UK General Election 2024 - Backstory, Rules, and Sign Up

[DKrol]

Backstory

Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom, Since 2007
Gordon Brown (Labour Majority) June 2007 - May 2010
Gordon Brown (Labour-Lib Dem Coalition) May 2010 - October 2011
John McDonnell (Labour Minority) October 2011 - February 2012
Theresa May (Conservative-UKIP-SNP-DUP-UUP Coalition) February 2012 - May 2014
Theresa May (Conservative-UKIP-DUP Coalition) May 2014 - June 2016
Andrea Leadsom (Conservative-UKIP-DUP Coalition) June 2016 - July 2019
David Cameron (Conservative Minority) July 2019 - August 2019
Alistair Darling (Labour-Lib Dem-Change UK-Greens Coalition) August 2019 - May 2021
Keir Starmer (Labour-Lib Dem-Change UK-Greens Coalition) May 2021 - Present

Part I

Many political experts point to the 2010 Election as the root of many of Britain’s modern political ills.

Facing the first hung parliament in decades, Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a deal with the Liberal Democrats to introduce proportional, party-list elections starting in 2012. The centre-left government lost that election to an unwieldy Conservative-led coalition headed by Theresa May. May’s government was brought down by two referenda - one held, on leaving the European Union, and one denied, on Scotland leaving the UK. The UK voted, narrowly, to leave the EU against Theresa May’s advice, leading to her stepping aside and being replaced by Andrea Leadsom. Facing defeat for her EU Withdrawal Bill thrice, Leadsom too stepped aside - replaced by the soft Remainer, former Opposition Leader David Cameron. Knowing his ability to work with the existing Parliament was virtually non-existent, an election was immediately called - fought heavily on the issues of Brexit, British nationality, and regional differences.

Cameron lost the election, becoming the shortest-serving Prime Minister in British history. Labour put together another center-left coalition government under Alistair Darling - bringing together the Liberal Democrats, Change UK, and the Greens to command 373 seats. The Darling government immediately set forward with two massive efforts. First, to revoke Article 50 and halt the process of the leaving the EU. Second, to reform the House of Lords into an elected body. These were the issues that held the government together.

The Commons passed the Referendum (Remain) Act in its first sitting after the election and Darling scheduled the vote for March 5, 2020. The question posed to the voters was: “Should the United Kingdom continue the process of leaving the European Union?”. Unlike Theresa May during the initial EU referendum, Darling commanded the full force of the government in support of the “No” campaign. He and his coalition leaders, Jo Swinson, Anna Soubry, and Sian Berry, toured the country and lamented on the turmoil caused by the vote to leave the EU.

Leading the “Yes” campaign in the 2020 Referendum were newly-minted Conservative Party Leader Boris Johnson, former Secretary for Exiting the European Union, Paul Nuttal, leader of the British Freedom Party formed during the 2019 campaign to unite the country’s extreme right-wing, and Danny Kruger, a former Conservative who shepherded the Wessex Regionalist party to a shock result. The “Yes” campaign was far less organized than it had been in 2016, with their campaign materials swinging between attacking the referendum itself, calling out “the establishment” for forcing a second vote, and repeating their “greatest hits” from the 2016 referendum.

On Election Night 2020, the results were “Yes” 44%, “No” 56% but with a significantly diminished turn out, with many voters citing exhaustion over the many votes held over the last five years. Prime Minister Darling and his allies celebrated the result, heralding it as the coming of a new age of Britain, and an end to the Brexit-era divisiveness, allowing them to crack on with their other main agenda item. Johnson pledged to push forward with Brexit and dismissed the referendum as illegitimate and undemocratic. Nuttal lost a leadership challenge to his on-again-off-again ally Nigel Farage who argued Nuttal wasn’t truly committed to the cause. Kruger celebrated the result, as the South East region returned one of the strongest “Yes” results in the nation.

The world, however, had other plans. Just days later the country was faced with an unprecedented crisis entirely out of any individual’s control. By the end of March, hundreds of Britons were dying every day from Covid-19, and thousands found themselves falling ill. The Prime Minister pushed through the Emergency Response (Coronavirus) Act in early April, giving himself the authority to name a small, nimble War Cabinet of sorts to lead the nation through the crisis with wide-ranging authority. The Stay at Home Order was issued on April 7th and legally required all people to remain home and distance from others while in public for the limited circumstances allowed. While the government was united in support of the Stay at Home Order, the opposition was far from it.

At first, Johnson and the Tory front benchers spoke in support of the Stay at Home Order and urged members of the public to do their part. Farage and Kruger, however, galvanized against the government and the order, arguing that it was an assault on their rights by a government that had already declared it didn’t care about the common Brit. Hundreds of people turned out at rallies across the country to protest the Stay at Home Order in the first weekend, organized by the further-right, anti-establishment parties. Upon seeing this turnout, Johnson, under pressure from his right flank, pivoted to an anti-lockdown messaging. Farage called this a success for the BFP and the media noted his increased influence on right-wing messaging. Prime Minister Darling introduced a number of schemes to support businesses and out-of-work employees, which Farage attacked as “buying voters with handouts”.

By early May, the daily deaths reports had come down, although cases remained higher than the government would have liked. The Covid Cabinet announced a stepped system would be introduced from June 1, where each region would be assigned a color code from Red to Green to determine what level of restrictions would be in place. The Traffic Light system proved to be a serious failure for the government. As soon as people in London, consistently in the Red tier, saw the North East, moved to Green in mid-June, be able to meet in parks and have football matches resume, albeit without fans, the few hundred people who had attended the protests swelled to thousands. Later data would show these larger rallies caused significant spreading of the virus, forcing London to remain in the Red tier even longer. Darling was forced to scrap the Traffic Light scheme by August, as the virus raged out of control in London, the South, and Scotland and deaths rocketed again, and a full Stay at Home Order was reintroduced, leading to thousands of fixed penalty notices being issued across the country.

The government was largely unable to move forward with any policy not related to Covid or the recovery. The rail network was nationalized on September 7, 2020 after a series of financial reports indicated that the entire system was on the brink of collapse due to vastly diminished ridership. A national school meals scheme was passed to ensure children in need did not go hungry while schools were closed under government order. A multi-billion pound investment in the NHS was passed in mid-September in order to raise wages for carers. Despite these critical actions, the early surge of popularity and unity around the Prime Minister rapidly evaporated as Farage pulled Johnson and the center-right further away from a national consensus.

Darling addressed the nation on December 3, 2020. He pledged that if the nation could maintain compliance with the Stay at Home Order through the holiday season, “a nation-wide step down scale” would be introduced in the new year. He argued that cases were trending in the right direction but warned that a spike due to holiday mingling would jeopardize that progress and set the country back. The opposition exploded at the suggestion that the Stay at Home Order would limit holiday gatherings, including church services. Privately, the Prime Minister lamented at the “Americanization” of British politics. Publicly, he continued to urge compliance and directed the continued issuance of fixed penalty notices. The public, however, turned their backs on the government and the official guidance, with many homes across the country being filled with cheer and merriment after so many months of lockdown.

As predicted, cases and deaths spiked in early 2021. Darling blasted noncompliance with the Stay at Home Order and instituted more severe penalties for breaking it. This would prove to be his own undoing. Prince Philip died at the age of 99 in April, weeks after the Stay at Home Order was expanded. The nation wept at images of the Queen sitting by herself, masked, at his funeral service. Surely this would be a moment to rally for the public good. A video emerged of the Prime Minister, maskless, attending a drinking event in Downing Street the day of the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral service. People across the country, of all political stripes, were enraged at the hypocrisy. The fallout was swift and Downing was ousted as Leader of the Labour Party within days. Chancellor Sir Keir Starmer, known to the nation from a series of press conferences announcing the financial aid packages, was selected unopposed to replace him and became Prime Minister in early May.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Is this the same backstory/continuation of the last UK mock parliament? Because if so, I'm soooooo down to play Farage again!

[DKrol]

Is this the same backstory/continuation of the last UK mock parliament? Because if so, I'm soooooo down to play Farage again!

Yes, it's the same universe. I'll mark you down as requesting Farage but we'll leave it penciled in until the full backstory is posted so you're not locked in without the full story.

[SuzerainOfSwat]

Danny Kruger Wessex Regionalist party 👀👀

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Is this the same backstory/continuation of the last UK mock parliament? Because if so, I'm soooooo down to play Farage again!

Yes, it's the same universe. I'll mark you down as requesting Farage but we'll leave it penciled in until the full backstory is posted so you're not locked in without the full story.

All good!

[GoTfan]

I'd like to request Starmer if possible, but if someone else prefers him I would be happy to revert to the Greens.

[DKrol]

Part II

The nation gradually came back into compliance under the new leadership and Covid cases started to dip in June. The list of “essential businesses”, exempted from the Stay at Home Order, was expanded at the end of July. Vaccines, developed in the UK with EU supports, were widely distributed by August. The Premier League, which had played a handful of matches in late 2020 under the Traffic Light system before abandoning the 2019-20 season, announced plans for a return to play in September. Prime Minister Starmer announced the Stay at Home Order would be lifted in whole on September 14th, 2021 and replaced with a more general, non-mandatory guidance system.

As the darkest days of the pandemic faded and life returned to a sense of normalcy, the political situation too returned to its pre-pandemic normal - perhaps even more fractured. Despite the initial hopes that the pandemic would bring people together, the strong opposition to the Stay at Home Order and the personal failures of the Darling government resulted in steeper divisions when the Commons resumed in-person sittings. What had been a raucous chamber in 2019 was now absolutely rabid. Shadow Home Secretary Suella Braverman, a leadership hopeful, latched onto the Chinese origin of the virus to attack migrants of all origins. The Conservatives tabled an opposition motion to reduce net migration to 0 by 2025. The motion failed handily, but set the tone.

Starmer and his coalition partners, with the virus largely under control by the end of 2021, turned their attention to their second main pledge: reforming the House of Lords. A white paper was issued on Lords reform and proposed three options: the complete elimination of the upper chamber, a 50% elected chamber, and a 100% elected chamber. Starmer and Soubry supported a 50% elected chamber, while Swinson supported a 100% elected chamber and Berry advocated for the full elimination of the upper chamber. Johnson and Farage opposed all three options of Lords reform; instead Johnson proposed a cap on the number of peers and the gradual reduction in the size of the chamber and Farage argued this wasn’t the time to address the issue.

In February of 2022, Starmer tabled the Referendum (Lords Reform) Act, calling for another nationwide referendum with the question: “Should the House of Lords be replaced with a partially elected upper chamber, eliminating all hereditary peers and retaining a limited number life appointments?” Some government backbenchers lamented that this question was poorly worded and confusing, while others - especially from the Liberal Democrat and Green seats - argued the question should be on the full elimination of the chamber. Swinson’s support for the question as posed cost her, as the left-flank of her party challenged her leadership, which she lost to former ally Daisy Cooper. The Commons voted 343 to 307, with a handful of LibDem and Green MPs voting with the opposition, to support posing the question to the public.

Like Darling before him, Prime Minister Starmer was forced to confront another massive upheaval outside of his control. The day after winning the vote on the Referendum (Lords Reform) Act, Vladimir Putin directed Russian troops to invade Ukraine, arguing the country was being run by Nazis and needed to be brought back into the Russian fold. Europe, and the world more broadly, was caught off guard. Putin has been increasing his rhetoric against Ukraine for months but the thought that he would launch a large-scale ground invasion was distant for all. The Lords Reform Referendum was shelved as Starmer immediately declared his strongest support for Ukraine and presented a massive aid package, sending medical supplies, rockets, and rations.

This too proved divisive, both for the government and the opposition. Boris Johnson was a strong supporter of Ukraine, but his party was not. When Johnson spoke in support of Starmer’s aid package, his Shadow Foreign Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, was seen grimacing, and Braverman released a scathing letter. Within two months, by the end of April 2022, Johnson had been forced to resign as leader of the Conservative Party and replaced, after a lengthy contest, by Braverman - a solidification of the right-wing nature of the modern party. Green Party leader Sian Berry’s support for the government’s agenda also cost her her leadership, losing in a challenge to South West MP Carla Denyer who argued Britain had no place sending such aid overseas when there was work to be done at home. Farage, meanwhile, solidified the right-wing opposition to Ukrainian aid and, instead, argued that President Zelensky and the EU had been provoking Putin into acting.

Although the Ukrainian aid package passed, and was regularly followed by additional aid deals as the war dragged on, there were bigger issues at home caused by the war. The war ended the supply of cheap Russian gas into Europe and a suspicious attack on the Nord Stream pipeline disrupted what gas was flowing. People across Europe found they could no longer afford to heat their homes. The issues struck home for Britain in March of 2022, when newspapers splashed a horrendous headline: “Pensioner Freezes to Death in Home”. The man, 96-year-old retired GP Daniel Paulson, had been forced to spend his pension money on food rather than gas for his small home in Newcastle and, after a harsh cold snap, was found unresponsive by neighbors. There was nationwide outrage, with Starmer’s favourability dropping from 50% to 40% in the week afterwards. Starmer personally attended Paulson’s funeral service but was booed by locals and decried in Westminster for grandstanding.

The energy crisis, combined with intense spending to combat the impacts of the pandemic, sparked the harshest period of inflation Britain had seen in decades. By the summer of 2022, inflation had spiked to nearly 10%. Under heavy pressure from the government, the Bank of England began to raise interest rates in an effort to stymie the bleeding. It did work, but at the expensive of driving up mortgage rates and making homeownership - already a lofty goal for many - almost unthinkable. The government did pass an aid package to help people pay for their energy bills, but many saw it as too little, too late.

Queen Elizabeth passed away at Balmoral in September of 2022, capping off a chaotic and unsettling year in Britain. Many observers wondered how the Labour Party, and it’s republican-leaning coalition partners, would address this constitutional question now that the larger-than-life monarch was no longer the elephant in the room. Keir Starmer refused to comment on the issue before the next general election manifesto.

2023 was consumed by labour strife, as workers across the country took to the streets to protest their wages. The government generally sided with the workers and spoke favourably of strike actions, but did little to address the root causes of their problems. What more could the government do, Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves argued, to lower inflation and support wages? Braverman and Farage attacked the workers and told them to “get on with it”, rather than disrupting everyone’s lives for their grievances. The death of transgender teenager Brianna Grey also became a political touchstone in 2023, with the right-wing latching on to American-style anti-trans rhetoric and the more centrist elements of the government caught in a seemingly no-win situation on the issue. The Prime Minister offered his condolences to Brianna’s family but failed to make any kind of sweeping statement or policy on transgender issues. The attack on Israel by Hamas in October posed an even deeper problem for Keir Starmer, as the Labour Party was still recovering from long-standing complaints of antisemitism and now faced deep divides over whether to support Israel or Palestine, and to what degree.

By the start of 2024, inflation was down to a more manageably 5% YoY. Higher than the government would like, but low enough to give some relief to most people. As the war in Russia continued into its second full year, the international coalition supporting Ukraine was facing a breaking point. Hungary, recognized as being too closely aligned with Russia, was blocking EU-wide aid to Ukraine while Republicans did the same in the United States at the urging of former President Donald Trump. With the left-wing elements of the government opposing additional aid, Starmer found himself hamstrung. He and Soubry, the only remaining leader from the 2019 election, did not have the votes themselves to pass any further aid. Adding attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea by Yemeni-based Houthi rebels did not help.

Facing crises at home and abroad, Keir Starmer went to the King and called a general election a few months earlier than required, hoping to get a more clear mandate from the people.

Keir Starmer now leads the Labour Party for the third year. He can point to great successes leading the nation through the Covid Pandemic and the (for the most part) return to normal. Despite facing serious headwinds, he has received some credit for getting inflation down to about 5% from its peak, and many do support his continued support for democracy in Europe. Going into the election, he faces questions over how to address the ongoing challenges of leadership: Ukraine, Israel, the cost of living, and social issues dominating that to-do list.

Suella Braverman will face the British public for the first time. She is by far the most right-wing leader of the Conservative Party since Margaret Thatcher - but Braverman’s Conservative Party is much more focused on social issues than Thatcher’s economic vision. She’s staked herself out as anti-migrant, anti-trans, and anti-elite but she must decide how to address the complex issues of Brexit, Lords reform, and the disintegration of societal bonds. Braverman’s supporters are loyal and vocal, but can she broaden the appeal to turn Westminster blue?

Daisy Cooper has taken the Liberal Democrats to the left since ousting Jo Swinson as leader. Can this elevate the LibDems from kingmakers to kings themselves? Observers are keen to track Cooper’s positions on Russia and Israel, housing and the environment, and education - and to see if the longstanding LibDem arguments about constitutional reform take hold in this era of change.

Anna Soubry led Change UK in 2019 on an anti-Brexit campaign. With Article 50 being stopped in 2020, many have wondered what the role of Change UK is in today’s Britain. In government, Soubry has commanded a loyal centrist voting bloc, urging moderation and cooperation. How will this translate into an electoral manifesto? Is there still a role for the milquetoast Change UK in an increasingly polarized Britain?

Nigel Farage is the least milquetoast politician in Britain. People often say he’s like marmite - either loved or hated, with no in between. Since the 2020 referendum, Farage and the British Freedom Party have shifted their focus to opposing “London elites” and “woke-ism”. There are calls within the party to pledge to scrap the 2020 referendum and let the higher-turnout 2016 referendum rule. How will Farage message for a general electorate in a proportional system?

Carla Denyer and Humza Yousef find themselves in vaguely similar situations. The Greens have been part of government in Westminster for five years and have very little to show for it in terms of significant environmental reform. The SNP have led Holyrood since 2007 and Scots are no closer to independence - they haven’t even been able to secure a Westminster-backed referendum. How does either leader convince the public to give them another go and expect different results?

The rest of the leaders of the political parties are fighting for survival. Michelle O’Neill’s Sinn Feinn has historical abstained from taking their seats and Doug Beattie’s UUP, Colum Eastwood’s SDLP, and Jim Allister’s TUV are all limited in that they only contest seats in Northern Ireland - limiting them to at most 18 seats if they swept the count. In 2012, Arlene Foster tried to lead the DUP into contesting seats in England. After their disastrous 2019 campaign, new leader Jeffrey Donaldson is forced to try to claw back any kind of relevance. Plaid Cymru was also locked out in the 2019 election and is looking to reclaim it’s former regional support. And what can be made of the Wessex Regionalists - are they a one-time by-product of an anti-establishment wave, or does Danny Kruger stand to become a real force in British politics?

Only General Election 2024 can answer these questions.

[S019]

I would like to join as the Tories

[Continential]

I should have the time for this and now I understand the concept of this so hopefully I'll do better than me five years ago.

If I could - could I play as George Galloway's Workers Party of Britain since the Israel Palestine War is going on in this timeline and it would be interesting to see how an alternative left wing party would do.

Alternatively, I would like to play as the DUP.

[DKrol]

State of Parliament
Labour: 155 MPs
Conservatives: 150 MPs
Liberal Democrats: 95 MPs
Change UK: 88 MPs
British Freedom Party: 84 MPs
Greens: 35 MPs
Scottish National Party: 25 MPs
Sinn Fein: 7 MPs
Wessex Regionalists: 4 MPs
Ulster Unionist Party: 4 MPs
Social Democratic and Labour Party: 2 MPs
Traditional Unionist Voice: 1 MP

2019 Election Results

Northern Ireland Result
Sinn Fein: 38%, 7 MPs
UUP: 21%, 4 MPs
Change UK: 20%, 4 MPs
SDLP: 14%, 2 MPs
TUV: 7%, 1 MP

South West Result
Labour Party - 23%, 13 MPs
Conservative Party - 23%, 13 MPs
BFP - 21%, 13 MPs
Liberal Democrats - 11%, 6 MPs
Change UK - 11%, 6 MPs
Greens - 10%, 6 MPs

North West Result
Labour Party - 31%, 23 MPs
Conservative Party - 30%, 22 MPs
BFP - 17%, 12 MPs
Liberal Democrats - 12%, 10 MPs
Change UK - 10%, 6 MPs

Yorkshire and the Humber Results
Labour Party - 34%, 19 MPs
Conservative Party - 20%, 11 MPs
BFP - 20%, 11 MPs
Change UK - 15%, 8 MPs
Greens - 11%, 6 MPs

East of England Results
BFP - 25%, 13 MPs
Conservative Party - 23%, 11 MPs
Labour - 20%, 10 MPs
Liberal Democrats - 17%, 8 MPs
Change UK - 15%, 8 MPs

London Results
Labour Party - 26%, 21 MPs
Change UK - 24%, 19 MPs
Liberal Democrats - 18%, 15 MPs
Conservative Party - 16%, 13 MPs
Greens - 14%, 12 MPs
BFP - 2%, 0 MPs

East Midlands Results
Conservative Party - 25%, 12 MPs
Liberal Democrats - 22%, 10 MPs
BFP - 20%, 9 MPs
Change UK - 17%, 8 MPs
Labour Party - 16%, 7 MPs

West Midlands Results
Labour Party - 29%, 18 MPs
Conservative Party - 24%, 15 MPs
BFP - 19%, 12 MPs
Liberal Democrats - 17%, 10 MPs
Change UK - 7%, 4 MPs
English Democrats Party - 4%, 0 MPs

Scotland Results
SNP: 42%, 25 MPs
Labour: 14%, 8 MPs
Conservatives: 14%, 8 MPs
Liberal Democrats: 13%, 8 MPs
Green Party: 10%, 6 MPs
Change UK: 7%, 4 MPs

South East Results
Conservative Party - 30%, 26 MPs
Labour Party - 18%, 16 MPs
Liberal Democrats - 17%, 15 MPs
Change UK - 15%, 13 MPs
BFP - 11%, 10 MPs
Wessex Regionalists - 5%, 4 MPs
Greens - 4%, 0 MPs

Wales Results
Conservatives: 26%, 12 MPs
Labour: 22%, 9 MPs
Liberal Democrats: 20%, 8 MPs
Green Party: 12%, 5 MPs
Change UK: 10%, 4 MPs
BFP: 6%, 2 MPs
Plaid Cymru: 4%, 0 MPs

North East Results
Labour - 37%, 11 MPs
Conservatives - 23%, 7 MPs
Liberal Democrats - 18%, 5 MPs
Change UK - 15%, 4 MPs
BFP - 7%, 2 MPs

Rules

Borrowed, with minor changes, from Lumine’s UK General Election 2012 and my UK General Election 2019

General Election Rules:

Time: This election campaign will take place from April 18th to May 30th, 2024 - a six week campaign. Each turn will last for four days, each turn covering one week of IG campaigning.

Turns: Campaigning will be held on a regional level, with your characters going to the 12 regions of the UK:


European Parliament constituencies in the United Kingdom (since 2004)
Barryob, via Wikimedia Commons

Campaigns: You're free to make your own posts, with normal campaigning being free. Each party will be able to PM the Game Moderator and ask for internal polls, canvassers/volunteers (to boost your campaign), endorsements (newspapers/organizations/celebrities) and advertising. The quality of these features will depend on a) the quality of the ask, b) the quality of the campaign being run, and c) the infrastructure of the party making the ask. You can also hold events or "interviews" to attack each other or promote yourself. I would prefer you not post down to the hour campaign schedules and instead focus on broader themes and general strategy. Tell me what regions you’re focusing on and what you’re telling the voters there.

Debates: There will be one debate, in turn 5. You can choose whether to show up or not (it can benefit you or hurt you depending on the circumstances), but the winner will receive a bonus in polling and enthusiasm and the loser(s) will face harsh headwinds.

Manifestos: At the end of the first turn each party must publish a manifesto. In order to make this easy and simple, you will be required to write a list with your five main pledges. For example, BFP can write on their manifesto "- Fulfill the 2016 EU Referendum Result” and so on. Manifestos will have a relevant impact and may be used by other players to attack you.

Polls: Some polls will be released to you each turn. But those polls are not 100% reliable, so be mindful of possible bias!

Electoral System: This is the biggest difference from IRL. The system in-game operates on party list PR, based on the regional system. There is a 5% threshold, which you must overcome if you wish to receive MPs in a given region.

Players

Major Parties
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (Labour) - GoTFan
Suella Braverman (Conservative) - S019
Education Secretary Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrats) - SuzerainOfSwat
Deputy Prime Minister Anna Soubry (Change UK) - Lumine
Nigel Farage (British Freedom Party) - Ishan
Environment Secretary Carla Denyer (Greens) -
First Minister Humza Yousef (SNP) - Thumb21

Minor Parties
First Minister Michelle O’Neill (Sinn Fein) -
Danny Kruger (Wessex Regionalists) -
Doug Beattie (Ulster Unionist Party) -
Colum Eastwood (Social Democrat and Labour Party) -
Jim Allister (Traditional Unionist Voice) -
Deputy First Minister Jeffrey Donaldson (DUP) -
Rhun ap Iorwerth (Plaid Cymru) -
George Galloway (British Worker's Party) -

[DKrol]

I should have the time for this and now I understand the concept of this so hopefully I'll do better than me five years ago.

If I could - could I play as George Galloway's Workers Party of Britain since the Israel Palestine War is going on in this timeline and it would be interesting to see how an alternative left wing party would do.

Alternatively, I would like to play as the DUP.

Happy to have you join as Galloway.

I would like to join as the Tories

Welcome aboard!

I'd like to request Starmer if possible, but if someone else prefers him I would be happy to revert to the Greens.

You've got it.

Danny Kruger Wessex Regionalist party 👀👀

I've put you down for the Wessex Regionalist. Just let me know if you weren't intending to claim them.

Is this the same backstory/continuation of the last UK mock parliament? Because if so, I'm soooooo down to play Farage again!

Yes, it's the same universe. I'll mark you down as requesting Farage but we'll leave it penciled in until the full backstory is posted so you're not locked in without the full story.

All good!

Let me know if you don't want to keep Farage.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I noticed you’ve colored the SNP black, presumably because yellow text on this forum is unreadable? I use gold in my timelines.

[DKrol]

I noticed you’ve colored the SNP black, presumably because yellow text on this forum is unreadable? I use gold in my timelines.

Ah - I had done with [color=golden ] rather than [color=gold ]. Thanks!

[SuzerainOfSwat]

Lib Dems actually if I may

[DKrol]

Lib Dems actually if I may

You got it.

I'd like to get a few more players before we start. I suppose the only other player we absolutely need is the SNP, the rest could be NPCs or written out of the storyline.

[Lumine]

Change UK please. Might as well take responsibility for that abomination I kept alive.

[DKrol]

Change UK please. Might as well take responsibility for that abomination I kept alive.

Welcome back!

[DKrol]

I’ll leave sign ups open for another 24 hours or so and then start working on the first turn tomorrow evening. Would really like to get at least an SNP player.

[thumb21]

I'll take the SNP again, why not? I remember being quite happy with how I did last time, it might be more of a challenge this time

[DKrol]

I'll take the SNP again, why not? I remember being quite happy with how I did last time, it might be more of a challenge this time

Fantastic - welcome back!

[DKrol]

Just a reminder that the first turn ends tonight.

[GoTfan]

I think launching it while CoE is going on may've been a bit optimistic . . . as it is, I've got a lot on my plate with work and my family.

[Lumine]

I think launching it while CoE is going on may've been a bit optimistic . . . as it is, I've got a lot on my plate with work and my family.

Same! Really really keen to play this, but work and the game events this week left me rather drained. Any chance we could postpone the start?

[thumb21]

Is this going ahead? I don't mind staying up until 5 writing the manifesto because I'm working evenings this week anyway, but I'm not sure I want to do it if I'll be the only one

[DKrol]

It seems pretty clear this was premature and is back on the shelf at this point.