Land of Hope and Glory RP (World-building thread)

[The Democratic Marxists]

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Character Information Sheet

NS Nation Name: The Democratic Marxists
Character Name: Ruby Holmes
Character Gender: Female
Character Age: 40
Character Height: 5' 7"
Character Weight: 55 kg
Character Position/Role/Job: MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (since 2010), Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (since 2015)
Appearance:

Character Constituency of Origin: Bethnal Green and Bow
Character Constituency of Residence: Hackney North and Stoke Newington
Character Party Affiliation: Labour
Main Strengths: Consistent, clear vision, strong debater, educated background
Main Weaknesses: Very ideological, abrasive and divisive, sometimes too direct, makes controversial remarks, popularity has fallen with some trade unions because of her pro-Remain positions
Biography: Ruby Holmes was born on 14th April, 1979 in Bromley-by-Bow. Her father was a postal worker and trade union representative in the Union of Communication Workers, while her mother was a nurse at the local hospital. Her parents were both Labour Party members and active supporters of the UK Old Left. She was born the same year that Margaret Thatcher came to power, and her parents were both vocally opposed to the Thatcher Doctrine.

Holmes was an excellent student at her primary school, and was a voracious reader. She developed skills in writing and mathematics. As she entered the sixth form, her parents scraped together their money and sent her to St Olave's Grammar School, known for its academic prowess. Ruby took four A-levels and excelled in all of them, graduating with A in all of her subjects (Maths, Economics, Politics, and English Literature). She read Economics at King's College in Cambridge University, achieving an upper second class degree in 2000. She was known as a highly capable debater, and was elected president of the Cambridge Union as a student. While at university, Ruby was an active campaigner for Labour despite her qualms with New Labour. She went on to postgraduate studies at the London School of Economics, graduating with an MSc in Local Economic Development in 2002.

She was hired as a junior policy analyst at the International Monetary Fund in 2003, where she worked with the few left-leaning economists at the institution who were conducting research about the relationship between wealth inequality and economic decline. She rose in recognition within the institution for her unique approach that heavily relied on experimentation and econometrics. She was one of the economists who moved the IMF and the World Bank towards a position of sustainable development and poverty alleviation rather than solely the encouragement economic growth.

After becoming more established in the economic world, Holmes frequently published her left-wing perspective on economics in the Guardian and the Independent. She started writing several op-eds in the Independent that were highly critical of Tom Blake and his centrist style of politics, proclaiming that he was "leading the new class war waged on Britain's workers." Following the retirement of the Hackney MP, Holmes jumped into the race in 2010 as a democratic socialist who put an academic, evidence-based spin on her views which fared well with the educated population of the constituency. She won easily, as it was a safe seat.

2010 saw the end of Labour's stronghold and a new era of Tory power. Holmes was a vocal backbencher and nominated a left winger to replace the outgoing PM as Labour leader. Although unsuccessful, she was one of the early leaders to push the party leftward. She also enlisted as part of the Socialist Campaign Group, although she was careful to cast herself as a measured policy advocate, not an ideological zealot.

Holmes was lonely in her vocal opposition to the 2011 military intervention in Libya, initiated by the government to remove Muammar Gaddafi. She claimed at the time that "engaging in endless war is neither an economically viable option nor a moral option, especially not by a government that wants austerity for the working class but endless pounds for military intervention." She criticized the leadership for not saying the same. She also continued to make economic cases for nationalization of various industries and expanded public housing.

In 2015, under the leadership of [not Corbyn], Holmes was appointed Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, and was praised by left-leaning individuals as the right pick. She described her vision as "a worker-controlled economy" in response to Tory claims of Labour's ambitions to have a government takeover of the economy. Holmes was a fairly enthusiastic Remainer, given the economic consequences of a potential Brexit, and actively campaigned to Remain. Once it was decided, however Holmes publicly stated that "it is the responsibility of the government to carry out a Brexit that protects the interests of British trade unions and workers."

Other Info: N/A

I have read and accept the rules of the roleplay: (Your Nation's Name Here)

Do Not Remove: 84721

Added a weakness

[West Bromwich Holme]

Re-submitted application with changes made as per suggestion:

(

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Character Information Sheet

NS Nation Name: West Bromwich Holme
Character Name: Elise Jackson van den Merwe
Character Gender: Female
Character Age: 36
Character Height: 6"2
Character Weight: 14 stone / 88.4kg
Character Position/Role/Job: Independent MP (2012-)
Appearance:

Image

Character Constituency of Origin: Leigh (born overseas)
Character Constituency of Residence: Leigh
Character Party Affiliation: Independent
Main Strengths: Popular with motorists, good at being able to give speeches and presentations, expert in consumer law and data protection law, automotive expertise, has never been a supporter of the EU, British citizenship despite American heritage. Elise is able to give good constructive reasons for her arguments and uses facts, figures and research to back it up.
Main Weaknesses: Her pro-American/South African stance (for immigration/trade) will probably upset pro-EU loyalists; her anti-EU stance upsets remainers; her stance that job security and consumer issues are of more importance on a day-to-day basis for the average Joe Public than climate change proves controversial; her hybrid Texan/South African accent can be difficult to understand by some. Also, her pro-automobile enthusiast and pro-automotive industry stance would upset environmentalists but it is a firmly-held belief. She accepts climate change is happening, but has said publically in 2018:

Climate change is an issue, but on a day-to-day scale, if you can't get a job, worry about finances, or your washing machine's broken and the manufacturer won't do a thing, well, then, it's pushed way down the list. I don't mean that pejoratively. It's happening, but to average Joe or Joanne Public, it's the last thing on their mind.

Elise has no social media - no Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and prefers to "roll your own" websites and WordPress blogs (she has wrote under pseudonyms).
Biography: (Minimum 2-3 paragraphs) Elise was born to a British mother, Marie, and South African-American father, John, in Dallas, Texas on 15 April 1984. Her mother is English, being of Anglo-Dutch heritage, and born in Astley, Greater Manchester, having grown up on what is now Coldalhurst Lane (or at least the estate). Her mother grew up in working-class conditions, but slowly became educated, eventually moving to the U.S. aged 25, and she has never returned since.

Elise moved to the United Kingdom aged 19, and studied business systems and management; eventually she got employment in tourism, before moving into car sales, which she did for around 10-15 years (the car sales work ran concurrently alongside the university work).

In 2013, she went into politics as a researcher (a side job) after leaving her job in automotive sales for a Citroen dealership in 2013, and decided to stand for being an independent MP; she won in a local by-election. Elise has also worked on the Transport Select Committee as a spokesperson 2014-2018 prior to becoming independent. She became independent after the Labour anti-Semitism crisis, deciding that it would be better to roll her own type of politics.



Other Info: Elise has quadruple citizenship - U.S. citizenship by birth, Dutch citizenship (per
where the applicant has "special and objectively assessable reasons" for not renouncing his existing nationality, and being born before 1 January 1985; her father is part-Dutch), South African citizenship (as per special permission) and British citizenship (due to the British citizenship by descent part).
She is also very much noted for her femininity and her strong opinions on the automobile industry (since 2008, she's run a pseudonymous blog on this topic)

She has these political positions:

Foreign policy: Elise is not supportive of the European Union at all and has always considered the United Kingdom's membership of it to not fit in with what the country wants or people's needs, and prefers that we have stronger links with the U.S, South Africa, the Netherlands and Scandinavia, citing our historical links to those countries and the "Special Relationship" between the U.S. and United Kingdom as being important to her.

She is someone who considers trade deals to be important, but prefers to have, in her words, tailor-made arrangements between our countries with regard to trade and immigration.

Also, she has said she would like a new "right of free movement" for U.S, South African, Dutch, Scandinavian citizens which works both ways, benefiting both us and those countries; she also says there are probably many people of British descent there who would like to return to their homeland like her.

Elise opposes any such Article 17 or Article 13 like copyright filter, and has said that many businesses do not care about the really older things being pirated, claiming that no revenue is really being lost on an old 2010 Adobe CS6 running on an old 2009 Mac that's not for retail sale any more - claiming it's no-one's business but a "at-your-own risk" policy.

She prefers us to go into trade deals rather than get into long-drawn-out wars.

International Development: For now, she prefers the status quo to remain, claiming that it is better to have a dedicated department for such things. She would like to see increased spending on "Brand United Kingdom" promoting the positives of our country to foreign investors, tourists and businesspeople, rather than our flaws, concentrating on our vast history. She believes spending on the tourist industry is highly important, as it brings much-needed income to the country.

Home affairs: She has long seen prison as a place of reform, rather than punishment, and said "Rome was not built in a day; corruption cannot be ended in a year". She has never supported capital punishment, feeling that it is wrong in a civilised 21st-century society, saying "It's positively medieval, like an American lynching in the Old South or violence in Durban by gangs."


Brexit: Elise has never supported the EU in any form, and prefers the United Kingdom have a better social, trading and political relationship with the United States, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and South Africa and have their own custom-built trade and free movement agreement. Elise has never been popular with Remainers in any way for wanting the United Kingdom to be on better terms with both nations. Elise has publically stated how she feels that the United Kingdom has never fitted in with the European Union, instead fitting in better with the U.S, Canada, Japan, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Immigration: Elise would like the right of free movement to extend to Americans, Dutch citizens and South Africans to replace EU citizens post-Brexit and she has friends in London who are American and South African expats (as well as Australian expats too). Elise feels that American and South African expats get a raw deal for foreigners wanting to work here, and says that because she's both in addition to being British she can understand anti-immigrant sentiment. Elise also feels that there should be a new Anglo-Dutch agreement for British citizens in the Netherlands and Dutch citizens in the United Kingdom that requires neither to renounce their citizenship and allows dual citizenship as presently Dutch law only allows it in limited circumstances (Elise's mother is half-Dutch)

Abortion: Elise has always been in favour of allowing the woman to decide if she wants the baby or not, stating that "Do you really want your rapist legally allowed to see your child for the next 18 years?", quoting a Law and Order SVU episode. She feels that pro-lifers do not understand the circumstances women go through psychologically deciding to have an abortion.

Climate change: She says it's an issue, but one that's of lower concern to the average member of the public on a day-to-day scale as compared to job security, economy or consumer rights and data protection issues. To her, she thinks she is being realistic on the issue, claiming that a mum in her constituency said "What is it with this focus on climate change? The benefits system is totally out of whack, and you're dealing with climate change?"

Automotive industry: Feels that the focus on electric cars is too narrow in scope, prefers that a choice of alternative fuels and electric is better than wholesale conversion to electric. She has never supported self-driving cars in any way, having read ample amounts of research on the issue.
Internet censorship: She is a strong privacy activist, and would rather have the United Kingdom noted for a free and open internet.
Law and order: She would like the focus to be more on dealing with car crime, arson, insurance fraud, identity theft, financial crimes than other ones and would like to see more spending on improving police cars and police technology rather than "bobbies on the beat", claiming that what she saw in the U.S. and South Africa works better.

I have read and accept the rules of the roleplay: West Bromwich Holme

Do Not Remove: 84721
[/align]

[Greater Arab State]

(Image)

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Character Information Sheet

NS Nation Name: The Democratic Marxists
Character Name: Ruby Holmes
Character Gender: Female
Character Age: 40
Character Height: 5' 7"
Character Weight: 55 kg
Character Position/Role/Job: MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (since 2010), Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (since 2015)
Appearance:

(Image)

Character Constituency of Origin: Bethnal Green and Bow
Character Constituency of Residence: Hackney North and Stoke Newington
Character Party Affiliation: Labour
Main Strengths: Consistent, clear vision, strong debater, educated background
Main Weaknesses: Very ideological, abrasive and divisive, sometimes too direct, makes controversial remarks, popularity has fallen with some trade unions because of her pro-Remain positions
Biography: Ruby Holmes was born on 14th April, 1979 in Bromley-by-Bow. Her father was a postal worker and trade union representative in the Union of Communication Workers, while her mother was a nurse at the local hospital. Her parents were both Labour Party members and active supporters of the UK Old Left. She was born the same year that Margaret Thatcher came to power, and her parents were both vocally opposed to the Thatcher Doctrine.

Holmes was an excellent student at her primary school, and was a voracious reader. She developed skills in writing and mathematics. As she entered the sixth form, her parents scraped together their money and sent her to St Olave's Grammar School, known for its academic prowess. Ruby took four A-levels and excelled in all of them, graduating with A in all of her subjects (Maths, Economics, Politics, and English Literature). She read Economics at King's College in Cambridge University, achieving an upper second class degree in 2000. She was known as a highly capable debater, and was elected president of the Cambridge Union as a student. While at university, Ruby was an active campaigner for Labour despite her qualms with New Labour. She went on to postgraduate studies at the London School of Economics, graduating with an MSc in Local Economic Development in 2002.

She was hired as a junior policy analyst at the International Monetary Fund in 2003, where she worked with the few left-leaning economists at the institution who were conducting research about the relationship between wealth inequality and economic decline. She rose in recognition within the institution for her unique approach that heavily relied on experimentation and econometrics. She was one of the economists who moved the IMF and the World Bank towards a position of sustainable development and poverty alleviation rather than solely the encouragement economic growth.

After becoming more established in the economic world, Holmes frequently published her left-wing perspective on economics in the Guardian and the Independent. She started writing several op-eds in the Independent that were highly critical of Tom Blake and his centrist style of politics, proclaiming that he was "leading the new class war waged on Britain's workers." Following the retirement of the Hackney MP, Holmes jumped into the race in 2010 as a democratic socialist who put an academic, evidence-based spin on her views which fared well with the educated population of the constituency. She won easily, as it was a safe seat.

2010 saw the end of Labour's stronghold and a new era of Tory power. Holmes was a vocal backbencher and nominated a left winger to replace the outgoing PM as Labour leader. Although unsuccessful, she was one of the early leaders to push the party leftward. She also enlisted as part of the Socialist Campaign Group, although she was careful to cast herself as a measured policy advocate, not an ideological zealot.

Holmes was lonely in her vocal opposition to the 2011 military intervention in Libya, initiated by the government to remove Muammar Gaddafi. She claimed at the time that "engaging in endless war is neither an economically viable option nor a moral option, especially not by a government that wants austerity for the working class but endless pounds for military intervention." She criticized the leadership for not saying the same. She also continued to make economic cases for nationalization of various industries and expanded public housing.

In 2015, under the leadership of [not Corbyn], Holmes was appointed Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, and was praised by left-leaning individuals as the right pick. She described her vision as "a worker-controlled economy" in response to Tory claims of Labour's ambitions to have a government takeover of the economy. Holmes was a fairly enthusiastic Remainer, given the economic consequences of a potential Brexit, and actively campaigned to Remain. Once it was decided, however Holmes publicly stated that "it is the responsibility of the government to carry out a Brexit that protects the interests of British trade unions and workers."

Other Info: N/A

I have read and accept the rules of the roleplay: (Your Nation's Name Here)

Do Not Remove: 84721

Added a weakness

Accepted

[Fronket]

Reserving Lib-Dem Leader

[Fronket]

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Character Information Sheet

NS Nation Name: Fronket
Character Name: Dr. Michael "Mike" Davies
Character Gender:
Character Age: 63
Character Height: 5' 8"
Character Weight: 91 kg
Character Position/Role/Job: MP for Richmond Park (since 1997), leader of the Liberal Democrats (since 2007), Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (2010-2015)
Appearance:

Character Constituency of Origin: Richmond Park
Character Constituency of Residence: Richmond Park
Character Party Affiliation: Liberal Democrats
Main Strengths: Respected, good negotiator, moderate, very specific and articulate
Main Weaknesses: Seen as "establishment", is disliked heavily by Leavers for his staunchly pro-Remain views even after the referendum, disregards the result of the Brexit referendum, seen as elitist
Biography:
Dr. Mike Davies was born on 3rd of September, 1956 in Richmond upon Thames to a wealthy family; his father was a barrister and his mother was a German expatriate. He was an adept student, graduating with good marks in all of his subjects. He went on to study at Magdalen College, Oxford University, where he read PPE and received a first class honours BA degree in 1974. He received a PhD in Political Science at Princeton University in 1986.

Dr. Davies got a job at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. He was primarily an envoy on matters pertaining to economic growth and its relation to the environment. He wasn't a fan of his job, and disliked living in Vienna. He moved back to Britain in 1995, where he worked as an associate professor of political science at UCL. During his time as a lecturer he was also an active Liberal Democrat; he maintained a close relationship with some Liberal Democrat MPs and the party leadership often sought his expert opinion on public policy. Davies also bought a house in his old neighborhood of Barnes, just outside of central London and in the constituency of Richmond Park.

In 1997, he successfully stood for election in the Richmond Park constituency. As an MP, Davies was a persistent advocate for what he called a British Happiness Index to be measured against GDP to gauge wellbeing in the UK. He was also a proponent of responsible fiscal spending and reducing the deficit. He vocally supported free trade and supported the Labour Government in building economic and military ties with the US. However, he was against the Iraq War and delivered his clear opposition to it on the floor of the House of Commons.

He was elected Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats in 2006. He focused on an agenda that promoted global cooperation, free trade, international development. Domestically, he was a supporter of measured fiscal policy and a flat tax. Davies always received acclaim from the media as well as academia for his specific line of questioning during PMQs. In the 2010 General Election, due to an absence by the incumbent Lib Dem leader, Dr. Davies replaced the leader in the televised debate. His performance was widely lauded.

After a poor General election result, where he was one of the few Lib Dems to retain their seats, the leader resigned. He was selected as Lib Dem leader, being the clear alternative. While he held personal popularity, he was not successful in the 2010 election, where he reluctantly agreed to a coalition government with the Tories. He served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, where he continued to advocate for his pro-trade views. He resigned in 2015 to focus on the General Election, which was again unsuccessful, despite high favorability for him as a leader. In 2016, he was one of the loudest pro-Remain voices, and continued to use his "Bollocks to Brexit" slogan even after the referendum, which didn't go down well with Leavers but made him a hero among Remainers, many of whom enthusiastically backed Lib Dems in the 2017 General Election, giving them a six-seat gain and allowing him to remain as leader.

Other Info:

I have read and accept the rules of the roleplay: (Your Nation's Name Here)

[Gordano and Lysandus]

(Image)

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Character Information Sheet

NS Nation Name: Fronket
Character Name: Dr. Michael "Mike" Davies
Character Gender:
Character Age: 63
Character Height: 5' 8"
Character Weight: 91 kg
Character Position/Role/Job: MP for Richmond Park (since 1997), leader of the Liberal Democrats (since 2007), Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (2010-2015)
Appearance:

(Image)

Character Constituency of Origin: Richmond Park
Character Constituency of Residence: Richmond Park
Character Party Affiliation: Liberal Democrats
Main Strengths: Respected, good negotiator, moderate, very specific and articulate
Main Weaknesses: Seen as "establishment", is disliked heavily by Leavers for his staunchly pro-Remain views even after the referendum, disregards the result of the Brexit referendum, seen as elitist
Biography:
Dr. Mike Davies was born on 3rd of September, 1956 in Richmond upon Thames to a wealthy family; his father was a barrister and his mother was a German expatriate. He was an adept student, graduating with good marks in all of his subjects. He went on to study at Magdalen College, Oxford University, where he read PPE and received a first class honours BA degree in 1974. He received a PhD in Political Science at Princeton University in 1986.

Dr. Davies got a job at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. He was primarily an envoy on matters pertaining to economic growth and its relation to the environment. He wasn't a fan of his job, and disliked living in Vienna. He moved back to Britain in 1995, where he worked as an associate professor of political science at UCL. During his time as a lecturer he was also an active Liberal Democrat; he maintained a close relationship with some Liberal Democrat MPs and the party leadership often sought his expert opinion on public policy. Davies also bought a house in his old neighborhood of Barnes, just outside of central London and in the constituency of Richmond Park.

In 1997, he successfully stood for election in the Richmond Park constituency. As an MP, Davies was a persistent advocate for what he called a British Happiness Index to be measured against GDP to gauge wellbeing in the UK. He was also a proponent of responsible fiscal spending and reducing the deficit. He vocally supported free trade and supported the Labour Government in building economic and military ties with the US. However, he was against the Iraq War and delivered his clear opposition to it on the floor of the House of Commons.

He was elected Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats in 2006. He focused on an agenda that promoted global cooperation, free trade, international development. Domestically, he was a supporter of measured fiscal policy and a flat tax. Davies always received acclaim from the media as well as academia for his specific line of questioning during PMQs. In the 2010 General Election, due to an absence by the incumbent Lib Dem leader, Dr. Davies replaced the leader in the televised debate. His performance was widely lauded.

After a poor General election result, where he was one of the few Lib Dems to retain their seats, the leader resigned. He was selected as Lib Dem leader, being the clear alternative. While he held personal popularity, he was not successful in the 2010 election, where he reluctantly agreed to a coalition government with the Tories. He served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, where he continued to advocate for his pro-trade views. He resigned in 2015 to focus on the General Election, which was again unsuccessful, despite high favorability for him as a leader. In 2016, he was one of the loudest pro-Remain voices, and continued to use his "Bollocks to Brexit" slogan even after the referendum, which didn't go down well with Leavers but made him a hero among Remainers, many of whom enthusiastically backed Lib Dems in the 2017 General Election, giving them a six-seat gain and allowing him to remain as leader.

Other Info:

I have read and accept the rules of the roleplay: (Your Nation's Name Here)

Good app there, Fronket. Just one question: If he became Lib Dem leader in 2010, why didn't he serve as Deputy Prime Minister during the coalition government?

[Fronket]

(Image)

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Character Information Sheet

NS Nation Name: Fronket
Character Name: Dr. Michael "Mike" Davies
Character Gender:
Character Age: 63
Character Height: 5' 8"
Character Weight: 91 kg
Character Position/Role/Job: MP for Richmond Park (since 1997), leader of the Liberal Democrats (since 2007), Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (2010-2015)
Appearance:

(Image)

Character Constituency of Origin: Richmond Park
Character Constituency of Residence: Richmond Park
Character Party Affiliation: Liberal Democrats
Main Strengths: Respected, good negotiator, moderate, very specific and articulate
Main Weaknesses: Seen as "establishment", is disliked heavily by Leavers for his staunchly pro-Remain views even after the referendum, disregards the result of the Brexit referendum, seen as elitist
Biography:
Dr. Mike Davies was born on 3rd of September, 1956 in Richmond upon Thames to a wealthy family; his father was a barrister and his mother was a German expatriate. He was an adept student, graduating with good marks in all of his subjects. He went on to study at Magdalen College, Oxford University, where he read PPE and received a first class honours BA degree in 1974. He received a PhD in Political Science at Princeton University in 1986.

Dr. Davies got a job at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. He was primarily an envoy on matters pertaining to economic growth and its relation to the environment. He wasn't a fan of his job, and disliked living in Vienna. He moved back to Britain in 1995, where he worked as an associate professor of political science at UCL. During his time as a lecturer he was also an active Liberal Democrat; he maintained a close relationship with some Liberal Democrat MPs and the party leadership often sought his expert opinion on public policy. Davies also bought a house in his old neighborhood of Barnes, just outside of central London and in the constituency of Richmond Park.

In 1997, he successfully stood for election in the Richmond Park constituency. As an MP, Davies was a persistent advocate for what he called a British Happiness Index to be measured against GDP to gauge wellbeing in the UK. He was also a proponent of responsible fiscal spending and reducing the deficit. He vocally supported free trade and supported the Labour Government in building economic and military ties with the US. However, he was against the Iraq War and delivered his clear opposition to it on the floor of the House of Commons.

He was elected Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats in 2006. He focused on an agenda that promoted global cooperation, free trade, international development. Domestically, he was a supporter of measured fiscal policy and a flat tax. Davies always received acclaim from the media as well as academia for his specific line of questioning during PMQs. In the 2010 General Election, due to an absence by the incumbent Lib Dem leader, Dr. Davies replaced the leader in the televised debate. His performance was widely lauded.

After a poor General election result, where he was one of the few Lib Dems to retain their seats, the leader resigned. He was selected as Lib Dem leader, being the clear alternative. While he held personal popularity, he was not successful in the 2010 election, where he reluctantly agreed to a coalition government with the Tories. He served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, where he continued to advocate for his pro-trade views. He resigned in 2015 to focus on the General Election, which was again unsuccessful, despite high favorability for him as a leader. In 2016, he was one of the loudest pro-Remain voices, and continued to use his "Bollocks to Brexit" slogan even after the referendum, which didn't go down well with Leavers but made him a hero among Remainers, many of whom enthusiastically backed Lib Dems in the 2017 General Election, giving them a six-seat gain and allowing him to remain as leader.

Other Info:

I have read and accept the rules of the roleplay: (Your Nation's Name Here)

Good app there, Fronket. Just one question: If he became Lib Dem leader in 2010, why didn't he serve as Deputy Prime Minister during the coalition government?

Oops my bad, he should be deputy PM. Will fix.

[Agarntrop]

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Character Information Sheet

NS Nation Name: Agarntrop
Character Name: David Richardson
Character Gender: Male
Character Age: 58
Character Height: 5' 11"
Character Weight: 185 lbs
Character Position/Role/Job: Shadow Secretary of State for Justice (2015-2018), Shadow Lord Chancellor (2015-2018), Shadow Minister for Justice (2012-2015), Secretary of State for Transport (1998-2003), Minister of State for Transport (1997-1998), Shadow Minister of State for Transport (1994-1997), Shadow Parliamentary Under-secretary for Transport (1992-1994), Member of Parliament for York Central (2010-Present), Member of Parliament for the City of York (1992-2010), Councillor for the Heworth Ward of York City Council (1988-1992).
Appearance:
Character Constituency of Origin: Beverley and Holderness.
Character Constituency of Residence: York Central
Character Party Affiliation: Labour
Main Strengths: Strong experience, appeals to both socialist and centrist sides of the Labour Party, intellegent, decisive.
Main Weaknesses: Makes frequent gaffes, makes contraversial and divisive statements on occasion, overall a somewhat difficult person.
Biography:
David Myles Richardson was born on the 30th October 1960 to a middle class family in a village in East Yorkshire near Beverley, where Richardson attended the local primary school. Richardson was noted by teachers to be intellegent but boisterous and unruly. Much to his discontent, Richardson's family moved from the village to the nearby city of York in 1968 due to Richardson's father's job as a consultant psychiatrist. Richardson, however, settled in to this environment soon enough and earned several O-levels and CSEs in maths, sciences and humanities, before earning A-levels in Politics, Engineering and Economics, and then completing a bachelor's degree at Durham University in Politics and Economics.

Richardson became a member of the Labour Party Young Socialists in 1976, and took an active role in its North Yorkshire branch. He took a comparably moderate position to most of its members who supported the Militant Tendency group. This led to him eventually leaving the LPYS after he argued for Michael Foot to resign after the 1983 election result, calling him "useless" and "unelectable." He continued, however, to remain a member of the Labour Party, and strongly supported Neville Kirkbride's denunciation of the Militant Tendency at the 1985 party conference.

Starting in 1984, Richardson worked for the City of York council, collecting and analyzing data for them. He was then nominated to stand for the Heworth Ward on the council and he accepted such nomination. He was then elected in 1988 to serve as part of the City of York labour administration at the time, where he worked notably and tirelessly and was thus nominated by the party to stand for the marginal seat of the City of York in 1992, where he managed to win the seat for Labour for the first time since 1979, easily overturning the tiny conservative majority of 147 there achieved at the 1987 election.

Shortly after the election, Richardson was appointed as a Shadow Parliamentary Under-secretary for Transport, and was loyal to the party whip. Richardson spent the first two years of his time in parliament advocating for better and more energy-efficient public transport links for the United Kingdom, particularly the north of England where he held his seat. He was also sceptical of Jack Monroe's privatisation of the railways.

Richardson supported Tom Blake at the 1994 labour leadership election, and was promoted to shadow Minister of State for Transport shortly after Blake took office. He once again argued for more spending on and the electrification of rail routes in the north of England, and emphatically supported a "long overdue" proposed tram system in Leeds.

He retained his seat with a stonking mandate at the 1997 general election, acheiving a majoriy of over 20,000 in what was, less than 20 years before, a seat held with a tory majority of over 3,500. He then assumed a ministerial position and went about attempting to acheive what he had intended to achieve in opposition, and influenced the Department for Transport to increase investment in mostly northern and forgotten communities.

His pivotal role in this respect resulted in him being upgraded to Secretary of State for Transport in 1998, when he became increasingly constrained by finances and bureaucracy, so had to temporarily set aside most of his ambitious plans, but still set about increasing investment in especially historically downtrodden communities.

He was a major figure on the Labour Party campaign trail in the 2001 General Election, during which he promised "huge investment in ambitious plans for the entirity of our country when it comes to transport" if labour were elected and also stated that these investments will "affect every inch of Britain" and that "no place will be left behind for as long as I am transport minister."

Richardson retained his seat at the 2001 general election with a majority of 13,779. He set to work in his department, although after 9/11 he began to develop a rift with the Prime Minister, due to his emphatic support for (not-Bush)'s war on terror, which Richardson was sceptical of. However, at least for the time being, Richardson mostly ignored this rift as he "had more important things to focus on for [his] department, like delivering on our election promises and securing funding for the Leeds supertram scheme," which he succesfully did in 2002.

Richardson was "appalled" at plans to invade Iraq in 2002, claiming that it was "ridiculous to start a conflict that will ultimately take thousands of lives when there is a clear diplomatic alternative," and that "we should take the sensible stance of our French and German partners, we are strong allies with the USA, but that does not mean that we are their puppets."

His noticable difference in attitude to the PM on this matter led to increasing calls for him to resign, which he eventually did reluctantly in February 2003, after it being speculated that the PM was planning to fire him. His official reasoning was so he could vote against the Iraq War, and denied any claims that he had been pressured by any senior Labour figures to resign.

This led to him returning to the backbenches where he fiercely and furiously argued against the Iraq War and frequently rebelled against the government on foreign policy motions, but mostly kept in line when it came to other bills proposed by the government. He retained his seat at the 2005 General Election, with a majority of over 10,000. He attributed the labour party's majority being cut from over 150 to 66 at the election to the "catastrophe" of the Iraq War.

After the 2005 election, he published a book entitled "English Nationalism: The Superiority Complex," criticising nationalists for assuming a false sense of British superiority and power rather than engaing in sensible and logical decisions. He also began to criticise the tabloid newspapers, especially after the phone hacking scandal of 2011, calling them "corrupt" and "manipulative," and was seen ripping up a copy of the Daily Mail, with the 'enemies of the people' headline, on a live TV interview in November 2016.

Richardson hit national headlines in 2007 after he publically came out as bisexual and said that he "had a huge weight lifted from his shoulders." When questioned about the fact that this could put his marriage in jeopardy, he claimed his family had "known for years about this, and they accept me for who I am." Richardson has been a major supporter of the LGBT rights movement since his outing.

He was a major voice for the adoption of Keynesian monetary measures after the 2008 crash, claiming it had shown that "deregulation has failed us miserably" and that the world must seek a new and more interventionist economic apporach he described as "new Keynesianism."

Electoral boundary changes meant that Richardson's seat was split into York Central and York Outer for the 2010 general election, in which Richardson stood in the solidly labour York Central seat and won with a majority of 6,451. Richardson blamed labour's wider election loss on the party's "stubborn retention of the previous economic policy, which, as history has shown, is the worst possible response to an economic crash."

Richardson supported Ted Merriment for the labour leadership contest in 2010, and developed a close relationship with Merriment and supported his changes to the Labour party that shifted it away from Blakeism. Richardson's close relationship with Merriment resulted in him being appointed shadow justice minister in 2012, where he argued against "hypocritical" budget cuts to the prison system.

Richardson retained his seat at the 2015 general election with an increased majority of 6,716. He originally supported (not Burnham) at the 2015 leadership election, although pledged his "full support" to Bennett after she was elected, and was promoted to shadow secretary of state for justice after the election, where he advocated for an end to austerity in the prison sector, the complete removal and replacement of IPPs, and more community service sentences rather than prison sentences or fines.

Richardson campaigned to remain in the 2016 EU Referendum. He was emphatically passionate about the issue and allegedly criticised Bennett for her lack of enthusiasm for the matter. He described the ultimate defeat of the remain campaign as "crushing" and was accused of suggesting the leave campaign only won because they had the "establishment media" on their side, a suggestion he later denied.

Despite his emphatic support for remain prior to the referendum, Richardson almost immediately said that he would "respect the result of the referendum," and called suggestions for a second one so soon after the last one "bizzare and ridiculous." However, he rejected any proposition to leave the EU Customs Union and the EEA, claiming that Vote Leave had promised to remain in such organisations after brexit and as a result it would be undemocratic and scheming of them to "abuse" the result to "push an extremist agenda the public didn't vote for."

Despite his alleged critical comments made back during the Referendum campaign, he defended Bennett in the 2016 labour leadership challenge and stayed on as a cabinet minister.

He retained his seat at the 2017 general election, with a majority of over 18,000, the largest he had had since 1997. He described the election result as "a message that the established order is about to go, and that a new kind of politics will take over." He also declared that "we have beaten the establishment for the first time since they took a stranglehold on power in 1979." He was later questioned as to why he served in Tom Blake's cabinet when he was clearly implying Blake's vision and views were no different to that of the conservative party in this declaration.

However, by new year 2018, Richardson began to become at odds with Bennett as she took an indecisive Brexit stance and began to lean towards a second referendum, something Richardson has always been opposed to. He also privately disagreed with Bennett over "unnecessary and hypocritical" cabinet firings.

He resigned as shadow secretary of state for justice in September 2018 after the labour party conference voted to support a second referendum, stating "it is too difficult for me to work in an indecisive shadow cabinet that one minute adopts a policy and sacks shadow ministers for supporting a contrary one, and then literally weeks later decides to adopt the contrary policy it has sacked shadow ministers for and then decides it will hound out shadow ministers who still support the original policy. It is almost as if one side thinks X will happen, the other side thinks Y will happen, and Mrs Bennett decides on Z."

He has now returned to the backbenches, but remains an extremely influential labour party figure.

Other Info: 1 brother, Agnostic, member of the Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance.

Married with 2 children:

Alfie (born 1998) - Age 21
Layla (born 2007) - Age 12

Political Positions:

Abortion: Supports the current relatively lenient laws in place for abortion in Great Britain, and believes they should be extended to Northern Ireland
Brexit: Despite originally opposing Brexit, supports "upholding the will of the people" and carrying it out following the referendum, but still favours UK membership of the EEA and Customs Union.
Climate Change: Believes that strong action is needed to prevent climate change.
Defence: Generally opposes millitary interventions (although exceptions can be made for the NATO operations in Bosnia in 1995 and military interventions in Syria) and supports cutting the defence budget to 2% of the GDP.
Energy: Supports completely phasing out fossil fuels by 2030, and recognises nuclear energy as a "potential solution."
Immigration: Supports keeping freedom of movement with the European Union, but is opposed to expanding it.
Devolution: Supports giving greater autonomy to devolved parliaments, but opposes Welsh or Scottish independence and Irish nationalism.
Northern Powerhouse: Hugely Supportive and believes should be a top priority for the Government to focus on.
NHS: Supports reducing privatisation of and increasing funding of the health service to at least 10% of the GDP.
Justice: Supports focusing the prison system towards rehabilitation over punishment for minor offenders, although recognises the need for a "strong deterrent" for severe offenders.
Same-sex Marriage: Supports strongly and voted for in 2013

Used Arab's template for part of my app.

I have read and accept the rules of the role-play: Agarntrop

Do Not Remove: 84721

[The World Capitalist Confederation]

(Image)

---

Character Information Sheet

NS Nation Name: Agarntrop
Character Name: David Richardson
Character Gender: Male
Character Age: 58
Character Height: 5' 11"
Character Weight: 185 lbs
Character Position/Role/Job: Shadow Secretary of State for Justice (2015-2018), Shadow Lord Chancellor (2015-2018), Shadow Minister for Justice (2012-2015), Secretary of State for Transport (1998-2003), Minister of State for Transport (1997-1998), Shadow Minister of State for Transport (1994-1997), Shadow Parliamentary Under-secretary for Transport (1992-1994), Member of Parliament for York Central (2010-Present), Member of Parliament for the City of York (1992-2010), Councillor for the Heworth Ward of York City Council (1988-1992).
Appearance: (Image)
Character Constituency of Origin: Beverley and Holderness.
Character Constituency of Residence: York Central
Character Party Affiliation: Labour
Main Strengths: Strong experience, appeals to both socialist and centrist sides of the Labour Party, intellegent, decisive.
Main Weaknesses: Makes frequent gaffes, makes contraversial and divisive statements on occasion, overall a somewhat difficult person.
Biography:
David Myles Richardson was born on the 30th October 1960 to a middle class family in a village in East Yorkshire near Beverley, where Richardson attended the local primary school. Richardson was noted by teachers to be intellegent but boisterous and unruly. Much to his discontent, Richardson's family moved from the village to the nearby city of York in 1968 due to Richardson's father's job as a consultant psychiatrist. Richardson, however, settled in to this environment soon enough and earned several O-levels and CSEs in maths, sciences and humanities, before earning A-levels in Politics, Engineering and Economics, and then completing a bachelor's degree at Durham University in Politics and Economics.

Richardson became a member of the Labour Party Young Socialists in 1976, and took an active role in its North Yorkshire branch. He took a comparably moderate position to most of its members who supported the Militant Tendency group. This led to him eventually leaving the LPYS after he argued for Michael Foot to resign after the 1983 election result, calling him "useless" and "unelectable." He continued, however, to remain a member of the Labour Party, and strongly supported Neville Kirkbride's denunciation of the Militant Tendency at the 1985 party conference.

Starting in 1984, Richardson worked for the City of York council, collecting and analyzing data for them. He was then nominated to stand for the Heworth Ward on the council and he accepted such nomination. He was then elected in 1988 to serve as part of the City of York labour administration at the time, where he worked notably and tirelessly and was thus nominated by the party to stand for the marginal seat of the City of York in 1992, where he managed to win the seat for Labour for the first time since 1979, easily overturning the tiny conservative majority of 147 there achieved at the 1987 election.

Shortly after the election, Richardson was appointed as a Shadow Parliamentary Under-secretary for Transport, and was loyal to the party whip. Richardson spent the first two years of his time in parliament advocating for better and more energy-efficient public transport links for the United Kingdom, particularly the north of England where he held his seat. He was also sceptical of Jack Monroe's privatisation of the railways.

Richardson supported Tom Blake at the 1994 labour leadership election, and was promoted to shadow Minister of State for Transport shortly after Blake took office. He once again argued for more spending on and the electrification of rail routes in the north of England, and emphatically supported a "long overdue" proposed tram system in Leeds.

He retained his seat with a stonking mandate at the 1997 general election, acheiving a majoriy of over 20,000 in what was, less than 20 years before, a seat held with a tory majority of over 3,500. He then assumed a ministerial position and went about attempting to acheive what he had intended to achieve in opposition, and influenced the Department for Transport to increase investment in mostly northern and forgotten communities.

His pivotal role in this respect resulted in him being upgraded to Secretary of State for Transport in 1998, when he became increasingly constrained by finances and bureaucracy, so had to temporarily set aside most of his ambitious plans, but still set about increasing investment in especially historically downtrodden communities.

He was a major figure on the Labour Party campaign trail in the 2001 General Election, during which he promised "huge investment in ambitious plans for the entirity of our country when it comes to transport" if labour were elected and also stated that these investments will "affect every inch of Britain" and that "no place will be left behind for as long as I am transport minister."

Richardson retained his seat at the 2001 general election with a majority of 13,779. He set to work in his department, although after 9/11 he began to develop a rift with the Prime Minister, due to his emphatic support for (not-Bush)'s war on terror, which Richardson was sceptical of. However, at least for the time being, Richardson mostly ignored this rift as he "had more important things to focus on for [his] department, like delivering on our election promises and securing funding for the Leeds supertram scheme," which he succesfully did in 2002.

Richardson was "appalled" at plans to invade Iraq in 2002, claiming that it was "ridiculous to start a conflict that will ultimately take thousands of lives when there is a clear diplomatic alternative," and that "we should take the sensible stance of our French and German partners, we are strong allies with the USA, but that does not mean that we are their puppets."

His noticable difference in attitude to the PM on this matter led to increasing calls for him to resign, which he eventually did reluctantly in February 2003, after it being speculated that the PM was planning to fire him. His official reasoning was so he could vote against the Iraq War, and denied any claims that he had been pressured by any senior Labour figures to resign.

This led to him returning to the backbenches where he fiercely and furiously argued against the Iraq War and frequently rebelled against the government on foreign policy motions, but mostly kept in line when it came to other bills proposed by the government. He retained his seat at the 2005 General Election, with a majority of over 10,000. He attributed the labour party's majority being cut from over 150 to 66 at the election to the "catastrophe" of the Iraq War.

After the 2005 election, he published a book entitled "English Nationalism: The Superiority Complex," criticising nationalists for assuming a false sense of British superiority and power rather than engaing in sensible and logical decisions. He also began to criticise the tabloid newspapers, especially after the phone hacking scandal of 2011, calling them "corrupt" and "manipulative," and was seen ripping up a copy of the Daily Mail, with the 'enemies of the people' headline, on a live TV interview in November 2016.

Richardson hit national headlines in 2007 after he publically came out as bisexual and said that he "had a huge weight lifted from his shoulders." When questioned about the fact that this could put his marriage in jeopardy, he claimed his family had "known for years about this, and they accept me for who I am." Richardson has been a major supporter of the LGBT rights movement since his outing.

He was a major voice for the adoption of Keynesian monetary measures after the 2008 crash, claiming it had shown that "deregulation has failed us miserably" and that the world must seek a new and more interventionist economic apporach he described as "new Keynesianism."

Electoral boundary changes meant that Richardson's seat was split into York Central and York Outer for the 2010 general election, in which Richardson stood in the solidly labour York Central seat and won with a majority of 6,451. Richardson blamed labour's wider election loss on the party's "stubborn retention of the previous economic policy, which, as history has shown, is the worst possible response to an economic crash."

Richardson supported Ted Merriment for the labour leadership contest in 2010, and developed a close relationship with Merriment and supported his changes to the Labour party that shifted it away from Blakeism. Richardson's close relationship with Merriment resulted in him being appointed shadow justice minister in 2012, where he argued against "hypocritical" budget cuts to the prison system.

Richardson retained his seat at the 2015 general election with an increased majority of 6,716. He originally supported (not Burnham) at the 2015 leadership election, although pledged his "full support" to Bennett after she was elected, and was promoted to shadow secretary of state for justice after the election, where he advocated for an end to austerity in the prison sector, the complete removal and replacement of IPPs, and more community service sentences rather than prison sentences or fines.

Richardson campaigned to remain in the 2016 EU Referendum. He was emphatically passionate about the issue and allegedly criticised Bennett for her lack of enthusiasm for the matter. He described the ultimate defeat of the remain campaign as "crushing" and was accused of suggesting the leave campaign only won because they had the "establishment media" on their side, a suggestion he later denied.

Despite his emphatic support for remain prior to the referendum, Richardson almost immediately said that he would "respect the result of the referendum," and called suggestions for a second one so soon after the last one "bizzare and ridiculous." However, he rejected any proposition to leave the EU Customs Union and the EEA, claiming that Vote Leave had promised to remain in such organisations after brexit and as a result it would be undemocratic and scheming of them to "abuse" the result to "push an extremist agenda the public didn't vote for."

Despite his alleged critical comments made back during the Referendum campaign, he defended Bennett in the 2016 labour leadership challenge and stayed on as a cabinet minister.

He retained his seat at the 2017 general election, with a majority of over 18,000, the largest he had had since 1997. He described the election result as "a message that the established order is about to go, and that a new kind of politics will take over." He also declared that "we have beaten the establishment for the first time since they took a stranglehold on power in 1979." He was later questioned as to why he served in Tom Blake's cabinet when he was clearly implying Blake's vision and views were no different to that of the conservative party in this declaration.

However, by new year 2018, Richardson began to become at odds with Bennett as she took an indecisive Brexit stance and began to lean towards a second referendum, something Richardson has always been opposed to. He also privately disagreed with Bennett over "unnecessary and hypocritical" cabinet firings.

He resigned as shadow secretary of state for justice in September 2018 after the labour party conference voted to support a second referendum, stating "it is too difficult for me to work in an indecisive shadow cabinet that one minute adopts a policy and sacks shadow ministers for supporting a contrary one, and then literally weeks later decides to adopt the contrary policy it has sacked shadow ministers for and then decides it will hound out shadow ministers who still support the original policy. It is almost as if one side thinks X will happen, the other side thinks Y will happen, and Mrs Bennett decides on Z."

He has now returned to the backbenches, but remains an extremely influential labour party figure.

Other Info: 1 brother, Agnostic, member of the Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance.

Married with 2 children:

Alfie (born 1998) - Age 21
Layla (born 2007) - Age 12

Political Positions:

Abortion: Supports the current relatively lenient laws in place for abortion in Great Britain, and believes they should be extended to Northern Ireland
Brexit: Despite originally opposing Brexit, supports "upholding the will of the people" and carrying it out following the referendum, but still favours UK membership of the EEA and Customs Union.
Climate Change: Believes that strong action is needed to prevent climate change.
Defence: Generally opposes millitary interventions (although exceptions can be made for the NATO operations in Bosnia in 1995 and military interventions in Syria) and supports cutting the defence budget to 2% of the GDP.
Energy: Supports completely phasing out fossil fuels by 2030, and recognises nuclear energy as a "potential solution."
Immigration: Supports keeping freedom of movement with the European Union, but is opposed to expanding it.
Devolution: Supports giving greater autonomy to devolved parliaments, but opposes Welsh or Scottish independence and Irish nationalism.
Northern Powerhouse: Hugely Supportive and believes should be a top priority for the Government to focus on.
NHS: Supports reducing privatisation of and increasing funding of the health service to at least 10% of the GDP.
Justice: Supports focusing the prison system towards rehabilitation over punishment for minor offenders, although recognises the need for a "strong deterrent" for severe offenders.
Same-sex Marriage: Supports strongly and voted for in 2013

Used Arab's template for part of my app.

I have read and accept the rules of the role-play: Agarntrop

Do Not Remove: 84721

Looks good so far. I personally recommend it for acceptance, but there might be a few minor errors I might've glossed over.

[Gordano and Lysandus]

(Image)

---

Character Information Sheet

NS Nation Name: Agarntrop
Character Name: David Richardson
Character Gender: Male
Character Age: 58
Character Height: 5' 11"
Character Weight: 185 lbs
Character Position/Role/Job: Shadow Secretary of State for Justice (2015-2018), Shadow Lord Chancellor (2015-2018), Shadow Minister for Justice (2012-2015), Secretary of State for Transport (1998-2003), Minister of State for Transport (1997-1998), Shadow Minister of State for Transport (1994-1997), Shadow Parliamentary Under-secretary for Transport (1992-1994), Member of Parliament for York Central (2010-Present), Member of Parliament for the City of York (1992-2010), Councillor for the Heworth Ward of York City Council (1988-1992).
Appearance: (Image)
Character Constituency of Origin: Beverley and Holderness.
Character Constituency of Residence: York Central
Character Party Affiliation: Labour
Main Strengths: Strong experience, appeals to both socialist and centrist sides of the Labour Party, intellegent, decisive.
Main Weaknesses: Makes frequent gaffes, makes contraversial and divisive statements on occasion, overall a somewhat difficult person.
Biography:
David Myles Richardson was born on the 30th October 1960 to a middle class family in a village in East Yorkshire near Beverley, where Richardson attended the local primary school. Richardson was noted by teachers to be intellegent but boisterous and unruly. Much to his discontent, Richardson's family moved from the village to the nearby city of York in 1968 due to Richardson's father's job as a consultant psychiatrist. Richardson, however, settled in to this environment soon enough and earned several O-levels and CSEs in maths, sciences and humanities, before earning A-levels in Politics, Engineering and Economics, and then completing a bachelor's degree at Durham University in Politics and Economics.

Richardson became a member of the Labour Party Young Socialists in 1976, and took an active role in its North Yorkshire branch. He took a comparably moderate position to most of its members who supported the Militant Tendency group. This led to him eventually leaving the LPYS after he argued for Michael Foot to resign after the 1983 election result, calling him "useless" and "unelectable." He continued, however, to remain a member of the Labour Party, and strongly supported Neville Kirkbride's denunciation of the Militant Tendency at the 1985 party conference.

Starting in 1984, Richardson worked for the City of York council, collecting and analyzing data for them. He was then nominated to stand for the Heworth Ward on the council and he accepted such nomination. He was then elected in 1988 to serve as part of the City of York labour administration at the time, where he worked notably and tirelessly and was thus nominated by the party to stand for the marginal seat of the City of York in 1992, where he managed to win the seat for Labour for the first time since 1979, easily overturning the tiny conservative majority of 147 there achieved at the 1987 election.

Shortly after the election, Richardson was appointed as a Shadow Parliamentary Under-secretary for Transport, and was loyal to the party whip. Richardson spent the first two years of his time in parliament advocating for better and more energy-efficient public transport links for the United Kingdom, particularly the north of England where he held his seat. He was also sceptical of Jack Monroe's privatisation of the railways.

Richardson supported Tom Blake at the 1994 labour leadership election, and was promoted to shadow Minister of State for Transport shortly after Blake took office. He once again argued for more spending on and the electrification of rail routes in the north of England, and emphatically supported a "long overdue" proposed tram system in Leeds.

He retained his seat with a stonking mandate at the 1997 general election, acheiving a majoriy of over 20,000 in what was, less than 20 years before, a seat held with a tory majority of over 3,500. He then assumed a ministerial position and went about attempting to acheive what he had intended to achieve in opposition, and influenced the Department for Transport to increase investment in mostly northern and forgotten communities.

His pivotal role in this respect resulted in him being upgraded to Secretary of State for Transport in 1998, when he became increasingly constrained by finances and bureaucracy, so had to temporarily set aside most of his ambitious plans, but still set about increasing investment in especially historically downtrodden communities.

He was a major figure on the Labour Party campaign trail in the 2001 General Election, during which he promised "huge investment in ambitious plans for the entirity of our country when it comes to transport" if labour were elected and also stated that these investments will "affect every inch of Britain" and that "no place will be left behind for as long as I am transport minister."

Richardson retained his seat at the 2001 general election with a majority of 13,779. He set to work in his department, although after 9/11 he began to develop a rift with the Prime Minister, due to his emphatic support for (not-Bush)'s war on terror, which Richardson was sceptical of. However, at least for the time being, Richardson mostly ignored this rift as he "had more important things to focus on for [his] department, like delivering on our election promises and securing funding for the Leeds supertram scheme," which he succesfully did in 2002.

Richardson was "appalled" at plans to invade Iraq in 2002, claiming that it was "ridiculous to start a conflict that will ultimately take thousands of lives when there is a clear diplomatic alternative," and that "we should take the sensible stance of our French and German partners, we are strong allies with the USA, but that does not mean that we are their puppets."

His noticable difference in attitude to the PM on this matter led to increasing calls for him to resign, which he eventually did reluctantly in February 2003, after it being speculated that the PM was planning to fire him. His official reasoning was so he could vote against the Iraq War, and denied any claims that he had been pressured by any senior Labour figures to resign.

This led to him returning to the backbenches where he fiercely and furiously argued against the Iraq War and frequently rebelled against the government on foreign policy motions, but mostly kept in line when it came to other bills proposed by the government. He retained his seat at the 2005 General Election, with a majority of over 10,000. He attributed the labour party's majority being cut from over 150 to 66 at the election to the "catastrophe" of the Iraq War.

After the 2005 election, he published a book entitled "English Nationalism: The Superiority Complex," criticising nationalists for assuming a false sense of British superiority and power rather than engaing in sensible and logical decisions. He also began to criticise the tabloid newspapers, especially after the phone hacking scandal of 2011, calling them "corrupt" and "manipulative," and was seen ripping up a copy of the Daily Mail, with the 'enemies of the people' headline, on a live TV interview in November 2016.

Richardson hit national headlines in 2007 after he publically came out as bisexual and said that he "had a huge weight lifted from his shoulders." When questioned about the fact that this could put his marriage in jeopardy, he claimed his family had "known for years about this, and they accept me for who I am." Richardson has been a major supporter of the LGBT rights movement since his outing.

He was a major voice for the adoption of Keynesian monetary measures after the 2008 crash, claiming it had shown that "deregulation has failed us miserably" and that the world must seek a new and more interventionist economic apporach he described as "new Keynesianism."

Electoral boundary changes meant that Richardson's seat was split into York Central and York Outer for the 2010 general election, in which Richardson stood in the solidly labour York Central seat and won with a majority of 6,451. Richardson blamed labour's wider election loss on the party's "stubborn retention of the previous economic policy, which, as history has shown, is the worst possible response to an economic crash."

Richardson supported Ted Merriment for the labour leadership contest in 2010, and developed a close relationship with Merriment and supported his changes to the Labour party that shifted it away from Blakeism. Richardson's close relationship with Merriment resulted in him being appointed shadow justice minister in 2012, where he argued against "hypocritical" budget cuts to the prison system.

Richardson retained his seat at the 2015 general election with an increased majority of 6,716. He originally supported (not Burnham) at the 2015 leadership election, although pledged his "full support" to Bennett after she was elected, and was promoted to shadow secretary of state for justice after the election, where he advocated for an end to austerity in the prison sector, the complete removal and replacement of IPPs, and more community service sentences rather than prison sentences or fines.

Richardson campaigned to remain in the 2016 EU Referendum. He was emphatically passionate about the issue and allegedly criticised Bennett for her lack of enthusiasm for the matter. He described the ultimate defeat of the remain campaign as "crushing" and was accused of suggesting the leave campaign only won because they had the "establishment media" on their side, a suggestion he later denied.

Despite his emphatic support for remain prior to the referendum, Richardson almost immediately said that he would "respect the result of the referendum," and called suggestions for a second one so soon after the last one "bizzare and ridiculous." However, he rejected any proposition to leave the EU Customs Union and the EEA, claiming that Vote Leave had promised to remain in such organisations after brexit and as a result it would be undemocratic and scheming of them to "abuse" the result to "push an extremist agenda the public didn't vote for."

Despite his alleged critical comments made back during the Referendum campaign, he defended Bennett in the 2016 labour leadership challenge and stayed on as a cabinet minister.

He retained his seat at the 2017 general election, with a majority of over 18,000, the largest he had had since 1997. He described the election result as "a message that the established order is about to go, and that a new kind of politics will take over." He also declared that "we have beaten the establishment for the first time since they took a stranglehold on power in 1979." He was later questioned as to why he served in Tom Blake's cabinet when he was clearly implying Blake's vision and views were no different to that of the conservative party in this declaration.

However, by new year 2018, Richardson began to become at odds with Bennett as she took an indecisive Brexit stance and began to lean towards a second referendum, something Richardson has always been opposed to. He also privately disagreed with Bennett over "unnecessary and hypocritical" cabinet firings.

He resigned as shadow secretary of state for justice in September 2018 after the labour party conference voted to support a second referendum, stating "it is too difficult for me to work in an indecisive shadow cabinet that one minute adopts a policy and sacks shadow ministers for supporting a contrary one, and then literally weeks later decides to adopt the contrary policy it has sacked shadow ministers for and then decides it will hound out shadow ministers who still support the original policy. It is almost as if one side thinks X will happen, the other side thinks Y will happen, and Mrs Bennett decides on Z."

He has now returned to the backbenches, but remains an extremely influential labour party figure.

Other Info: 1 brother, Agnostic, member of the Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance.

Married with 2 children:

Alfie (born 1998) - Age 21
Layla (born 2007) - Age 12

Political Positions:

Abortion: Supports the current relatively lenient laws in place for abortion in Great Britain, and believes they should be extended to Northern Ireland
Brexit: Despite originally opposing Brexit, supports "upholding the will of the people" and carrying it out following the referendum, but still favours UK membership of the EEA and Customs Union.
Climate Change: Believes that strong action is needed to prevent climate change.
Defence: Generally opposes millitary interventions (although exceptions can be made for the NATO operations in Bosnia in 1995 and military interventions in Syria) and supports cutting the defence budget to 2% of the GDP.
Energy: Supports completely phasing out fossil fuels by 2030, and recognises nuclear energy as a "potential solution."
Immigration: Supports keeping freedom of movement with the European Union, but is opposed to expanding it.
Devolution: Supports giving greater autonomy to devolved parliaments, but opposes Welsh or Scottish independence and Irish nationalism.
Northern Powerhouse: Hugely Supportive and believes should be a top priority for the Government to focus on.
NHS: Supports reducing privatisation of and increasing funding of the health service to at least 10% of the GDP.
Justice: Supports focusing the prison system towards rehabilitation over punishment for minor offenders, although recognises the need for a "strong deterrent" for severe offenders.
Same-sex Marriage: Supports strongly and voted for in 2013

Used Arab's template for part of my app.

I have read and accept the rules of the role-play: Agarntrop

Do Not Remove: 84721

Accepted.

Do bear with, as we'll have to wait on GAS to add you in to the roster.

[Agarntrop]

(Image)

---

Character Information Sheet

NS Nation Name: Agarntrop
Character Name: David Richardson
Character Gender: Male
Character Age: 58
Character Height: 5' 11"
Character Weight: 185 lbs
Character Position/Role/Job: Shadow Secretary of State for Justice (2015-2018), Shadow Lord Chancellor (2015-2018), Shadow Minister for Justice (2012-2015), Secretary of State for Transport (1998-2003), Minister of State for Transport (1997-1998), Shadow Minister of State for Transport (1994-1997), Shadow Parliamentary Under-secretary for Transport (1992-1994), Member of Parliament for York Central (2010-Present), Member of Parliament for the City of York (1992-2010), Councillor for the Heworth Ward of York City Council (1988-1992).
Appearance: (Image)
Character Constituency of Origin: Beverley and Holderness.
Character Constituency of Residence: York Central
Character Party Affiliation: Labour
Main Strengths: Strong experience, appeals to both socialist and centrist sides of the Labour Party, intellegent, decisive.
Main Weaknesses: Makes frequent gaffes, makes contraversial and divisive statements on occasion, overall a somewhat difficult person.
Biography:
David Myles Richardson was born on the 30th October 1960 to a middle class family in a village in East Yorkshire near Beverley, where Richardson attended the local primary school. Richardson was noted by teachers to be intellegent but boisterous and unruly. Much to his discontent, Richardson's family moved from the village to the nearby city of York in 1968 due to Richardson's father's job as a consultant psychiatrist. Richardson, however, settled in to this environment soon enough and earned several O-levels and CSEs in maths, sciences and humanities, before earning A-levels in Politics, Engineering and Economics, and then completing a bachelor's degree at Durham University in Politics and Economics.

Richardson became a member of the Labour Party Young Socialists in 1976, and took an active role in its North Yorkshire branch. He took a comparably moderate position to most of its members who supported the Militant Tendency group. This led to him eventually leaving the LPYS after he argued for Michael Foot to resign after the 1983 election result, calling him "useless" and "unelectable." He continued, however, to remain a member of the Labour Party, and strongly supported Neville Kirkbride's denunciation of the Militant Tendency at the 1985 party conference.

Starting in 1984, Richardson worked for the City of York council, collecting and analyzing data for them. He was then nominated to stand for the Heworth Ward on the council and he accepted such nomination. He was then elected in 1988 to serve as part of the City of York labour administration at the time, where he worked notably and tirelessly and was thus nominated by the party to stand for the marginal seat of the City of York in 1992, where he managed to win the seat for Labour for the first time since 1979, easily overturning the tiny conservative majority of 147 there achieved at the 1987 election.

Shortly after the election, Richardson was appointed as a Shadow Parliamentary Under-secretary for Transport, and was loyal to the party whip. Richardson spent the first two years of his time in parliament advocating for better and more energy-efficient public transport links for the United Kingdom, particularly the north of England where he held his seat. He was also sceptical of Jack Monroe's privatisation of the railways.

Richardson supported Tom Blake at the 1994 labour leadership election, and was promoted to shadow Minister of State for Transport shortly after Blake took office. He once again argued for more spending on and the electrification of rail routes in the north of England, and emphatically supported a "long overdue" proposed tram system in Leeds.

He retained his seat with a stonking mandate at the 1997 general election, acheiving a majoriy of over 20,000 in what was, less than 20 years before, a seat held with a tory majority of over 3,500. He then assumed a ministerial position and went about attempting to acheive what he had intended to achieve in opposition, and influenced the Department for Transport to increase investment in mostly northern and forgotten communities.

His pivotal role in this respect resulted in him being upgraded to Secretary of State for Transport in 1998, when he became increasingly constrained by finances and bureaucracy, so had to temporarily set aside most of his ambitious plans, but still set about increasing investment in especially historically downtrodden communities.

He was a major figure on the Labour Party campaign trail in the 2001 General Election, during which he promised "huge investment in ambitious plans for the entirity of our country when it comes to transport" if labour were elected and also stated that these investments will "affect every inch of Britain" and that "no place will be left behind for as long as I am transport minister."

Richardson retained his seat at the 2001 general election with a majority of 13,779. He set to work in his department, although after 9/11 he began to develop a rift with the Prime Minister, due to his emphatic support for (not-Bush)'s war on terror, which Richardson was sceptical of. However, at least for the time being, Richardson mostly ignored this rift as he "had more important things to focus on for [his] department, like delivering on our election promises and securing funding for the Leeds supertram scheme," which he succesfully did in 2002.

Richardson was "appalled" at plans to invade Iraq in 2002, claiming that it was "ridiculous to start a conflict that will ultimately take thousands of lives when there is a clear diplomatic alternative," and that "we should take the sensible stance of our French and German partners, we are strong allies with the USA, but that does not mean that we are their puppets."

His noticable difference in attitude to the PM on this matter led to increasing calls for him to resign, which he eventually did reluctantly in February 2003, after it being speculated that the PM was planning to fire him. His official reasoning was so he could vote against the Iraq War, and denied any claims that he had been pressured by any senior Labour figures to resign.

This led to him returning to the backbenches where he fiercely and furiously argued against the Iraq War and frequently rebelled against the government on foreign policy motions, but mostly kept in line when it came to other bills proposed by the government. He retained his seat at the 2005 General Election, with a majority of over 10,000. He attributed the labour party's majority being cut from over 150 to 66 at the election to the "catastrophe" of the Iraq War.

After the 2005 election, he published a book entitled "English Nationalism: The Superiority Complex," criticising nationalists for assuming a false sense of British superiority and power rather than engaing in sensible and logical decisions. He also began to criticise the tabloid newspapers, especially after the phone hacking scandal of 2011, calling them "corrupt" and "manipulative," and was seen ripping up a copy of the Daily Mail, with the 'enemies of the people' headline, on a live TV interview in November 2016.

Richardson hit national headlines in 2007 after he publically came out as bisexual and said that he "had a huge weight lifted from his shoulders." When questioned about the fact that this could put his marriage in jeopardy, he claimed his family had "known for years about this, and they accept me for who I am." Richardson has been a major supporter of the LGBT rights movement since his outing.

He was a major voice for the adoption of Keynesian monetary measures after the 2008 crash, claiming it had shown that "deregulation has failed us miserably" and that the world must seek a new and more interventionist economic apporach he described as "new Keynesianism."

Electoral boundary changes meant that Richardson's seat was split into York Central and York Outer for the 2010 general election, in which Richardson stood in the solidly labour York Central seat and won with a majority of 6,451. Richardson blamed labour's wider election loss on the party's "stubborn retention of the previous economic policy, which, as history has shown, is the worst possible response to an economic crash."

Richardson supported Ted Merriment for the labour leadership contest in 2010, and developed a close relationship with Merriment and supported his changes to the Labour party that shifted it away from Blakeism. Richardson's close relationship with Merriment resulted in him being appointed shadow justice minister in 2012, where he argued against "hypocritical" budget cuts to the prison system.

Richardson retained his seat at the 2015 general election with an increased majority of 6,716. He originally supported (not Burnham) at the 2015 leadership election, although pledged his "full support" to Bennett after she was elected, and was promoted to shadow secretary of state for justice after the election, where he advocated for an end to austerity in the prison sector, the complete removal and replacement of IPPs, and more community service sentences rather than prison sentences or fines.

Richardson campaigned to remain in the 2016 EU Referendum. He was emphatically passionate about the issue and allegedly criticised Bennett for her lack of enthusiasm for the matter. He described the ultimate defeat of the remain campaign as "crushing" and was accused of suggesting the leave campaign only won because they had the "establishment media" on their side, a suggestion he later denied.

Despite his emphatic support for remain prior to the referendum, Richardson almost immediately said that he would "respect the result of the referendum," and called suggestions for a second one so soon after the last one "bizzare and ridiculous." However, he rejected any proposition to leave the EU Customs Union and the EEA, claiming that Vote Leave had promised to remain in such organisations after brexit and as a result it would be undemocratic and scheming of them to "abuse" the result to "push an extremist agenda the public didn't vote for."

Despite his alleged critical comments made back during the Referendum campaign, he defended Bennett in the 2016 labour leadership challenge and stayed on as a cabinet minister.

He retained his seat at the 2017 general election, with a majority of over 18,000, the largest he had had since 1997. He described the election result as "a message that the established order is about to go, and that a new kind of politics will take over." He also declared that "we have beaten the establishment for the first time since they took a stranglehold on power in 1979." He was later questioned as to why he served in Tom Blake's cabinet when he was clearly implying Blake's vision and views were no different to that of the conservative party in this declaration.

However, by new year 2018, Richardson began to become at odds with Bennett as she took an indecisive Brexit stance and began to lean towards a second referendum, something Richardson has always been opposed to. He also privately disagreed with Bennett over "unnecessary and hypocritical" cabinet firings.

He resigned as shadow secretary of state for justice in September 2018 after the labour party conference voted to support a second referendum, stating "it is too difficult for me to work in an indecisive shadow cabinet that one minute adopts a policy and sacks shadow ministers for supporting a contrary one, and then literally weeks later decides to adopt the contrary policy it has sacked shadow ministers for and then decides it will hound out shadow ministers who still support the original policy. It is almost as if one side thinks X will happen, the other side thinks Y will happen, and Mrs Bennett decides on Z."

He has now returned to the backbenches, but remains an extremely influential labour party figure.

Other Info: 1 brother, Agnostic, member of the Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance.

Married with 2 children:

Alfie (born 1998) - Age 21
Layla (born 2007) - Age 12

Political Positions:

Abortion: Supports the current relatively lenient laws in place for abortion in Great Britain, and believes they should be extended to Northern Ireland
Brexit: Despite originally opposing Brexit, supports "upholding the will of the people" and carrying it out following the referendum, but still favours UK membership of the EEA and Customs Union.
Climate Change: Believes that strong action is needed to prevent climate change.
Defence: Generally opposes millitary interventions (although exceptions can be made for the NATO operations in Bosnia in 1995 and military interventions in Syria) and supports cutting the defence budget to 2% of the GDP.
Energy: Supports completely phasing out fossil fuels by 2030, and recognises nuclear energy as a "potential solution."
Immigration: Supports keeping freedom of movement with the European Union, but is opposed to expanding it.
Devolution: Supports giving greater autonomy to devolved parliaments, but opposes Welsh or Scottish independence and Irish nationalism.
Northern Powerhouse: Hugely Supportive and believes should be a top priority for the Government to focus on.
NHS: Supports reducing privatisation of and increasing funding of the health service to at least 10% of the GDP.
Justice: Supports focusing the prison system towards rehabilitation over punishment for minor offenders, although recognises the need for a "strong deterrent" for severe offenders.
Same-sex Marriage: Supports strongly and voted for in 2013

Used Arab's template for part of my app.

I have read and accept the rules of the role-play: Agarntrop

Do Not Remove: 84721

Accepted.

Do bear with, as we'll have to wait on GAS to add you in to the roster.

The fact I had to make shit tons of edits in lotf to get accepted on all 3 apps wheras in lohg i get accepted instantly truly shows my 'Atlantic disparity'

[The World Capitalist Confederation]

Accepted.

Do bear with, as we'll have to wait on GAS to add you in to the roster.

The fact I had to make shit tons of edits in lotf to get accepted on all 3 apps wheras in lohg i get accepted instantly truly shows my 'Atlantic disparity'

Tell me about it. My first character - a New York prog, like my second character but actually reasonable - took so many tries to get right that I actually left the RP altogether. It was before the Reed Presidency mind you, as I applied when the date was somewhere in 2016. Second character took somewhere around, I believe, 9 tries, Mateo took 4 and Vohoffsky 4 as well. Steinitz is still stuck in the backlog, having gone 2 so far.

[Granluras]

I’m done with everything, just have to add a bit of Other Info and we’s shall have a Home Secretary.

[Greater Arab State]

(Image)

---

Character Information Sheet

NS Nation Name: Agarntrop
Character Name: David Richardson
Character Gender: Male
Character Age: 58
Character Height: 5' 11"
Character Weight: 185 lbs
Character Position/Role/Job: Shadow Secretary of State for Justice (2015-2018), Shadow Lord Chancellor (2015-2018), Shadow Minister for Justice (2012-2015), Secretary of State for Transport (1998-2003), Minister of State for Transport (1997-1998), Shadow Minister of State for Transport (1994-1997), Shadow Parliamentary Under-secretary for Transport (1992-1994), Member of Parliament for York Central (2010-Present), Member of Parliament for the City of York (1992-2010), Councillor for the Heworth Ward of York City Council (1988-1992).
Appearance: (Image)
Character Constituency of Origin: Beverley and Holderness.
Character Constituency of Residence: York Central
Character Party Affiliation: Labour
Main Strengths: Strong experience, appeals to both socialist and centrist sides of the Labour Party, intellegent, decisive.
Main Weaknesses: Makes frequent gaffes, makes contraversial and divisive statements on occasion, overall a somewhat difficult person.
Biography:
David Myles Richardson was born on the 30th October 1960 to a middle class family in a village in East Yorkshire near Beverley, where Richardson attended the local primary school. Richardson was noted by teachers to be intellegent but boisterous and unruly. Much to his discontent, Richardson's family moved from the village to the nearby city of York in 1968 due to Richardson's father's job as a consultant psychiatrist. Richardson, however, settled in to this environment soon enough and earned several O-levels and CSEs in maths, sciences and humanities, before earning A-levels in Politics, Engineering and Economics, and then completing a bachelor's degree at Durham University in Politics and Economics.

Richardson became a member of the Labour Party Young Socialists in 1976, and took an active role in its North Yorkshire branch. He took a comparably moderate position to most of its members who supported the Militant Tendency group. This led to him eventually leaving the LPYS after he argued for Michael Foot to resign after the 1983 election result, calling him "useless" and "unelectable." He continued, however, to remain a member of the Labour Party, and strongly supported Neville Kirkbride's denunciation of the Militant Tendency at the 1985 party conference.

Starting in 1984, Richardson worked for the City of York council, collecting and analyzing data for them. He was then nominated to stand for the Heworth Ward on the council and he accepted such nomination. He was then elected in 1988 to serve as part of the City of York labour administration at the time, where he worked notably and tirelessly and was thus nominated by the party to stand for the marginal seat of the City of York in 1992, where he managed to win the seat for Labour for the first time since 1979, easily overturning the tiny conservative majority of 147 there achieved at the 1987 election.

Shortly after the election, Richardson was appointed as a Shadow Parliamentary Under-secretary for Transport, and was loyal to the party whip. Richardson spent the first two years of his time in parliament advocating for better and more energy-efficient public transport links for the United Kingdom, particularly the north of England where he held his seat. He was also sceptical of Jack Monroe's privatisation of the railways.

Richardson supported Tom Blake at the 1994 labour leadership election, and was promoted to shadow Minister of State for Transport shortly after Blake took office. He once again argued for more spending on and the electrification of rail routes in the north of England, and emphatically supported a "long overdue" proposed tram system in Leeds.

He retained his seat with a stonking mandate at the 1997 general election, acheiving a majoriy of over 20,000 in what was, less than 20 years before, a seat held with a tory majority of over 3,500. He then assumed a ministerial position and went about attempting to acheive what he had intended to achieve in opposition, and influenced the Department for Transport to increase investment in mostly northern and forgotten communities.

His pivotal role in this respect resulted in him being upgraded to Secretary of State for Transport in 1998, when he became increasingly constrained by finances and bureaucracy, so had to temporarily set aside most of his ambitious plans, but still set about increasing investment in especially historically downtrodden communities.

He was a major figure on the Labour Party campaign trail in the 2001 General Election, during which he promised "huge investment in ambitious plans for the entirity of our country when it comes to transport" if labour were elected and also stated that these investments will "affect every inch of Britain" and that "no place will be left behind for as long as I am transport minister."

Richardson retained his seat at the 2001 general election with a majority of 13,779. He set to work in his department, although after 9/11 he began to develop a rift with the Prime Minister, due to his emphatic support for (not-Bush)'s war on terror, which Richardson was sceptical of. However, at least for the time being, Richardson mostly ignored this rift as he "had more important things to focus on for [his] department, like delivering on our election promises and securing funding for the Leeds supertram scheme," which he succesfully did in 2002.

Richardson was "appalled" at plans to invade Iraq in 2002, claiming that it was "ridiculous to start a conflict that will ultimately take thousands of lives when there is a clear diplomatic alternative," and that "we should take the sensible stance of our French and German partners, we are strong allies with the USA, but that does not mean that we are their puppets."

His noticable difference in attitude to the PM on this matter led to increasing calls for him to resign, which he eventually did reluctantly in February 2003, after it being speculated that the PM was planning to fire him. His official reasoning was so he could vote against the Iraq War, and denied any claims that he had been pressured by any senior Labour figures to resign.

This led to him returning to the backbenches where he fiercely and furiously argued against the Iraq War and frequently rebelled against the government on foreign policy motions, but mostly kept in line when it came to other bills proposed by the government. He retained his seat at the 2005 General Election, with a majority of over 10,000. He attributed the labour party's majority being cut from over 150 to 66 at the election to the "catastrophe" of the Iraq War.

After the 2005 election, he published a book entitled "English Nationalism: The Superiority Complex," criticising nationalists for assuming a false sense of British superiority and power rather than engaing in sensible and logical decisions. He also began to criticise the tabloid newspapers, especially after the phone hacking scandal of 2011, calling them "corrupt" and "manipulative," and was seen ripping up a copy of the Daily Mail, with the 'enemies of the people' headline, on a live TV interview in November 2016.

Richardson hit national headlines in 2007 after he publically came out as bisexual and said that he "had a huge weight lifted from his shoulders." When questioned about the fact that this could put his marriage in jeopardy, he claimed his family had "known for years about this, and they accept me for who I am." Richardson has been a major supporter of the LGBT rights movement since his outing.

He was a major voice for the adoption of Keynesian monetary measures after the 2008 crash, claiming it had shown that "deregulation has failed us miserably" and that the world must seek a new and more interventionist economic apporach he described as "new Keynesianism."

Electoral boundary changes meant that Richardson's seat was split into York Central and York Outer for the 2010 general election, in which Richardson stood in the solidly labour York Central seat and won with a majority of 6,451. Richardson blamed labour's wider election loss on the party's "stubborn retention of the previous economic policy, which, as history has shown, is the worst possible response to an economic crash."

Richardson supported Ted Merriment for the labour leadership contest in 2010, and developed a close relationship with Merriment and supported his changes to the Labour party that shifted it away from Blakeism. Richardson's close relationship with Merriment resulted in him being appointed shadow justice minister in 2012, where he argued against "hypocritical" budget cuts to the prison system.

Richardson retained his seat at the 2015 general election with an increased majority of 6,716. He originally supported (not Burnham) at the 2015 leadership election, although pledged his "full support" to Bennett after she was elected, and was promoted to shadow secretary of state for justice after the election, where he advocated for an end to austerity in the prison sector, the complete removal and replacement of IPPs, and more community service sentences rather than prison sentences or fines.

Richardson campaigned to remain in the 2016 EU Referendum. He was emphatically passionate about the issue and allegedly criticised Bennett for her lack of enthusiasm for the matter. He described the ultimate defeat of the remain campaign as "crushing" and was accused of suggesting the leave campaign only won because they had the "establishment media" on their side, a suggestion he later denied.

Despite his emphatic support for remain prior to the referendum, Richardson almost immediately said that he would "respect the result of the referendum," and called suggestions for a second one so soon after the last one "bizzare and ridiculous." However, he rejected any proposition to leave the EU Customs Union and the EEA, claiming that Vote Leave had promised to remain in such organisations after brexit and as a result it would be undemocratic and scheming of them to "abuse" the result to "push an extremist agenda the public didn't vote for."

Despite his alleged critical comments made back during the Referendum campaign, he defended Bennett in the 2016 labour leadership challenge and stayed on as a cabinet minister.

He retained his seat at the 2017 general election, with a majority of over 18,000, the largest he had had since 1997. He described the election result as "a message that the established order is about to go, and that a new kind of politics will take over." He also declared that "we have beaten the establishment for the first time since they took a stranglehold on power in 1979." He was later questioned as to why he served in Tom Blake's cabinet when he was clearly implying Blake's vision and views were no different to that of the conservative party in this declaration.

However, by new year 2018, Richardson began to become at odds with Bennett as she took an indecisive Brexit stance and began to lean towards a second referendum, something Richardson has always been opposed to. He also privately disagreed with Bennett over "unnecessary and hypocritical" cabinet firings.

He resigned as shadow secretary of state for justice in September 2018 after the labour party conference voted to support a second referendum, stating "it is too difficult for me to work in an indecisive shadow cabinet that one minute adopts a policy and sacks shadow ministers for supporting a contrary one, and then literally weeks later decides to adopt the contrary policy it has sacked shadow ministers for and then decides it will hound out shadow ministers who still support the original policy. It is almost as if one side thinks X will happen, the other side thinks Y will happen, and Mrs Bennett decides on Z."

He has now returned to the backbenches, but remains an extremely influential labour party figure.

Other Info: 1 brother, Agnostic, member of the Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance.

Married with 2 children:

Alfie (born 1998) - Age 21
Layla (born 2007) - Age 12

Political Positions:

Abortion: Supports the current relatively lenient laws in place for abortion in Great Britain, and believes they should be extended to Northern Ireland
Brexit: Despite originally opposing Brexit, supports "upholding the will of the people" and carrying it out following the referendum, but still favours UK membership of the EEA and Customs Union.
Climate Change: Believes that strong action is needed to prevent climate change.
Defence: Generally opposes millitary interventions (although exceptions can be made for the NATO operations in Bosnia in 1995 and military interventions in Syria) and supports cutting the defence budget to 2% of the GDP.
Energy: Supports completely phasing out fossil fuels by 2030, and recognises nuclear energy as a "potential solution."
Immigration: Supports keeping freedom of movement with the European Union, but is opposed to expanding it.
Devolution: Supports giving greater autonomy to devolved parliaments, but opposes Welsh or Scottish independence and Irish nationalism.
Northern Powerhouse: Hugely Supportive and believes should be a top priority for the Government to focus on.
NHS: Supports reducing privatisation of and increasing funding of the health service to at least 10% of the GDP.
Justice: Supports focusing the prison system towards rehabilitation over punishment for minor offenders, although recognises the need for a "strong deterrent" for severe offenders.
Same-sex Marriage: Supports strongly and voted for in 2013

Used Arab's template for part of my app.

I have read and accept the rules of the role-play: Agarntrop

Do Not Remove: 84721

Accepted.

Do bear with, as we'll have to wait on GAS to add you in to the roster.

I’ve now added it to the roster.

[Agarntrop]

Accepted.

Do bear with, as we'll have to wait on GAS to add you in to the roster.

I’ve now added it to the roster.

Thanks, but it's 'Agarntrop.'

[Greater Arab State]

I’ve now added it to the roster.

Thanks, but it's 'Agarntrop.'

Edited, my apologies.

[Agarntrop]

Thanks, but it's 'Agarntrop.'

Edited, my apologies.

Agarntrop not 'Argarntrop'...

[Greater Arab State]

Edited, my apologies.

Agarntrop not 'Argarntrop'...

I’m honestly sorry about this.

[Agarntrop]

Agarntrop not 'Argarntrop'...

I’m honestly sorry about this.

Its fine, my nation's name is a shitfest in the first place.

[Granluras]

I’m honestly sorry about this.

Its fine, my nation's name is a shitfest in the first place.

Though to be fair, it’s not hard to spell Agarnetcrop if you just take the time to read it :I

[Meelducan]

Thinking about joining, what characters do you need?

[Granluras]

Thinking about joining, what characters do you need?

I think i've filled up all of my character slots, do you think you can use my MLP Applejack OC?

[Greater Arab State]

Thinking about joining, what characters do you need?

Currently, we're in need of Conservatives (of all factions), Labour moderates and members of third parties (although someone has posted an app for the leader of the Lib Dems.)

[Granluras]

I wanna make, down the line, a far-right character. However, I'm not sure if I should have them be apart of this roleplay, or perhaps be in LoTF.

[Granluras]

Britain has a small but vocal and growing far-right movement, plus an interesting history of far-rightism, so that's the pulling factor towards a British kraut, but of course America much more diverse and larger in that it has a larger, older, and established far-right movement (think of how high-ranking curtain politicians decried as fascist have become, such as the President, if you're that type of person); that being the pull factor towards an American character.