British General Election 2005

[Go Ralph!]

I've just finished creating what I think is the first British Scenario for P4E, and have just sent it off to hopefully be posted on the website. Here's what it entails:

SO WHAT THE HELL IS IT?

This scenario is essentially a British General Election (2005) - electoral college stylee. It's got a brand spanking new map of Britain, complete with 14 regions:

-- Scotland (69 EC)

-- Wales (32)

-- Northern Ireland (14)

-- London (92)

-- West Country (59)

-- Southern England (56)

-- South East England (31)

-- Anglia (32)

-- East Midlands (49)

-- The Heart of England (63)

-- Yorkshire + Humberside (60)

-- North West England (56)

-- Cumbria + Lake Distict (21)

-- Northumbria (25)

There are 659 total Electoral College votes (the same number of MPs) and each region has been giving votes roughly proportionate to it's population (this is however only rough - since no regions beside London, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland hold official status, it's hard to get accurate figures for them). 330 is the magic number required for a majority.

THE ISSUES

No British Scenario would be complete with the issues affecting UK life today, and so here they are:

-- Cannabis

-- Crime

-- Education

-- Environment

-- European Union

-- Euthanasia

-- House of Lords Reform

-- Hunting

-- Immigration

-- Iraq

-- Military Funding

-- Monarchy

-- NHS

-- Rail System

-- Taxation

-- Terrorism

-- The Euro

-- Tuition Fees

THE PARTIES:

You can play as either

-- Labour (Tony Blair with John Prescott running mate)

-- Conservatives (Michael Howard with Theresa May)

-- Liberal Democrats (Charles Kennedy with Lembit Opik)

-- UK Independence Party/UKIP (Roger Knapman with Robert Kilroy-Silk)

DEBATES

There is one debate in this scenario. There has never been a televised debate between the leaders of the major parties, but it's something that gets suggested every general election - it's entirely possible there will be one in 2005, so I added one a week before election day.

DIFFICULTY

If you want a challenge, be the Tories or Lib Dems. If you really want a challenge, be UKIP. If you want it easy, be Labour. Despite all the problems of the Blair government, Labour still look dead certs to win, which is reflected in opinion polling. That polling is reflected in the game, so Labour has a roughly 8-12% lead nationally when the game starts. I'm not being bias to Labour, I'm just being realistic. I intend to include another two electoral_trends.p4e, one which begins with Labour and the Tories level, and another with the big three level.

GAMEPLAY

The game begins 8 weeks from the General Election (Thursday 5th May 2005) and as such is enough time for the other parties to catch and beat the ass off Labour, if you so want. It's also enough time for Blairites to complete a clean sweep of Britain and Parliament. Each party, apart from the UK Independence Party starts off with £15million (or $) - the legally permitted maximum in British General Elections, and things are reasonably cheap so you shouldn't find yourself struggling for cash too early on.

I hope you'll enjoy it when it's released.

Joey

[K-uglen]

That sounds great, I'll be looking forward to playing it! It sounds as though a lot of thought has been put into it too.

[johnny_raoul]

i think you just got scooped, cuz I beelive there is a Uk scenerio just got posted today

(

yers sounds fantastic, btw

I'm interested in doing some scenerios based on classic trials in history (Scopes Monkey Trial et al) but have no aptitude, nor the necessary software, to make new maps

would you, might you, be interested in doing the map and regional_centers, if I did everything else?

[nottmuchh]

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