Politics and government in Cattala

The United Kingdom of Cattala is governed as a constitutional monarchy, in which the head of state is the Monarch, currently Queen Alexandra V, and the Lord of Celestine, currently Anthony Secolo, is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by Her Majesty's Government, on behalf of the Monarch, as well as by the devolved regional authorities of the seven provinces. Legislative power is vested in the two chambers of the Parliament of Cattala, the National Assembly and Senato del Regno, located in the capital city, Celeste. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The highest national court is the Supreme Court of the Realm.

Parliament
Parliament is the national, bicameral legislative body. The two houses are the National Assembly, which is the lower and more powerful house, and the Senato Del Regno, the upper house. Assembly Members and Senators are directly elected by registered citizens over the age of 18. Elections take place every four years, unless a Lord Celestine resigns in which case they must take place within three months of the Lord's resignation. Senato elections are held once every 8 years and are not affected by a Lord Celestine's resignation.

National Assembly
The National Assembly, officially called The Honourable Assembly of the Nation of Cattala, is entirely elected and is where a majority of the laws of Cattala are made. There are 100 seats in the Assembly, each representing a local constituency and not a province. The Government needs at least 51 seats to govern with a majority. The Assembly must vote on all legislature introduced by the Government, and the Opposition. Each Assembly Member, or Membro Assemblea, (MA) belongs to a political party, or runs as an independent. They hold their seats until the Regal Monarch dissolves Parliament, which must happen every four years. There is no limit to the number of consecutive terms a single MP can serve. The Government is responsible for the National Assembly, and every Lord Celestine is selected by his party from this Chamber. The head of Parliament is the current monarch, and they open each Assembly session, which begins on the first Monday after the Epiphany, and closes for a two-week break during August, before re-opening until the last Friday prior to Christmas Day.

Senato Del Regno
The Senato, officially called the Senato Del Regno, is the upper house of Parliament and consists of 49 elected Senators and the head of government, Lord Celestine, or another Cabinet representative. In the past the Senato was the most powerful chamber, and could overrule the lower house of Parliament, which was previously the only elected chamber. However since 1949, the Senato has been reformed to take on the role of a debating chamber to decide whether legislative introduced by the Assembly should be put into law and passed onto the monarch for Royal Assent. The 49 elected senators are voted on in every other general elections, meaning their terms are 8 years. Seven senators are elected from each province, and represent their provincial Government in the upper house, as well as the citizens of their province. Therefore, they represent equally each province without bias against the less populated regions and no laws can be passed by urban MA's and be approved without the support of the rural Lord Senators.

The Regal Monarch sits in the Senato when they open the Twin Chambers. Lord Celestine or a designated representative of the Government, can also ask permission for the dissolution of the Senato, meaning that all 49 members can be removed at once, and replaced. This happened in 1971 when the Government collapsed, and Lord Bertollini attempted to cling onto control. Senators are given the title of "Lord Senator", and once they leave the Senato are titled "Lords", a historic attachment since the house was once wholly hereditary and dominated by the nobility.

Provincial governments
There are seven provinces in Cattala - Amosseri, Fieranti, Jennai, Lessito, Monte Calida, Hellas and Roumeli. Each one has had a regional Government and regional Parliament since 1957, although Amosseri, the oldest province, has had one since the Amadeus revolt in 1861.

Provinces are allowed a great deal of freedom in their self-governing abilities, including funding public projects and have the opportunity to put forward motions and can join together to veto decisions in the National Parliament. However, laws are nation-wide and cannot be changed in any individual area, and taxes cannot be different in each province.

Each province has an Executive Governor, elected by the public in local elections every three years, on the same day as a national election. All of the current provinces have an active parliament, the smallest of which is in Hellas province, with only 15 elected officials serving, and the largest of which is in Jennai, where 80 elected officers serve nearly half of Cattala's population. They all have at least one Regional Court.

The Conservatives have historically held the greatest power in regional parliaments, having been the majority party continuously since 1957 in Amosseri and Hellas. It currently holds majorities in four provinces, including Monte Calida and Roumeli. The Democratic Party is the major opposition force in most parliaments, and has historically dominated the Jennai Parliament. It also holds a majority in Fieranti. Il Popolo is the senior coalition partner with the Democratic Party in Lessito.

Government and the Crown
Main article: List of heads of government of Cattala

The Cattalian Monarch, currently Queen Alexandra the Fifth is the Head of State of the United Kingdom of Cattala.The Queen takes little direct part in government, and must remain strictly neutral in political affairs. However, the legal authority known as the Crown remains the source of the executive power used by the Government.

These powers are known as Royal Prerogative and can be used for many functions, including the appointment or dismissal of the Prime Minister and Cabinet ministers, the dissolution of Parliament, the power to create corporations or even to declare war or peace. These powers are delegated from the Monarch personally, in the name of the Crown, and can be handed to various ministers and can purposely bypass the consent of Parliament.

The head of Her Grace's Regal Government, the Lord of Celestine, also has weekly meetings with the Queen, where she may express her feelings, warn, or advise him in the Government's work. Although these powers and influences seem broad, in reality the Royal Prerogative powers are almost all delegated to the Government or to Crown officials.

The government and the Imperial Office have always kept the full extent of the monarch's powers hidden from public view and few have ever been fully disclosed. Every Lord of Celestine, Cabinet Minister and Councillor of State has to swear on the Official Secrets Act and the Bible when they are appointed to the position.

Since the end of the Second World War, there have been twelve Lord Chancellors and Lords of Celestine, including two women, one aristocrat and leaders from all three major parties of the last century.

Political parties
Cattala has three major political parties, and three significant (>1%+) minor parties. The current Lord Celestine is Conservative Alliance leader Lord Anthony Secolo, who ran a majority Government between 2007 and 2011, a coalition with Il Popolo between 2011 and 2013 and a majority government since merging with the High Tories in March 2013.

Conservative Alliance
Main article: Conservative Party of Cattala

The Conservative Alliance has its roots in the British Conservative Party and is currently the largest political party in Cattala. It was formed in 2013 by a merger between the Conservative Party and the High Tory Group. They have been in power since 2007, after being out of Government for 36 years. The dominant political party between 1954 and 1963, the party nearly imploded in 1970 after a series of power struggles crippled the party's reputation and finances and they lost all public support. The High Tories then broke away and merged with the rising Il Popolo movement in a loose coalition.

Since 2001 the party has reformed itself sharply and is now considered to be a Christian Democratic party, with a strong centre-right core that supports conservatism, free market environmentalism and a mixed economy, but the party remains close to the Church of Cattala and many of its members support the Church's views on liberalism and the sexual revolution. The Conservative Party is the most monarchist of the main parties and has strong links to the Royal Family historically. In the 2011 General Election, the party won 46 seats, and lost it's majority in the National Assembly. But in March 2013, a schism in Il Popolo led to the right-wing High Tories forming an alliance with the Conservatives after 43 years of separation, giving them a majority in the lower house and leading to the formation of the Conservative Alliance.

Democratic Party
The Democratic Party is the most successful party in the history of Cattala - they have ruled the country for six of the twelve Governments since 1951, and hold the record for biggest landslide victory, which was achieved in 1963. The party is historically socialist, but has move more to the centre in recent years and is now classed as a centre-left party. It is also a strong supporter of the welfare state, joint public/private growth, environmentalism and more investment in public services over the military.

A vote of no confidence in Dominic Greenwood, the party's leader since 2010, was held on the 15th March 2013 and saw him comprehensively ousted from power. A leadership election will be held shortly.

Il Popolo Party
The People's Party is an authoritarian party that was in Government between 1991 and 2001, whose central policies are nationalisation, large rises in military spending and it is also the most eurosceptic of the major parties. A majority of its supporters live in rural communities, which is in accordance with it’s pro-rural policies (agrarianism).

The party is split between socialists and traditionalist conservatives, which began in the 1970s when it merged with the High Tory Party, a breakaway group of Conservative members who believe in traditional, right-wing values and oppose the centrist movement within their old party and in need of financial support. Over the next four decades, the power of balance between the socialists and conservatives would alter considerably. Only in the late 2000s were both divisions well-funded and strong enough to challenge the other.

Ahead of the 2011 election, the leader of Il Popolo was Dr Rohan Viscoti, a former medical soldier and the most "socialist" leader of the major parties, who was once called "Cattala's closest answer to a communist". He was ousted from the position after the election and was replaced by Agatha Varmini, a High Tory who became the second-in-command of the government after agreeing a coalition with the Conservatives.

After almost two years in coalition with the Conservatives, the Il Popolo Congress, controlled by socialist supporters of Viscoti, voted to remove Varmini as party leader. The High Tories then abandoned the party and declared themselves independent before creating a formal alliance with the Conservatives. Il Popolo were thrown out of the coalition and Dr Viscoti retook power within the party unopposed.

Other Parties
Cattala has three other, minor, parties, all with at least 1% of the public supporting them. These include the Federal Party, who believe that the Seven Provinces should become autonomous regions again and that Cattala should become a Federal Kingdom, the Europarty who are the largest pro-european party in Cattala and the Unionist party which strongly defends the monarchy and the union between Cattala, Hellas and Roumeli.

2011 Election
In June 2011, Lord Anthony Secolo announced that Queen Alexandra the Fifth had agreed to dissolve Parliament on the 20th July, meaning that the 2011 Election could take place in August. On the day of the announcement, the polling agency Regina found that support for the Government was at 38%, level with Il Popolo. The Democratic Party was on 20% support. The next Government will be in power until 2015.

The election took place on the 12th August 2011, and resulted in a hung parliament, with no party achieving the 50 seats needed. Cattolica Conservatori lost it's majority, along with overall control over 4 provinces. The party remains the largest in the Assembly, with 46 seats. The Democratic Party remains the main Opposition party, with 30 seats, seven more than Il Popolo, who achieved their highest result since they were in power in the 1990s.

11 days after the election, Il Popolo's leader Rohan Viscoti resigned after coalition negotiations with the Democratic Party failed. Rebels within his party, mostly High Tories, refused to sign the coalition document. High Tory member and deputy leader of Il Popolo, Agatha Vermini, replaced Viscoti.

On the 24th August 2011, it was announced that Cattolica Conservatori and Il Popolo had formed a coalition government. Discussions between the two parties had been ongoing since the election, but had stalled whilst Dr Viscoti was leader. Following his resignation, both Il Popolo and Cattolica Conservatori agreed on the terms of the coalition. Anthony Secolo remained as Lord Celestine and his new First Counsel, deputy leader of the government, was Agatha Vermini.

Regal Government
The National Government is divided into fifteen offices and ministries, each of which focuses on a particular aspect of governance. The Ministers form the Cabinet Ministry, and all of the ministers have underministers and many of the ministries also have Secretaries, who are specialists in their chosen field and are occasionally independent RGs and from the opposition parties. Ministers report to Lord Celestine, and can be removed from office at any time, if granted Royal Permission. Ministers lose their positions if they are voted out of office. Ministers hold the title of Regal Government (RG) or Lord Senator (LS), to show which Chamber they sit in.

Office of the Loyal Lord of Celestine


Minister: Lord Anthony Secolo The Office of the Loyal Lord of Celestine, usually referred to as Lord Celestine's Office, is the formal title for the ministry that is headed up by Lord Celestine, the equivilant of a Prime Minister. He is the political voice of the nation. It is the most important ministry and is located on the second floor of Parliament itself with additional offices in the Solium, the Lord's official residence, and other residences.

Office of the First Counsel of State


First Counsel: Lady Agatha Varmini The First Counsel of State is a senior member of the Cabinet of Cattala. The office is not a permanent position, existing only at the discretion of the Queen and the Lord of Celestine, who would otherwise be deputised by the Foreign Secretary. The title was restored by Lord Secolo in 2011 for the first time since the government of national unity in 1951, when he formed a coalition government with Agatha Varmini of the High Tories. Since the merger of the Conservatives and High Tories in 2013, her brief as First Counsel has changed and she now has responsibility for constitutional affairs, religious affairs, international aid and development and serves as President of the Council of State.

Imperial Office


Minister: Lord Senator Gerenomi The Imperial Office was formed in 1402 as the first Government Ministry in Cattala, and managed the entire Cabinet for the Monarch. Nowadays it releases statements from the Monarchy, instead of the Public Relations Office doing so, and manages all royal tours and visits. The Imperial Office is one of the most distinguished offices to be held in Government. Lord Gerenomi is the longest serving Minister in history, having held the position of Minister for Imperial Affairs for nearly 20 years. He is a close friend of the Queen and therefore successive Governments have kept him in the position.

Office of Parliament


Holy Master: Master Phillips The Office of Parliament is led by the Holy Master of the Chambers, who holds the central position in both the Senato del Regno and National Assembly. He manages both of the Chambers of Parliament, and has undermasters that preside over parliament sessions alongside him, or in the place of him. His position is impartial, although he often comes from a political background within one of the chambers. The Master of the Chamber is selected by the Monarch and holds the position for a 10 year term. Because he is selected by the monarch, he is considered Holy. The Office also operates on a provincial basis, running each regional Parliament.

Chancellory


Lord: Lord Senator Estaban Montez The position of Lord Chancellor is the most powerful role beside Lord Celestine. The Chancellor has direct responsibility for Government finances and public spending, as well as being the chief minister for the Treasury and the Exchequer, the largest offices in Government. Several smaller ministries are part of the Chancellory, including the Ministry of Work and Pensions and the Ministry of Skills and Innovation. In total, seven ministers work underneath the Chancellor. The office has its origins in the 12th century, when Kings were assisted and advised by a Chancellor of State, the first of whom was King David I.

Ministry of Education


Minister: Miguel Domentino The Ministry of Education controls all education facilities in Cattala and also controls funding for universities and colleges across Cattala, as well as running the state exam board, school review boards and school culinary enterprises. The Ministry of Education has existed for nearly 200 years and used to be managed by the Church of Cattala, but was taken over by the Government in 1906.

Ministry of Health


Minister: Dr Nicola Festi Cattala's healthcare system is managed by the Ministry of Health, which until 1986 was known as the Health Office. The Ministry controls all of the funding for the National Health Authority and Regional Health Authorities. It also co-ordinates policy with Health Departments from each province and the National Health Executive, an independent clinical organisation run by doctors. It used to control the now-independent Clinical Review Board, which assesses the financial efficiency of the NHA.

Ministry of Social Affairs


Minister: Veronica Taylor The Social Affairs ministry is in control of welfare, social services and public development projects. Much of it's power was devolved to provincial governments in the 1980s, and the control of pensions was moved to Lord Monete in 1991. It is one of the smallest ministries and is based outside of Alder Hill; the only ministry to not be based in the political district. It will be closed on 1st July 2014, with its responsibilities shared amongst other departments and devolved governments.

Ministry of Climate and Energy


Minister: David Partridge The Ministry of Climate and Energy controls the environmental agencies that manage climate change controls, maritime and nature reserves, and the Forestry Commission. The Climate and Energy department is one of the broadest ministries and controls the largest area of land of any Cattalian ministries, due to its management of forests and territorial waters. Traditionally, the biggest drain on its funding has been energy imports, however the cost of flood defences and anti-erosion works have overtaken energy as the biggest funding requirement.

The Ministry of Climate and Energy owns Energie Verdi, the state monopoly of the electricity and gas market, but it is operated independently.

Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs


Minister: Joan Westera The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs manages Cattala's oldest economic sector. It provides subsidies for farms and encourages growth in the agricultural sector. It also carries out investigations into animal welfare and animal abuse, as well as being the department in charge of sustaining rural communities and supporting rural shops with financial loans and advice. MARA issues quarterly reports on the price of goods and produce. It also controls the Meteorological Office of Cattala.

Foreign Office


Secretary of State: Robert Drake RG The Foreign Office implements and controls all foreign relations and foreign affairs for Cattala, including those with the Commonwealth and the AIN. It manages embassies in Cattala and all Cattalian high commissions abroad. Trade missions, foreign aid and overseas investment are all under the Foreign Office's jurisdiction.

Ministry of the Interior


Minister: Gino Ferroni The Ministry of the Interior includes the emergency services hotline, fire service, prison service, police service and border control. Most of its responsibilities are devolved to regional governments, who operate emergency services on a provincial basis. The Ministry organises funding and national planning strategies, as well as maintaining responsibility for national organisations like the Security Authority of Cattala and Cattalian Transport Police. Elections are run independently by the Electoral Commission of Cattala, part of the Ministry of the Interior.

Ministry of Defence


Minister: Lord Senator Taddeo Horandi The Ministry of Defence is the government department responsible for implementing the defence policy set by the Cattalian government, and is the headquarters of the Armato Salvatori, the Intelligence Service of Cattala (ISC) and the Military Communications Service (MCS). It works alongside the Ministry of the Interior in planning and enacting government policy on counter-terrorism.

Ministry of Transport


Minister: Mario Ellord The Ministry for Transport (MfT) is the government department responsible for the Cattalian national transport network and a limited number of transport matters in provinces which are not devolved to regional parliaments. The department is run by the Secretary of State for Transport, currently Mario Ellord. It holds 100% of the shares of the privately-run Cattala Rail group, and owns the Cattala Aviation Authority and the remains of the now-privatised Cattala Airport Management Authority. Seaport management, traffic laws and vehicle registration are also part of the Ministry of Transport's portfolio.

Ministry of Culture, Media and Sport


Minister: Andrew Lennon The MCMS manages all funding for arts and media, as well as funding Royal Media International and partially-funding 3Television. Sports projects and facilities are funded and managed by this ministry.

Public Relations Office


Director: Oliver Francisci The Public Relations Office manages all public communications, media interviews and press releases. Traditionally the Director is not from within Parliament and is the only non-parliamentarian able to sit in Cabinet. Most of the Public Relations Office work is done by non-political employees and former media industry employees.