Daniel Collins

Daniel Collins was a Conservative Party MP and barrister in the United Kingdom who reached the office of Prime Minister for a brief period in 2005-6. Throughout the last years of the 20th century he defined himself as the main opposition figure to the leadership of UK, primarily Alistair Tetley, now Lord Salisbury.

The Rise

Collins became the Conservative MP when his hometown of Ilsen received distinction as an independent district in 1986 and the by-election was won without contest from the Democratic Socialist Party. Collins found initial favour with the Conservative government that remained in power until 1990, a favour that provided Collins with the opportunity to secure friends and allies in good standing with government experience.

However, the 1990 elections saw the DSP push the Conservatives out of office and later that year as a response to claims that the Conservative Party was out of touch, the Conservative leadership placed the young Collins on their shadow cabinet as the Shadow Secretary for Agriculture.

The death of DSP Prime Minister Reginald Baker brought the comparatively young Alistair Tetley to the office of Prime Minister, and with the young blood the Conservatives moved swiftly to bring forth their own rising talents, including Collins who became the Shadow Home Secretary in 1998.

By 2001 Collins was voted by his party to become the Leader of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition. In this capacity he made his name known for his continual debates on the House of Commons floor with Prime Minister Tetley. Despite his personal high approval ratings, the public offered little support to the Conservatives and Collins fought against a DSP-majority controlled Parliament.

The elections of 2005 provided the first real opportunity for the Conservatives to challenge the entrenched DSP Parliament as the Prime Minister called for elections in the aftermath of the Novikovian War. Collins narrowly won for his party a coalition government, but failed owing to the slightly better offer presented to the newly formed Centre Party that had come about as DSP MPs dissatisfied with their leadership over the war. Instead of joining with the Conservatives, they instead allied themselves with their former party, who pledged to keep their domestic agenda intact while still in disagreement over policies related to Novikov.

Only a short time later, King Michael I passed away from a protracted illness and the Prince of New Britain rose to the throne, taking the title of King Andrew. Per the prerogative of any new monarch, Andrew called upon an MP who could lead Parliament to form a new government. Instead of retaining the elected Tetley, who had been elected to the House of Commons before relinquishing the post to join the House of Lords as the Marquess of Salisbury, Andrew called upon Collins to become the new Prime Minister.

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Collins enthusiastically took the helm as the head of government and sought to expand the UK’s trade and diplomatic relations, specifically with smaller, newer nations. The Conservative Party hoped that access to small economies would allow for the establishment of powerful UK industries in foreign lands that would eventually come to dominate the new countries through the efficiency caused by the scale of their operations.

As Prime Minister Collins took the lead, along with his Minister of Foreign Affairs, in opening relations with nations such as the The Beltway, with whom the UK now maintains a healthy commercial as well as diplomatic relationship.

Also under Collins brief tenure, he pushed for the expansion of not just foreign relations but also of UK investment overseas as well as the possibility of dissolving the liberal empire created by Salisbury in the Empire Act of 2002.

Yet Collins would see very few of his plans come to fruition.

The Fall

Amid Collins time in office, Lord Salisbury initiated a low-intensity civil war primarily in the UK’s overseas empire. Although not of significant importance materially, the violent opposition undermined Collins authority, as well as by extension that of King Andrew, and so with the offer of mediation from The Evil Overlord that was accepted by Salisbury, Collins – along with Andrew and his most senior cabinet officer – left the Royal Airport at Emperor’s Field en route to New Caledonia.

At some point during the transit over the large empty expanse of the Pacific, their small aircraft went missing and was presumed lost at sea, its wreckage likely scattered at the bottom of a deep ocean trench beyond recovery.

Legacy

Although his reign as Prime Minister was brief, totaling only seven days, it did see a number of actions that lead some scholars to believe a complete Collins reign would have been marked by significant changes to the social and political institutions that have defined the nation for decades: most notable, perhaps, the decision to lead the Conservative Party away from its traditional platform of isolationism.

However, as a result of Salisbury’s return to power, many Conservative MPs and allies were arrested and charged with treason and sedition – in effect gutting not just Parliament but also the party of its experienced managers and bureaucrats who are essential to the functioning of a modern political party. Additionally, the Conservative Party lost a number of veteran MPs who had the wherewithal to lead any future Conservative government, seen as highly likely given their resurgence in polling in the 2005 elections. In this light, some see Collins as the main instigator of the downfall of the Conservative Party.

Some conspiracy theorists point to a darker reasoning behind Collins’ downfall, they call the timing of TEO’s mediation offer and the subsequent disappearance of the leadership of the Conservative government two events inextricably linked. They claim that the offer was in effect a ruse engineered by Salisbury to provide an opportunity to eliminate his political opponents. However, most mainstream scholars and politicians call such claims dubious at best, pointing out the unusually strong inclement weather over that area of the Pacific as well as only recently uncovered evidence that the aircraft in question had a rather spotty maintenance record. In addition, without any wreckage or remains any claims about a definitive answer to the disappearance will be unsubstantiated for the foreseeable future.