In the wake of the controversial April 2020 General Election, which saw the National Liberals voted into government in the first democratic elections to occur in Mercia in two years, all eyes were on the Mercian Parliament House as it convened for its first Meeting of the new Parliament Session.
Of the nine elected Members of Parliament, all five of the National Liberal Party MP’s declared their presence, as did two Members for the Green Party. Leon Montan, the single Eco-Socialist Parliamentarian, was not in attendance. Also in attendance was the Lord Temporal, His Lordship Karl Freidrich von Ravensburg, and the Lord Spiritual, His Lordship Richard I (who was there initially in his capacity as an elected National Liberal MP).
His Lordship Richard I opened the Parliament Meeting with a brief honours list, which went as follows:
“I shall begin with the Honours List of this first post-revival Government:
For his services to the Mercia-Lurkish nation and contributions to the entertainment industries of the Micronational World, Baron Henry Clémens is to be made a Duke of Mercia-Lurk.
For his long-standing service to the Mercia-Lurkish nation and this Parliament House, Baron Alejandro Whyatt-Miranda is to be made a Count of Mercia-Lurk.
In respect of the long and proud shared history between the Tsardom of Nolland and the Union of Mercia-Lurk, Count Thomas Cassidy, Tsar of Nolland, is to be made a Duke of Mercia-Lurk.
May God bless you all, and may these titles be a sufficient reward for your rich services to this Union and all micronationalism.”
The Parliamentary Session’s first meeting got off to a rocky start; in excitement, proceedings began in the incorrect order. After the assembled Members of Parliament had declared their presence and sworn oath, Parliamentarians moved to elect the First Minister before electing the Speaker of the House, which elicited sounds of surprise and disbelief from observers in the Gallery. In another break of convention, after no applicants from the MP’s came forward or were nominated for the position of Speaker of the House, First Minister-elect, Baron Henry Clémens, suggested the nomination of Mercian citizen Brandon Wu for the Speakership, who was known for both being impartial and experienced in the role, having served as Speaker in the Reichsversammlung of the Abeldane Empire four years previous. After his nomination and election to the office of Speaker, Speaker Wu oversaw the legal election of Baron Clémens to the premiership of Mercia-Lurk’s government.
Following on from these proceedings, two of the elected National Liberal MPs, His Lordship Richard I and Baron Eric Deurshke, willingly stood down from their positions to be replaced by National Liberal members who were more active and prepared to best represent the Union of Mercia-Lurk. Baron Damian Billbrough (former Finance, Charities & Commerce Minister of the O’Cathail governments), and Viscount Sebastian Linden (noted Micronational politician) promptly sat in the seats vacated by His Lordship Richard I and Baron Deurshke, although the Lord Spiritual remained in the Parliament House to observe proceedings as is his right as one of the Diarchs of the Union.
The first bill to be discussed and voted upon in the new Parliament was the Legal Citations Bill 2020, written by Viscount Linden. He gave the following address when offered the floor by the Speaker:
“I believe I am not alone when I say that the current format of Mercian legal citation is rather confusing. It is distinctive, certainly, from others I am familiar with, in naming acts after the calendar day of their passing, rather than the calendar year thereof. At Mercia’s inception, this even made some amount of sense: Firstly, due to our comparatively brief parliamentary terms, it is conceivable that more than one Act of the same title could be passed in one calendar year. Secondly, nobody probably had the foresight 6 years ago to think that this system might eventually become confusing. But now, it is: For the uninitiated, the chronological order of Mercia’s legislation is completely obfuscated. I firmly believe that the law should be kept as transparent as possible, to ensure that all citizens can easily inform themselves about legal matters, without having to engage in serious amounts of sleuthing to figure out which statutes supersede one another. That is the primary purpose of this bill, which it achieves fairly simply: By retroactively renaming all our legislation to follow a year-based naming pattern.
The other purpose is to create a unified way of citing parts of legislation, to avoid confusion both in this esteemed House, and in our honourable courts. Of course, there are other inconsistencies in our legislation, which our government hopes to address later in this parliamentary term, but I hope my honourable and noble colleagues on both sides of the House would agree that this is a beneficial and necessary first step.
Following a very brief discussion on the bill, the Speaker called the House to vote on the adoption of the bill, pending ratification by the Lord Temporal. Five MP’s voted in favour of the bill, and two MP’s did not vote, and as such, the Legal Citations Act 2020 was sent to the Lord Temporal to be either adopted into Mercian law or vetoed.
Similarly, Viscount Linden brought forth the Proctors Bill 2020, and an excerpt of his address on the floor regarding it can be found here:
My sincere admiration goes out to Mr Anthony Clark, formerly of the benches opposite, for the superb work he did in his capacity as Attorney-General. Indeed, his milestone legislation paved a great way forward for our judicial system. However, no piece of legislation is ever complete or perfect, Mr Speaker, and thank goodness for that, or we’d all be out of a job!
This bill fills a gap in Mr Clark’s framework, which is his neglect to regulate the legal profession. A fundamental part of a healthy legal system is the citizen’s protection from legal malpractice, which can only be guaranteed if the practice of the law is regulated in some way. That is what this bill sets out to achieve.
After yet another swift period of discussion, Speaker Wu moved the House to vote. Five MP’s voted in favour of the bill, and a sixth abstained. The Proctors Act 2020 was thus sent to the Lord Temporal for either ratification or vetoing.
Towards the end of the Parliament Meeting, Count Whyatt-Miranda brought forth a statement from the State of Zenrax asking for Mercia-Lurk to send a diplomat to observe affairs and foster goodwill between the two nations. This was not addressed in discussion as Duke Clémens had not yet announced his cabinet to oversee such things, but the matter will be brought forward in future Parliament Meetings.
Just before the meeting was brought to a close, the First Minister announced his cabinet, which saw a slew of familiar faces return to the direct governance of the Mercian nation:
- First Minister: Duke Henry Clémens
- Ministry of Internal Affairs: Duke Edward de Caville
- Minister of State: Duke Henry Clémens
- Minister of Finance, Charity & Commerce: Baron Damian Billbrough
- Minister of Culture: Lord Temporal Karl Freidrich von Ravensburg
- Proctor-General: Viscount Sebastian Linden
- Minister without Portfolio: Count Alejandro Whyatt-Miranda
- Synod Representative: Lord Spiritual Richard I
Duke Clémens was noted for his “Churchillian” approach – handling both the premiership and foreign affairs simultaneously, while His Lordship Richard I returned as the Representative of the Synod of the Mercian Christian Church. Count Whyatt-Miranda is serving, for the first time, as part of a National Liberal administration, after a distinguished career of leading the secular wing of Mercian politics against the pro-Church party.
With over half of the Mercian cabinet identifying as Christians (three as Mercian Churchmen, and a fourth as a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church), it is also noteworthy that this is the second time in Mercian history where a member of the Mercian Christian Church’s clergy has also been First Minister (the first being during Duke de Caville’s emergency government of 2018, the Duke being the Bishop of the Clyran Province of Kernollond). Duke Clémens also holds the position of Bishop of Artifax, an historic city within the Country of Lurk.
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