The regular procedure of the Mercian Parliament House, halfway through its second Meeting under Marquis Cassidy’s second Cabinet, was thrown into jeopardy on the evening of the 9th November, when former Baron of the Rio Cinema, Harland-Hackenschmidt, interrupted the Parliament first with jibes, then with argument, and then with threats to overthrow the Lord Spiritual of Mercia, HL Richard I, signalling the beginning of a coup attempt from the County of Rambleshire in the Province of Wibertsherne.
Former Baron Harland-Hackenschmidt attempted to vote upon the 9th October Absence at Trial Bill, the motion that allows the Mercian judiciary to trial the accused in absentia if they refuse or forget to attend, without officially stating his presence. Upon being asked to do so to be able to vote on the next Bill, his stance was one of refusal and name-calling. This was tolerated, up until the former Baron made the following statement in the middle of the Meeting, just after the 7th November Trade Union Bill had been read:
…i’m willing to write a bill and overthrow Richard from his position to stop his foolishness.
Upon this statement, HL Richard I promptly ejected both Harland-Hackenschmidt and Baron Whyatt-Miranda, a suspected supporter of the former Baron, out of the Mercian Parliament House, to the general approval of the First Minister and Count Frisch, who were also present. Harland-Hackenschmidt then continued to send a series of communiques to HL Richard I, one of which containing the following accusations:
…there is one case in which you released an undemocratic article, resulting in outrage of the parliament and a member leaving; there was this case today in which the parliament failed to count a member’s vote for questionable reasoning and finally there was a case in which an entire bill was passed undemocratically, with one of the parliament members forcing another to vote.
These vague accusations are not fully understood by the Mercian Nobility, who were shown this statement, but it is suspected that the first accusation is related to the departure of the former Earl Crannis, who left Mercia to focus on the Empire of Austenasia following the Lord of Clyro’s decision to officially back Scottish Independence and, after the Referendum, the regional devolution of the United Kingdom. This caused no outrage however. The second accusation is most likely the instance that started Harland-Hackenschmidt’s dismissal, where his vote was refused because he did not state his presence officially, in the fashion that all Mercian Nobles have done since January 2014. The last accusation is an unknown. Harland-Hackenschmidt has been granted asylum in the Glorious Micronation of Uberqueisenberg, although both HL Richard I and Kaiser Newton have agreed that this will not sour relations between the two nations, who recently had a brief and informal conference.
The former Baron, alongside Earl Crannis, were the only Pagan (Crannis being an Anglo-Saxon Pagan, and Harland-Hackenschmidt being a Satanist) Ministers in the Mercian Parliament House. Currently, 45% of the House identifies as Christian, including the Lord Spiritual.
In other news, the Nollandish State of Archmidian, under the rule of Congregational Christian, King Archmidias I, has expressed its wish to help develop and expand the Mercian Christian Church. When the doctrines of the Church have been finalised and the episcopate has been organised, it is predicted that Archmidian will be host to the Mercian Christian Church’s first external Diocese, with Archmidias I performing the role of both King and Archbishop.