Election special: The Martians

Hi All,

In an alternative reality far away...

The house is  a  detached rambling wooden and  brick affair, the many chimneys would work overtime and the nearest village is over 10 miles away . Everything was packed and the  polar Huskies were ready. I   stepped out onto the veranda to be with my employer, but what gets me is that morning air , it's  like fresh  ice in my  nose and mouth,  dazzling  snow lay on the ground,  every naked bud and branch that hadn't been enveloped ,  as the sun cast a long shadow on the frozen lake ,  which sat below  the vast mountain ranges of Elysium and well above the horizon. It was a standard  summer .

I live with my employer, an indigenous non human Martian,  the Right Hon. Charlotte "Lotty" Disraeli  Azaxyr, the recently returned  Westminster Member of Parliament  for Elysium Mons North, a seat she'd held for the Martian Parliamentary Party, since the general election of 1880. I am her latest Secretary.

I  couldn't help but gaze at her toga, which was wrapped around  her statuesque , toned athletic body, long brown hair, albino skin and elf like  pointed ears,  which contrasted with my olive features.  Despite being over 200 years she looked no older than 36.

"261 in actual fact, Dina"  as if Lotty had read my mind. Which is 14 less than our final tally of seats, you know we even gain seats outside of Mars?"

You see there has been a general election, triggered by the recently anointed conservative  Prime Minister, Theresa June. She'd hoped to gain a massive landslide win:  the opposition SDP was in chaos, polls said she was personally popular. Except the campaign was disastrous for June and as the result came in , she'd actually lost seats. The  federal "Westminster " parliament was "hung". No one party had the 630 seats needed for a majority.

The two traditional  parties needed our help to form a government . The Liberal party couldn't , mathematically, help either side. So it was our party , the Martian Parliamentary Party which were the kingmaker, not for the first time, in fact most of the same time . So we were about to take a 12 mile husky ride to the train station directly to London to meet with the rest of the Martian Parliamentarians. The press loved the display of the Britannia like figure riding on a slay with huskies to boot.  That looked strong and stable.  Mars was different to other parts of Albion.

I only needed to note this when we arrive in London a vast cosmopolitan city with the same population -80,000,000 - as the entire planet and moons of Mars.  Mars is an extremely industrial and technologically advanced place, but  at the same time one may get the impression of a mentality of a    small town and outlook of a  conservative, provincial, profoundly patriotic, paternalistic people . 

O.k. we Martians are a diverse bunch. Like  my family is human, Jewish  and  has been on Mars for several generations  : we came here on one of the first steamships,   a couple of years before Benjamin Disraeli negotiated the act of union between ,Great Britain and the native Martians ,  thus creating the United Kingdom of Albion . This was way back  at the Congress of Berlin in 1878.   

Then there's the native Martians, The Bahar, like my employer they were the first nation Martians.  Also we have a sizeable population of Homo Dinosauri , the T 'beet or first nations of Earth.  But London has every human culture represented in its population and over 155  non human "alien " ethnicities. It was a shock to first seek a talking cactus and to realise this was an alien species.

The London press were all around us as we arrived by train wormhole at London Euston.  Our security detail were Te'beetain of the Raptor tribe. These ten foot tall bipedal reptiles with jaws full of teeth and more ominously the 12 inch retractable scythe on each of their two feet , managed to keep the mob at a reasonable distance. 

One of the journalists got within earshot . "Who will you prop up?  The failed June or the communist? Wouldn't that make you an alien traitor?'

Turning round the reporter's eyes  met with Lotty's Sapphire steel ones.  Off message and unscripted she replied 

 "Martians have stood shoulder to shoulder with the humans ever since 1878 : through three world wars and countless small ones our people have never wavered in this Union , our beliefs in this alliance has meant millions of our sons and our daughters have given their lives to defend it. I myself have taken up arms in defence of this realm: six kingdoms , one principality and one province and countless territories.....

 to quote my departed father in law :' I am a Conservative to preserve all that is good in our constitution, a Radical to remove all that is bad. I seek to preserve property and to respect order, and I equally decry the appeal to the passions of the many or the prejudices of the few'".