Skovaji

Template:Infobox country Skovaji, officially the Autonomous Republic of Skovaji (Cornish: Repoblek A'n Skovaji, Evonian: Govermantru Skovagee), is a micronation that claims independance from the United Kingdom. Skovaji is bordered on three sides by Cornwall, and with a coastline on the Irish Sea. Skovaji's claimed capital city is Porthcothan, and it has a population of about 650, 15 of which are involved in the Autonomous Republic.

Skovaji covers around 71 acres of territory, which roughly match that of porthcothan, Porthcothan Bay and Carnevas Holiday Park. It is a principality governed under a form of parliamentary monarchy (despite the title "republic"), with The Lord King Wesley Christy II as head of state, although the country is run by the PM Kerry Stapleton, leader of the left-winged Socialist Recognition Party. Certain powers are also left in the hands of the United Kingdom, including healthcare, education and defence.

Etymology

The name Skovaji comes from two Cornish words which mean safety and haven, referring to the country's aims of creating a place for people to live in peace. Cornish is one of two recognised minority languages (aside from English) in the nation, and some official documents for the Cornish areas of the nation are prodeuced in Cornish.

The national anthem, "My NOB", was named after the Nation of Bedroom, a predecessor of Skovaji. In order to preserve the cultural humour behind it the term, "Nation of Bedroom" has been adopted by the state as the name of one of the two regions.

History

The country began as a clumsy attempt at a micronation, formed from the merger of two unrecognised states, the Republic of Bedroom and the Nation of Wesley. They merged into a single Nation of Bedroom, and began to make attempts at functioning as a country. During this time there was the retrodpective "Bronze Age", which was known at the time as the golden age, where the nation expanded its borders to include all of the rooms int the house where it began and a large strip of land in the local playing fields.

When PM Kerry stapleton was elected as PM for his first term, he tried to steer the focus of the country on to building a solid base for further claims. At the time, they were not nessecarially aiming for Porthcothan Bay, although it was on the options list from the start as the family owned a holliday home outside the village. The main changes were scaling back their involvment with the other, lesss "real" micronations around (although they continued to remain close allies with The Demorcatic and The Dem. Rep. Howe) and chnaging the currency for storage of money to the Pound Sterling from the Wesely.

During the next elections, PM Kerry Stapleton said that he wanted to place a claim on the bay and try to "micronationalise" themselves further, including participation with other micronations, whilst his competitior, Lord Wesley Christy II, wanted to claim the whole of Porthcothan Bay and Porthcothan Village, and implement stratergies to regain their lost claims on Cowick Barton Fields and the otehr rooms of the then "NoB House".

Christy Stapleton was elected, and he did claim the whole of the village as his, whilst also announcing that he planned a state visit to the beach. Around a month after he put these plans into effect, he resigned as Prime Minister and asked Kerry Stapleton to take a second term of office, which he declined. After a week's negotiations, he announced that he would be taking up the role, although Christy would remian as Lord Wesley in what was a higher office than himself.

Kerry Stapleton's main aim was to continue to micronationalise the country, and he did this by securing trade agreements with Nedland and Liberland and by re-launching the website with a "this is the goverment site" perspective. Later in his term, he also discussed with the Lord Wesely the possiblity of expanding to include Carnevas holidy park and the fields around it. In 2015, this was been passed, although they have agreed a "stepped chnage" program of updating information about it.

Economy

The country's official currency is the Wesley, equal to ~20p, although in some areas (especially Porthcothan, Sea Mews and Tredrea), the Pound Sterling is used as the primary currency. As such, the Royal Mint of the country claims the right to mint special edition pound notes, which can only be cashed in the Bedroom region (although as of 2015, only one such note has ever been issued, to celebrate the Lord Wesley's visit to London) These are pinned to the GBP at £1.

The Wesley is sustained by controlled minting and the Bank of Wesley, which stores money in pounds. This is a method comparable to the Gold Standard in the USA. The Wesley Party, as part of their manifesto, pledged to remove such measures and simply determine the value of the currency at whatever the government says, although they lost to the Socialist Union party and thus never put their plans to fruition.

Since 2015, the nation has been officially communist, although the economic system is yet to chnge.

Territories

The republic claims the whole of Porthcothan, Carnevas Holiday Park and the land inbetween. These are known as the "Cornwall Claims", in comprison to the "Cowick Claims" which is the bedroom of the nation's two rulers. This is the region to which the name "Nation of Bedroom" is applied.

Demographics

Religion

Skovaji is moslty Christian (56%), although there are also high proportions of Athiests (42%) and Buddhists (1.2%). Despite the mostly christian demographic, bost of the rulers are athiest and practice a policy of state secularism. There is a small church in the country but for other worship purposes people have to travel to the United Kingdom.

Language

The official and de facto only language of Skovaji is English, and 100% of the population are able to speak English. Despite this, the goverment promotes the usage of Cornish, which would have been the historical langauge of the area, and Skovajan, which is a isolat and fabricated language promoted by the goverment (as when they founded the nation origionally, they intended it to have its own language).