I'm making this thread to post the news articles that I did not end up using. If this were a film, consider this thread a blooper reel and deleted scenes. Besides, I already have nearly 60 saved drafts with one dating back to 2016.

4× Cabinet minister /// 1× OWL director /// CRS member /// SPSF

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(This post was last modified: 07-07-2019, 01:58 AM by Jay Coop.)

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Reminder: This is out-of-character and not canon. When one of the blocs manages to form a new government, I will post the alternative result. (In 2018, I initially planned a different result for the election.)

Green Party leaves Alliance of Social Democrats
By Allie Vega, KTN News
Thursday, 21 June 2018
 

Stockholm (KTN) — The Valkyrian government is in crisis after the Leader of the Green Party announced his party's departure from the governing Alliance of Social Democrats. From the press hall of Capitol Valkyria, Green Party leader Dominic McKinney said the Alliance of Social Democrats, particularly the leadership of the Labor Party, "have been giving the Green Party the short end of the stick every step of the way...and doing things behind the party's back". As examples, McKinney cited the sacking of Vice Chancellor Elena Reese after the June 2017 parliamentary election and the establishment of an aerospace force as an independent branch of the Valkyrian Defence Forces earlier this month. By name, the Green Party leader blamed Chancellor Margaret Harrison and Labor Party leader Avianna Aldridge for what he called "legislative blocks" on the Green Party.

 

The Green Party controls 28 seats in the National Assembly. Without the support of the Green Party and one defection from the Labor Party, the governing Alliance of Social Democrats are now a four-party alliance without a majority in Parliament, controlling only 268 of the 591 seats of the National Assembly. The governing alliance controls only 45.3 per cent of the chamber rather than a majority. The New Right, which is the main opposition party in Parliament, controls 146 seats in the National Assembly, which is 24.7 per cent of the chamber. The United Conservative Alliance, led by Cutter and Jonathan Victor, controls 129 seats in the National Assembly, which is 21.8 per cent of the chamber. If The New Right and the United Conservative Alliance agreed to form a coalition, such a three-party alliance would control 275 seats, outnumbering the 268 seats that the Alliance of Social Democrats controls.

 

McKinney apparently made the announcement without giving the Alliance of Social Democrats advanced notice, which led to an impromptu meeting between leaders of the Alliance of Social Democrats in Harrison's office at Executive Valkyria. The meeting lasted roughly ninety minutes as the leaders of the Labor Party, Populists of the Left, Socialist Party, and Liberal Party discussed what their next course of action would be. After the conclusion of the meeting, Harrison made a public statement with the alliance's leaders standing by her side. In her statement, Harrison said that the leaders of the Alliance of Social Democrats agreed to "stand by" the agreement that was made between the parties after the June 2017 parliamentary election and would "continue to function as the government of Valkyria until the next elections".

 

Reaction on social media to McKinney's announcement was swift with various political commentators offering differing views on the matter. Matthew Duncan, a former top aide to Avianna Aldridge, called McKinney "a fucking Judas" in a post on Scribo and said his rationale for leaving the Alliance of Social Democrats was "complete and utter bullshit". Elena Reese's former policy director Natalie Becker gave a brief statement, "It's about time." Ivan Pratt, a political commentator supportive of Nicole Chancellor, wrote that "it's time for a snap election." Malcolm Mendoza, who worked as a top aide to both Victor Cutter and Jonathan Victor, said, "McKinney stands to lose more from this decision than the ASD does. He made a bad choice that could punish his party in next year's election."

The next parliamentary election is scheduled to occur in June 2019 and the recent passage of Referendum 1 means that standard parliamentary terms will be reduced from six years to three years, which means the succeeding parliamentary election would occur in 2022 instead of 2025. Before Referendum Day 2018, Harrison was guaranteed to be the Chancellor of Valkyria until an election in 2022, but 2018's Referendum 1 returned the chancellery to Parliament only one year after it was granted independence in 2017's Referendum 1. With this change, Harrison will have to seek reelection in June 2019. Once a certainty, Harrison's retention of the chancellery has been brought into question because of 2018's Referendum 1 and the Green Party's exit from the Alliance of Social Democrats.

Even though the conservative opposition is fractured between The New Right and the United Conservative Alliance, a hypothetical coalition between the two groups could topple Harrison's government. If the next election occurred today, a long series of negotiations on many fronts would occur. The current Alliance of Social Democrats would need to update their agreement and may need the confidence and supply of the Green Party to remain in government. If the Green Party opts to not do so and the two conservative groups agree to form a coalition, Harrison's government would likely be toppled with Nicole Chancellor becoming the next Chancellor of Valkyria, implementing a national conservative agenda antithetical to Harrison's social democratic agenda.

The prospects of a social democratic government forming after the June 2019 parliamentary election has even been worsened after a defection within the Labor Party's ranks. Jason Sullivan, a longtime member of the Labor Party and critic of Harrison, announced that he was leaving the party to join the Green Party and called on other members of the Labor Party to do the same in protest of Harrison's alleged authoritarianism. Like he has done since she first started campaigning for President of Qvait in 2015, Sullivan compared Harrison to her father Jonathan Ambrose, the late fourth President of Qvait, by saying, "Her father was an authoritarian thug and she is no different from him. Like father, like daughter." Sullivan went further and said, "I am calling on a new resistance against tyranny—against Ambrosianism."

Because Sullivan's remarks occurred while Harrison was in the meeting with the leaders of the Alliance of Social Democracy, she had time to prepare remarks in response to Sullivan's rhetoric. In her first defence against his repeated attacks, Harrison addressed Sullivan directly, "It is fair for you to criticise my father for his actions, but it is reprehensible for you to put his sins on a person who was only nine to fourteen years old when he was president. I am sick and tired of your constant bullying that I have endured for three years. I am not guilty of my father's crimes and how dare you for levelling them against me. I have been fighting my entire adult life trying to right my father's wrongs and we have an opposition leader who glorifies him. If I am the person you think I am, why would the very people who supported my father stand in opposition to me?"

From the very spot where McKinney announced the Green Party's exit, the Leader of the Opposition made an address about thirty minutes after he left the spot. Nicole Chancellor, the Leader of The New Right, called for a snap election and rationalised that "a minority government is incapable of leading a nation like Valkyria". She said that the people of Valkyria are "looking for a strong and stable government" and Harrison and the Alliance of Social Democrats "are standing in the way" of having one. In her speech, Nicole Chancellor called on Valkyrians to sign an official petition sponsored by The New Right that demands a snap election to be called by Harrison. Addressing the Leader of the Opposition, Harrison ruled out the possibility of a snap election, "We will wait until June 2019, as constitutionally mandated, to have an election."

Elena Reese, who served as Vice Chancellor under Harrison between August 2016 and June 2017, made an online statement praising McKinney for pulling the Green Party out of the Alliance of Social Democrats. In her online statement, Reese recounted here experiences with Harrison and said, "We were promised many things by [Harrison] and her party and they went and did other things behind our backs, without our knowledge." Reese went on to say that the Labor Party and the Populists of the Left were not different parties, but different in name only, "[Harrison] gave the vice chancellery to a person she acknowledges to be a 'close friend' and a leader of a satellite party. Satellite parties don't exist in democratic states. They only exist in authoritarian or totalitarian states."

After Harrison finished her statement, Taeler Shaw, who had succeeded Reese as Vice Chancellor and is the Leader of the Populists of the Left, addressed Reese's remarks by denying that her party was a "satellite party" as Reese alleged, "I need to stress the fact that the Populists of the Left is an independent political party that doesn't delegate its decisions to the Labor Party. We make our own decisions from within the party." Shaw acknowledged that she was a member of the Labor Party and that her party shares many views with the Labor Party, but says that observers do not understand how and why the Populists of the Left came into existence, "Our party was built by members of the Labor Party who respectfully split from the party to bring more attention to the rural parts of our country. If [Reese] is looking for an authoritarian state, she can look at the one we had in the 80s."

With the Green Party's departure from the Alliance of Social Democrats, Harrison announced that the three smaller parties of the alliance would each be awarded the three cabinet positions that the Green Party was awarded after the June 2017 parliamentary election. The Populists of the Left has been awarded the health ministry, the Socialist Party has been awarded the energy ministry, and the Liberal Party has been awarded the environment ministry. Centrist Democratic Party leader Victor Cutter gave Harrison his assurances that the current government would not topple because his party would abstain in motions of no confidence, "It is against the interests of the Centrist Democratic Party hold a fourth election in three years. We agree with the Chancellor that our government needs stability."

KTN's Lyle Williams contributed to this report.

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4× Cabinet minister /// 1× OWL director /// CRS member /// SPSF

My History

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Reminder: This is out-of-character and not canon.

Okay, this article deserves a bit of context. In 2016, @Seraph briefly started an RP of TSP in 1116, so I was gonna contribute more to the story by having a modern-day character be a surviving descendant of an ancient royal family. Good times, we should revive this RP sometime.

The United Cascade

Insight on all United Kingdom affairs

Uncovered: King Victor is a member of House Valkyrie
Jeannette Jennings, Monarchy commentator
Sunday, 25 September, 2016

Victor Cutter, King consort

MONTEROS, UNITED KINGDOM — When the first Kingdom of Qvait fell in 1923, David IV was the last monarch and a member of House Ambrose, the same royal family the inhabits the Qvaitican throne today in the United Kingdom of Qvait and Winston Island. However, House Ambrose was not the first family to control the throne. In fact, House Ambrose acquired control of the throne in 1702 from a family that ruled for nearly 230 years, dating back to the birth of the Kingdom of Qvait. It was House Valkyrie that ruled all of Qvait, beginning in 1473 with King Aaron. However, the work of genealogists employed by the monarchy finds that Victor Cutter, King consort, is a direct descendant of House Valkyrie, a family that had long thought to have been made extinct by the War of the Birds.

War of the Birds

In 1687, there was much content from the public for the monarchy, led by King Cedric, the tenth monarch of Qvait. Under his reign, the Kingdom of Qvait was undergoing democratization, which was exactly what King Cedric had promised when he accepted the title of King of Qvait in 1681. It was under his reign that Qvait was making a transition toward constitutional monarchy. However, another royal family that was second in command of Qvait, House Langley, opposed the transition, instead seeking absolute power over the Kingdom. At the time, King Cedric was in discussions with leaders of the Church, workers, and even peasants, drafting a constitution that he would one day decree the supreme law of Qvait. As this happened, members of House Langley planned out how they would overthrow House Valkyrie and seize control of the throne.

Believing that they could overthrow House Valkyrie in a matter of days, House Langley initiated Operation Dragon's Sword, storming the Royal Palace in Sydney, slaughtering several members of House Valkyrie. However, King Cedric and his immediate family was not in Sydney, having taking a private trip to Stockholm to meet with members of House Ambrose, the third-most powerful royal family in Qvait. Despite not killing King Cedric, Zachary of House Langley proclaimed himself King of Qvait.

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Copyright 2013–2016. United Kingdom Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

4× Cabinet minister /// 1× OWL director /// CRS member /// SPSF

My History

(This post was last modified: 07-07-2019, 02:04 AM by Jay Coop.)

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