British Empire

The British Empire, officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast off the European mainland.

Overview:

The United Kingdom has been ruled by James Cromwell fully under the role of Lord Protector since 2010 and before then as Prime Minister and Lord Protector from 2009.

Historical Summary pre-Lions den:

The dissolution of the United Kingdom's democracy was seen as unthinkable before the events of 2007-2010, the country was flourishing with the GDP breaking the 3 Trillion mark in 2007 under a somewhat popular Labour Government.

The financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the death of Queen Elizabeth II put a sudden end to the prosperity of the country with the economy violently spinning into a recession and the government and monarchy becoming more and more unpopular and chaotic, A landmark bill that virtually removed the freedom of information act was introduced by the then Prime Minister who whipped his reluctant MP's into voting for with threats and deals. However, King Charles III believed that the bill would restrict freedom of the press too much, and would allow the government to censor the news and prevent legitimate uncovering of abuse of power was refused Royal Assent.

The Right Honourable leader of the Opposition and leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party, James Cromwell, who is the 3rd son of the Earl of Warwick. He had heavily opposed the bill and remained neutral in the refusal of Royal Assent for the bill began drumming up massive amounts of support with the public through the now alienated media for a fresh election.

The Prime Minister in a vicious tirade in a session of Parliament towards the Leader of the Opposition decreed that 'We will NEVER have a TRAITOR such as the Right Honourable Gentleman for Warwick & Leamington become Prime Minister!' and in another staggering turn of events put forward a bill that would disband the Monarchy in its entirety. Cromwell vehemently opposed this bill but with only 198 seats he had his hands tied as the bill passed with a majority of 3. In his final act as Monarch Charles III awarded Cromwell the hereditary Duchy of Windsor in recognition for his efforts and his already aristocratic background. Cromwell refused to step down as leader of the opposition and join the house of lords due to the pressing nature of the national emergency and with his surging popularity he manged not to cause public outcry.

However, Public opinion by this point had completely shifted in favour of the Conservative party as riots began taking place across the country against the Labour Government who had completely lost the support of the public. Labour MP's at this point had begun crossing the floor to the Conservative party which swelled rapidly to 310 seats within a few weeks, giving it a clear majority in parliament and after calling and then prevailing in no confidence motion the Prime Minister was obliged to step down.

Yet, the Prime Minister refused to step down due to a flaw within the No-Confidence motion requiring that the head of state (AKA the King) demand his resignation, without a head of state there was no longer anyone who could legally remove him as Prime Minister. In a decisive move the Conservative party voted in parliament to install Cromwell under the title of 'Lord Protector' which rendered him Head of State of the United Kingdom under the constitution.

He immediately demanded the resignation of the Prime Minister, who finally resigned after being threatened with the use of the armed forces who were now under the command of the Lord Protector as Commander-in-chief of the British Armed Forces. Cromwell then installed himself as Prime Minister and Lord Protector, and virtually ignored the pleas from the Royal Family to be fully reinstated as head of state. (He only returned the royal titles of King etc to them after he was fully installed as Lord Protector. But he has not reinstalled them as head of state.)

Within a year of Cromwell's ascension Parliament had fallen into complete and unrecoverable chaos with MP's being completely ineffective and no laws that Cromwell wished to pass being passed. With the public now alienated against Parliament and firmly in the grasp of Cromwell he abolished both the role of Prime Minister and dissolved the Parliament permanently, turning the Palace of Westminster into a museum and reigning as Lord Protector.

During his reign before the events of the Lions Den he has turned around the economy which has been seeing large amounts of growth and has further increased the budget of the armed forces to around 200-250 billion by cutting various welfare budgets and pension budgets. Instead creating a scheme where pension funds are solely paid out and into the Bank of England and where jobs are found by the government for the unemployed who can work. (Both of these schemes have been a mixed bag of success an failure before the events of the Lion's Den where new economic initiatives have made at least the former become a raging success.)