilwarby House, Kilwarby Street, Swadlincote
Benjamin was doing up his tie and looking at himself in the mirror when there was a rapping on the door.
“mn’yes?”
”It’s me Ben, it’s Tom.”
”Come on in then.”
The door rattled slightly as it opened, Thomas was standing there in his suit, his glasses perched on the very edge of his bulbous nose.
”What can I do you for?”
”Couple of things, first you need to hurry up, it’s about to start, and second, we just gained the lead in the polls, voting is just two days away, and well, it looks like we’re going to landslide it.”
Ben stopped doing up his tie and stared into the mirror, looking right into his own eyes.
”Ben? What do you think Ben?”
Ben snapped out of the gaze and looked at Thomas. “I think we have it in the bag…” he beamed.

They walked steadily down the corridor, members of the press already clamoring around them for that little scoop; the reply to each bombarded question was a simple “Wait for the conference.” They reached the large pair of Oak doors, and with a quiet nod to two men in shirts, the doors were flung open.

The Camera’s flickered and clattered and banged as Benjamin walked slowly through the crowd towards the podium.
’I just received the tremendous news that the N.C.P has just gained the lead in the polls; words cannot truly convey how I feel right now. Now, I believe that this is supposed to be a press conference, and I shall take your questions after I have spoken for a few minutes….” He coughed and took a sip out of a glass of icy spring water that stood on the clear-glass podium, and with a contented sigh he looked up.
”Midlonians, my dear fellow countrymen, our nation and our peoples stand at a crossroads, our nation and our peoples stand at the brink of crisis. Our nation and peoples, the proud Midlonians. The reason why we stand at these crossroads is because we allowed a government that hoisted their responsibility off on people who had nothing to do with the problems we face today. You people are sick of this, and I am sick of it too.” He sighed and took another sip of water. “You have chosen for the strongest party, the party that makes promises it can keep. The Midlonian Nationalist Consortium Party will not fail you. I promise you within 6 months, everyone will be able to get a decent meal.” A few of the Party members clapped at the back of the hall. Ben merely nodded.
“Now, I believe this was meant to be a round of 20 questions about the party in general… any takers?”

The Allanean sent forward a hand armed with a small MP3 recorder, smiling politely to the NCP politician. “Excuse me, Sir!” – he asked, his voice carrying above the din made by the other reporters – “Can you please tell us what the opinion of the Nationalist Consortium is of Midlonian-Allanean relations? If you win the elections, will you push for better relations with the Confederacy?”

Press room

"The NCP is mainly concerned with getting Midlonia back on its feet, we'll acheive it by any means necessary and ensure that, at the moment foreign relations with the confederacy will remain as they currently are. Recognition of the people, but not presently of the state."

Benjamin answered more questions from various cameramen for around half an hour, he then bowed respectfully to the journalists and left, mopping his sodden brow with a hankerchief.


48 hours later

Four men stood on the stage infront of the houses of parliament. Benjamin stood in the middle. He had never felt so nervous in his life, the sweat was running from the top of his head right down past his eyes and collected on his nose.

An elderly gentleman walked over to the podium with a golden envelope.
"I.. have the results, for the general elections, hrm." he opens the envelope and takes out a small card.
"With, 2 million 500 votes, Labour party. With 500 million votes, the Communist party. with 1.4 Billion votes.. Nationalist Consortium Party. NCP wins the general election."
A massive cheer burst from the crowd, the bell of Big Tom, a massive peice of iron boomed across the city. Benjamin simply grinned like an idiot and took the place of the old gentleman. he then began to make his first every speech as the Prime Minister of the Greater Kingdom.

Port-Allanea, Office of the Secretary of State

“They said what?!” – blinked the Secretary, throwing his long, greying hair back as he spoke. As was in the fashion of the people currently called New Allaneans, he was wearing an impeccable three-piece suit – complete with a black tie. He was the only man in the room who did so.

The Undersecretary for Midlands Affairs nodded – “That, as is the current government’s position, they will continue to refuse ot deal with the Confederate Government. We checked with the Midlonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This indeed appears to be the case, Mr. Kammerer.”

The Secretary of State blinked again, harder, as if hoping the mohawk-haired youth in front of him would be made to disappear by the effort. “So let me get this straight. So far, Tarasovka, Knootoss, the Commonwealth and Midlonia outright refuse to have anything to do with our officials. With the exception of Knootoss, none of those cases are related to Tarasovka’s decision. Is that correct, Mr. Bates?”

Ike Bates passed his hand through his luxurious green-pink mane, then said shily. “Yes, Mr. Kammerer. This is indeed the case.”

“And not only do they refuse to deal with us, but this department is so run-down we have to find out about the Midlonian decision on the bloody f*cking news instead… does this not strike you as weird in the slightest?”

“Ehm, Sir…”

“Nevermind. I know the idiots that were in charge of this country until recently don’t care about diplomacy. But I do, and by God, I intend to set things right!”

Ten days later, a message was sent to the Midlonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the following language:

It has come to my attention that the Allanean Confederacy, (officially, the CSA), is blacklisted by Midlonia to the point you no longer recognise the validity of the current government. We would like to know the reason for this decision and what steps the Confederacy could take to fix relations with Midlonia.

In a more tangible result of that interview, several people were sent by the Secretary to Midlonia itself. They had little in common with each other, except one thing: none of them looked or dressed like a typical Allanean. Ties, suits, briefcases were the order of the day. Their mission was simple – to talk with representatives of the different political parties (of course, all the talks would be unofficial in nature) – and to ask them one question: was their party ready to change the Midlonian attitude to Confederate government, if elected?

Of course, nobody was rude enough to offer campaign contributions – but it was hinted that “your nation will benefit from this as much, or more, than mine.” Whether that was true, of course, remained to be seen.

[OOC: Nobody knows that RISE exists, nor why they exist, or what they've done. Just... to be sure. Of course, when I say 'nobody', I mean nobody but (to varying extents for each) Menelmacar - or at least, MISSION - and the Federation of Sentient Peoples.

IDFI - Imperial Defence Force Intelligence - however, is another matter. Nobody cares who knows about them. But they're generally considered to be a simple intel-gathering force - it's not widely known that the bulk of their staff are sociologists.]

IC:

RISE Secondary First Office/IDFI Undercommand Central Office, Commonality Armed Forces High Command Citadel, somewhere beneath Iluvauromen

Operator Ilix yawned expressively, waving his donut slightly in the air - well, more wagging it. A shake of his head. "No, no, no. They're not going to. Look, social inertia is obviously not the key issue here. Nobody's denying regression to prior state is probably nigh-on inevitable. But in the short term? Nah. You're mad."

Aren laughed, shaking her head. "Quite, probably. But look, see this red curve?"

A slender finger indicated the sweep of symbology that was coloured red. "Yep," Ilix replied, softly. Peering.

"See this here?"

A blue swirl was tightly wound around one section of the mathematical expression.

"Sure," Ilix answered, sounding uncertain.

"That's a potential terminus, is it not?" Aren sounded triumphant. And Ilix couldn't blame her. She had a point.

"Sure, but that doesn't mean..."

"Look, social inertia is obvious until we hit this part here," tap with the finger, distorting the trimensional image slightly, "and then we find that we can't really see past it. It's a terminus. Bao would agree, I know it."

A shrug from the male. "Sure, but Bao's a mathematician. Not a sociologist. - Look, we've only seen this particular permutation in the math several times before. There's no way of accurately predicting another. - Here, you see this?"

A brief dash of green, up and behind the other equations. "That's not relevant," began Aren, but Ilix waved her down.

"Of course it is! Look, it's a social focal point. See the specific point where the resolution potential versus social inertia value rises beyond the mean? Well, there's your answer. That can't be a terminus, because there's never an obvious resolution to the predetermining crises. They're unresolved, always. Remember the Revolution. That was a terminus, because it was engineered to be unresolvable except by us, right?"

She nods, slowly, frowning faintly. "And you're saying that that's not what this is."

"No," he agreed. "It's not. Look, what do the intercepts indicate?"

"That's obvious," Aren answered, "since we've been viewing them the last ten hours per day for a week. Look, everything about this screams terminus. We've only observed three in the past - we being the Guild. And all three were failures. We don't even know if the Other Side exists. It could be pure speculation. Surely we have to advise intervention! If it is a terminal point, then we might be looking at regional destabilisation. That's," she paused, grinning for a moment, despite the gravity of her words, "what my studies show, anyway. Midlonia suffers several inherant instabilities, like all nationstates, but it's particular instabilities make it increasingly labile when the political spectrum narrows to the right. You see that?"

He tapped at his console, peering at a scroll of figures. "Yeah," he murmured.

"So we have to suggest something, right?"

"Yeah," he grumbled. "I guess we do. - But what?"

"OODA," Aren sighed, grimly.

* * *

High above the Earth, some seven (7) ICEL cislunar drones - classified as civilian/military combined observation/media platforms, according to international records - perform careful adjustment of position, realigning into a careful umbrella permanently focused on Midlonia. There is no obvious increase in activity as far as active scanning goes - no actual emissions beyond normal comms traffic, in fact. Elsewhere, dozens of ICEL satelites perform repositioning maneuvers, ensuring constant line of sight with several dozen others, and maintaining the much-vaunted 9x% observational capacity that IDFI and the Commonality's other intelligence organisations depend on.

However, a small iris hatch wheels open, extending a slender tube of apparatus. Inside, mercury is formed by electromagnetic means into a perfect lens, focusing light onto digital imaging equipment. Comms traffic from the satelite increases marginally, almost imperceptibly, a miniscule increase in the total bandwidth used by the satelite.

The Commonality watches, silently.

Swadlincote, steps at the front of Parliament.

Benjamin Musotana coughed a little and smiled broadly, he mopped his brow a little and chuckled as he stood at the podium.
“Sorry, I was nervous we were’nt going to win.” He laughed and the crowd chuckled a little, his voice echos althroughout the speech, his arms move fludily as he speaks.

“Friends! Midlonians! Countrymen! Lend me your ears!
I have just accepted His Majesty the King's kind offer to form a new administration and government for the country.
Labour’s dignity and courage over the last few days and the manner of it’s leaving, is the mark of the party. I am pleased that we replace them.
As I stand here, at the steps of power, I know all too well the huge responsibility that is upon me and the great trust that the British people have placed in me.

I know well what this country has voted for today. It is a mandate for the National Consortium Party and I say to the people of this country -- we ran for office as the National Consortium Party, we will govern as National Consortium Party.

This is not a mandate for dogma or for doctrine, or for a return to the past, but it was a mandate to get those things done in our country that desperately need doing for the future.

And this government will govern in the interests of all our people -- the whole of this nation. That I can promise you. When I became leader of the National Consortium Party some three years ago I set a series of objectives. By and large I believe we have achieved them. Today we have set objectives for new Labour Government - a world class education system. Education is not the privilege of the few but the right of the many.

A National Consortium Party Government that remembers that it was a previous Right Win Government that formed and fashioned this Greater Kingdom. It was our proudest creation. It shall be our job and our duty now to modernize it for a modern world, and that we will do.

We will work in partnership with business to create the dynamic economy, the competitive economy of the future. The one that can meet the challenges of an entirely new age.

And it will be a government that seeks to restore trust in politics in this country. That cleans it up, that decentralizes it, that gives people hope once again that politics is and always should be about the service of the public. And it shall be a government; too, that gives this country strength and confidence in leadership both at home and abroad, particularly in respect of the region.

It shall be a government rooted in strong values, the values of justice and progress and community, the values that have guided me all my political life. But a government ready with the courage to embrace the new ideas necessary to make those values live again for today's world -- a government of practical measures in pursuit of noble causes. That is our objective for the people of Midlonia.

Above all, we have secured a mandate to bring this nation together, to unite us -- one Midlonia, one nation in which our ambition for ourselves is matched by our sense of compassion and decency and duty towards other people. Simple values, but the right ones.

For 14 years -- for 14 long years -- my party has been in opposition. It could only say, it could not do. Today we are charged with the deep responsibility of government. Today, enough of talking -- it is time now to do. Now it is time for action, now it is time for Midlonia to hold her head up high, to become a proud and influential nation in the world.”