After a record-breaking short term of only eleven days in office, Lord John Gordon resigned as Prime Minister on Saturday 14th, with his deputy Laird Addison O’Halloran taking office as his successor.

The publication of recent news has been delayed by former PM Andrew Musgrave’s seizure of official government and Times websites, necessitating the creation of this new internet domain to host the government web presence.

Musgrave was expelled from office on June 3rd in a vote of no confidence by Parliament after he unsuccessfully attempted to depose the Emperor and dissolve Parliament in a coup. Since then he has been operating the so-called “Commonwealth of Austenasia”, a fictional government-in-exile composed solely of himself and two non-Austenasian friends.

Lord Gordon’s resignation came after Andrew Musgrave published an article complete with screenshots that claimed to reveal with evidence that both Lord Gordon and former emperor Lord Jonathan had conspired with him to form the Commonwealth as a “publicity stunt”, to garner attention for the Empire.

These claims understandably caused uproar, with many supporters of the legitimate government feeling betrayed and used.

It was later explained that – as it became clear his coup had failed – Musgrave had approached Lord Gordon and Lord Jonathan in an online group call with a warning of his intentions to break away, alongside an request to try and remain friends on a personal level.

This offer of retained friendship was readily accepted by Lord Gordon and Lord Jonathan, who had been close to Andrew Musgrave for many years and had harboured growing concerns about his wellbeing due to the crisis.

After the three of them agreed to separate the personal and the political, and that neither side would take personally anything that was said publicly, Musgrave further proposed that the publicity garnered by the chaos could work in Austenasia’s favour, an assertion that was not explicitly backed by either Lord Gordon or Lord Jonathan.

Contrary to Musgrave’s claims, at no point did the other two “approve” his plan, let alone “co-conspire” with him to create his “Commonwealth”.

Lord Gordon did concur with Andrew Musgrave that, pending a calming of the crisis, the latter’s maintenance of a “rival” government may provide an avenue for an eventual peaceful reconciliation by means of an entity with which peace talks could be conducted. Musgrave refused to countenance such a thing until the Emperor’s reign had come to an end, meaning any such reconciliation would have been long in the future.

At one point in the group call, Musgrave asked that a typed message summarising the full scope of his proposal be sent by Lord Jonathan in order that he could refer back to it, allegedly not being easily able to type himself at that point in time. Lord Jonathan did so, inadvertently producing a message that Musgrave was able to then screenshot and present out of context to accuse Lord Jonathan to be the one to have made said proposal.

Despite the agreement between the three to separate the personal and the political and remain on a friendly basis “behind the scenes” in an attempt to protect Musgrave’s mental well-being, the latter published an article on Saturday 14th, as mentioned above, which presented screenshots from these ostensibly personal conversations taken out of context in an attempt to damage the standing of Lord Gordon and Lord Jonathan, falsely accusing them of having created the “Commonwealth” they had spent eleven days fighting against (the latter having partly come out of retirement in an attempt to do so).

Although Parliament had specifically authorised Lord Gordon as Prime Minister to engage in covert attempts to reassert governmental control over Andrew Musgrave’s territory of Corinium Terentium, he felt his position as head of government untenable and so resigned.

When Lord Gordon and Lord Jonathan’s sides of the story had been presented, the mood within Austenasian governmental circles significantly changed, with several politicians sympathising with the way in which Musgrave had manipulated them and betrayed their friendship. Both men have now cut off contact with Musgrave, who has been accused of weaponising his health to manipulate them.

Lord Jonathan has emphasised the fact that the only actual agreement made behind-the-scenes was the one to try and maintain friendly relations on a personal level, an agreement which was betrayed by Musgrave.

Suggestions by Andrew Musgrave that the creation of a breakaway movement would provide welcome publicity for Austenasia were entirely his own, and the understanding between Musgrave and the then Prime Minister that they could one day work towards a peaceful reconciliation was one that was entirely legitimate, albeit premature.

Laid Addison O’Halloran, previously Deputy Prime Minister to Lord Gordon, has now taken office as Prime Minister, assembling a new Cabinet on June 18th.