And it's finished! Longer than I expected but whatever. Also, now that I'm thinking about it, I don't really mind if Boerd invades the Shetlands/Orkney. I'd rather not have him have it from the start, though.

[hider=The United Kingdom of Great Britain]
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[b]Name of Nation:[/b] The United Kingdom of Great Britain

[b]Territories:[/b] Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man, [b]Shetland & Orkney Isles[/b]), various islands across the world (except the Falklands).

[b]Government Type:[/b] [S]CAPATALIST LOL[/S] Two-tier Parliamentary system (House of Commons and Lords) with a constitutional monarchy.

[b]Military:[/b] 100,000 in active service, spread amongst Royal Navy, RAF and Ground Forces. Uses up-to-date weaponry (whatever the French are using. White flags and all)

[b]Economy:[/b] Banks, Biscuits, North Sea Oil, industry or something, computers, newspeak, selling flags to northern ireland, idontevenknow, somethingornothing, Good Comedy, fish and chips, pip pip cheerio my golliwog, casual racism, sunburned tourists, sunburned drunk tourists, sunburned drunk football tourists, toast sandwiches. Does this even matter? [url=http://youtu.be/yqYKUHUzva8?t=48s]'!'[/url]

[b]Foreign Policy:[/b] Keeping the peace in Africa, Europe and Ireland. Strengthen relations with France and the NAC. Stop the spread of the bad guys (whoever they are).

[b]History:[/b]
On May 15th 2015, Britain was changed forever. The United Kingdom Independence Party caused an earthquake at Westminster, gaining an overall majority of seats. It was a win that changed British politics forever. UKIP, led by Nigel Farage, replaced the Conservative Party as the largest right-wing party in Britain. The Conservatives still existed, of course but have since become a smaller third-party. The Liberal Democrats were completely destroyed, losing all but one seats in Parliament. Labour, meanwhile, became the official Opposition Party yet trailed behind UKIP. After this horrible loss, Labour leader Ed Miliband faced a revolt from the Labour backbenches, who demanded he shift the party further to the left to appeal to the growing lower classes and disillusioned Labour voters. Ed resigned a month later and the party leadership became a race between the hard and soft left within the party. Tony Livingstone, MP for Thirsk and Malton and famed for his Democratic Socialist views, was elected by a narrow margin to lead Labour and to become leader of the opposition. He quickly filled his cabinet with similarly minded individuals and radically shifted the formally moderate party to the left. He introduced many changes, undoing much of the work done by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The party grew wildly popular amongst the lower classes but alienated much of it's middle class voters.

UKIP, meanwhile, had large sweeping changes. In 2017, they finished negotiations with EU and left the organisation altogether. To this day, many Europeans partly blame the British for the eventual collapse of the EU in the 2030's. All immigration to Britain was stopped for five years in the 2018 Act of Border Control. Up to 3 million recent European immigrants were forcibly deported back to Europe and the policy of multiculturalism that had been promoted by previous governments ended. This pleased the majority of White Britons, who felt they had taken their country back. However, UKIP's popularity would soon come plummeting towards the end of their reign, in which they made several unpopular decisions. The NHS was sold off to an American healthcare company, which led to much of the country taking to the streets in protest. Still feeling the stingy economic after-effects of leaving the EU, Nigel Farage spent the money from the NHS sell-off on modernising British Military capabilities. This included upgrading the Trident nuclear system, buying weapons off the Americans and increasing the size of the army four times over. Labour popularity was soaring by 2019, with Tony Livingstone promising to nationalise all public services and to completely re-do the broken welfare system.

In 2020, after days of intense voting, the result was a majority Labour win, closely followed by UKIP. Tony Livingstone quickly went about nationalising and re-nationalising public services, introducing a living wage of 10 pounds an hour and raising taxes to help the burgeoning economy. A mass exodus of corporations was looking likely as the taxes went up. However, the corporate tax was dropped to 15% and the UK became somewhat of a tax haven for corporations. Most corporations were watched closely by Tony Livingstone's government and told to employ local people. As such, unemployment steadily dropped. To the surprise of many, Labour kept up the policy of tight borders, adopting an Australian-style of immigration laws (people are allowed to come if they're skilled and have a clear criminal record). The military was still kept powerful but less money was pumped into it. Things were looking up for Britain as they approached the 2025 General Election, though. Poverty, crime and unemployment were dropping and the gap between rich and poor was quickly closing.

But then, things went sour on the world stage.

A pact was signed between Argentina and Spain, each recognising the Falklands and Gibraltar as territory occupied by the British and called the sovereign claims of Britain on both of these areas into question. Tony Livingstone's government took a careful approach to such claims and gently reminded each country of previous agreements regarding the areas. The Spanish-backed Argentinians responded by invading and occupying the Falklands in late 2024. Urged by the opposition and the public, Livingstone sent three battleships to the Falklands as a show of power. Livingstone himself hoped to avoid war. His hopes were dashed when the HMS July was destroyed in battle and the entire crew executed by Argentinian soldiers. This led to outrage in Britain, with the opposition under Nigel Farage demanding reprisal. Due to the Spanish involvement in this, all relations with Spain were cut off and units stationed on the Strait of Gibraltar began patrolling and seizing all ships headed to Spain. Meanwhile, a fleet was headed towards the Falkland's to fight off the Argentinians. Attempts by the Americans and the EU to cool tensions between the three countries ended in failure. On the tenth of January 2025, Argentina and Spain signed a declaration of war against the British with the intent of taking the land they felt was rightfully theirs and ending what they felt was British monopoly over Gibraltar and the South Atlantic. The Spanish were suspended from the EU Council and Parliament for ignoring international law. 

Panicked British officials went to the Americans for help and although they refused to outright help them, they began funding the British. Skirmishes occurred between the Spanish Mediterranean Navy and British Navy but none to the extent to the bloody naval and air battles that went on in the South Atlantic between Argentinians and British ships. In Britain, the General Election was pushed back to another date and the Act of Emergency Powers during Wartime was passed in the House of Commons. The British government dissolved all devolved parliaments in Britain and their territories and a special wartime coalition between UKIP and Labour was declared until the war was over. The War Cabinet drew up plans to prepare for a war on two fronts. Gibraltar was heavily fortified and the British forces were mobilised. The Navy was to patrol along the coast and Strait of Gibraltar and prepare for a possible invasion. The Spanish Atlantic Navy, almost obsolete compared to the British Navy, was easily destroyed by the summer of 2025. The UN and EU, who imposed sanctions on both Britain and Spain, were almost useless in stopping fighting. A land invasion of Spain was considered but eventually it was decided that the losses would be too heavy. So, the British continued their patrols along the coast of Spain and Gibraltar. For the rest of the war, the Spanish only partook in air battles over Gibraltar and even the Isles of Scilly, their navy stuck behind a British blockade and their land forces too small to consider an air invasion of Britain.

While performing well against Spain, things were often mixed in the South Atlantic. The Argentinians turned the Falklands into a fortress, placing almost a third of their army on the islands and having the area constantly patrolled by ships and fighters. Local resistance was widespread but brutally crushed. The British Navy struggled to break the blockade on the Falklands and after weeks of fighting, they limped to the South Georgia and the Sandwich Isles for repairs. The Argentinians hailed this as a victory over the British and declared it as an end of the 'weakened British grip felt around around the world'. Support for the war remained high in Britain. Where they couldn't find help in the Americans, they instead found in the Commonwealth. The Canadians and Australians declared support of British sovereignty over the Falklands and both began military assistance. The rest of the Commonwealth, while not all declared their support, quietly put trade sanctions on Argentinian and Spanish goods. A Canadian fleet of battleships was sent to assist the British in Argentina and when all repairs were finished, the bulky fleet made their way back to the Falkland's Blockade. Weeks of fighting led to disappointment by the British, who couldn't retake the islands. 

In October 2025, by which time the war was starting effect economies on both sides, a peace agreement was signed between the British Commonwealth and the Spanish-Argentinian alliance thing. Britain recognised Argentinian sovereignty over the Falklands and invited any Falkland Islanders to Britain. However, Gibraltar stayed in British hands due to the upper hand of the British Navy over Spain. This was a source of discontent in Spain, who felt that the war had been a waste of time. The Spanish were allowed back into the EU after IT'S economy started suffering and the Argentinians gladly gloated that they had finally beat the British Empire. The Second Falklands Conflict was seen as one of the first battles of the Third World War and a test on British power. While it still held power close to home, it's grip on the former colonies was slipping.

A General Election was called in 2026, to which a hung parliament was declared. Labours support had ebbed away slightly with the loss of the Falklands and as the economy had been taking hits during the war, UKIP support once again rose. However, Labour declared a coalition with the newly formed UK Green Party that had received much support amongst the younger generation and the coalition was just enough to declare a majority in Parliament. Under the coalition, Welsh and Scottish parliaments were reformed. However, Northern Ireland had been seeing problems. A growing discontent in the Democratic Unionist Party during the wartime had led to riots in Belfast and Derry between Loyalists who wanted their parliament back and Republicans, whose numbers had been growing in recent years due to the progressive and highly successful Sinn Fein government south of the border. The parliament was reformed a few months later after troubles had cooled and elections were held. To the surprise of many, Sinn Fein got the majority. Their progressive policies appealed to young voters from all backgrounds in Northern Ireland whereas the Democratic Unionist Party, made up of old Protestants, were seen to be stuck in the past. As the rest of the UK legalised gay marriage and abortion, the DUP refused to recognised either. With Sinn Fein a majority on both sides of the border, calls were made for unification between Northern and Southern Ireland. The Irish-British-Northern Irish governments entered talks in early 2027 and a referendum was declared to take place in Northern Ireland in 2028 with a simple question.

'Should Northern Ireland be unified with the Republic of Ireland?'

This was met with widespread anger amongst the more Unionist areas of Northern Ireland and the DUP. Both sides set up a 'yes-no' campaign, similar to that of the failed Scottish independence bid almost 15 years before. Both sides of the campaign were targeted by paramilitary groups, who sprang up in each community. The days up to the elections were dark ones in Northern Ireland, as the NIRA (New Irish Republican Army) fought secret street battles with the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) although nothing as terrible as the troubles in the 1960's occurred. The day of the election had to be monitored by British soldiers and the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) as members of the UVF and NIRA threatened to attack or bomb ballot boxes. Voter turnout was almost 95% of the eligible Northern Irish voters and the vote was narrow. Both British and Irish governments prepared for the worst. At 56% to 44%, Northern Ireland voted

'Yes'.

This announcement was met with anger from loyalists and celebration from the Republicans. The Northern Irish government would be handed over on March 2029. The months leading up to that was met with more fuckin' riots. Yeah, good job Northern Ireland. Keep fucking rioting, you silly bastards. The Irish governments attempted to reassure the Loyalists by telling them they could still be British and they would not discriminate against them because they were prudish Protestants. This settled some down but not all. Unification day came and went. The pound was still accepted in a majority of Northern Ireland as they stayed in circulation and the British and Irish governments worked closely to keep the peace, which always flared up around St. Patrick's Day and the 12th of July. The UVF have taken on a similar position to the IRA during the Troubles and now fight guerilla wars with the Irish Army to re-join the United Kingdom that continue to this day. Similar to the Falklands, all Northern Irish people were invited to Britain if they wanted to move. Some did but a majority stayed. Many were sick of fighting and riots and now just wanted peace. And the Irish seem to be doing a damn good job, as the Northern Irish hasn't exploded. Yet.

Britain was relatively quiet until 2031, the next General Election. Nigel Farage announced this was his last election, as did Tony Livingstone. Many in Britain got quite hyped up for the incoming election as they saw it as a final battle between two old political rivals. Support for UKIP was much larger than for Labour, while the UK Green Party quietly crept up to become a third party. The charismatic Nigel Farage, now almost 70 and slightly mellowed on his political views, led UKIP to victory. A 'post-Labour' consensus was declared as UKIP agreed to keep in the nationalised public services and many of the economic changes Labour had instated. They slightly decreased taxes, put up the corporate tax and began a campaign re-funding and modernising the army after the disappointing defeat in the Falklands. Immigration, which had been reduced to a trickle since the last time UKIP was in power, soon began to become a river of immigration into the early 30's as India and Pakistan descended to shit. A spike in immigration from the Indian subcontinent slightly stopped the ever-decreasing population and the price of Nike trainers rose rapidly as the Indian children making them were dead. The population, slowly decreasing since UKIP's last government as birth rates plummeted, was eventually stabilised to an extent. 

While war raged on around the world, Britain licked its wounds from the Falkland Conflict and made pacts with it's allies, staying neutral in most larger wars. As the EU collapsed in 2033, Britain made a pact of friendship with France, with Nigel Farage declaring them their 'closest ally in a world of conflict'. In 2034, Nigel Farage announced his retirement and handed over party leadership to his next in line, Oliver Clarke. Labour announced their new leader around that time also, a Scottish socialist named Richard Murray (or 'Dick Murray' huehuehue). Beginning in 2035 under Clarke, the British began funding various organisations in Central Africa after encouragement from the French. Apparently, a large Chinese operation in the region hoped to place China-friendly governments in developing countries that were slowly filling the vacuum left by India and Pakistan. The French and British fought a proxy war against the Chinese in Central Africa, that continues to this. Although never publicly announcing support, they secretly tried to place western-friendly governments in these countries to take advantage of their large sweatshops and weaker economies to varying levels of success.

In recent years, the British have viewed the rising German and Russian powers with grim appeasement, avoiding war with either. The Swedish interests in the Shetlands worries the British slightly but the chances of losing the islands to them seems slim. With a new Labour government in place under the clever Dick Murray, things are once again looking up. Their enemies seem so far away, the economy is slowly growing, people are happy and peace seems to be descending across the world as the wars slowly spark out. Throughout it all, the British have stayed strong as they always have. 
 
[b]Allies:[/b] NAC, France and The Commonwealth.

[b]Foes:[/b] China, Argentina and Spain (strained relations with all three).

[b]Demographics:[/b] 72 million. Major ethnic groups/nationalities include White British [80%], Asian British [8%], Black British [5%], Irish [3%], Other [4%].

[b]Languages:[/b] [i]First language:[/i] English [95%], Welsh [5%]. [i]Second Language[/i] Welsh [60%] (Wales only) , Scottish Gaelic [30%] (Scotland only), Cornish [10%] (Cornwall only), Manx [2%] (Isle of Man only).

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