Ladle

Ladle, officially known as The Social Democracy of Ladle and associated constituencies is a small island country located close to the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the United Kingdom, with the UK having an enclave near the capital of Ladle, San Linguini. Ladle's clay-rich soil facilitated it's fast growth in the early first and second centuries BC, and it continued to grow in the 16th Century, when a trade relationship with the United Kingdom was established.

Civilization in Ladle dates back circa. 10,000 years, pre recorded history. It was known to be the home of the Pnecian Empire, which briefly conquered the British Isles. Ladle has remained rather secular for most of its history, apart from a small spell under the Roman Empire, shortly before its dissolution, This was enough to establish a small Catholic minority on the outer islands, which spread to the mainland around the time of the Age of Exploration.

History
The first mention of Ladle as a country is written in 1349, in a mostly unintelligible text, written by the supposed King at the time, King James I. This script was written in a language not dissimilar to Latin, although researchers have not been able to find out a great deal about it.

During the Age Of Exploration, Ladle developed a trading partnership with England. They exchanged the clay from their soil for crops that didn't grow on the island naturally, like dandelions, which they eventually used for drinking. This trade relationship grew and by the time of the industrial revolution, Ladle was up to pace.

During this period, Ladle experienced an economic boom of sorts. The textile industry became a rather large one in the country, and soon rivaled that of England's textile industry. Bricks also became a large export due to the clay-rich soil found on the island.

The current Ladle Labour Party was founded in 1856, at the peak of the Industrial revolution. They were a far-left party that greatly valued the rights of working class individuals. They were heavily prosecuted due to the lack of free speech in Ladle at this period, even having their first leader, Thomas Gordon, executed for undisclosed reasons.

This execution became known to the workers of Ladle, and this started a nationwide riot, resulting in several thousand residents being arrested and executed for treason. At this point, the United Kingdom stepped in and took control of the country for about a decade, before being forced out by a prominent group of Ladlish nationalists

During the late 1870s, Ladle were the first country to sell the gramophone record, with a classical music scene developing. These works were recorded acoustically and sold on 130rpm 18" disks. These records are still made now for novelty purposes, but apart from that, are not made anymore. The first record known to be pressed was a recording of Mozart's Symphony No.39. This was pressed across two discs that played roughly 15 minutes across both sides each and packaged in a paper bag, with slight protection for both records.

Ladle has not participated in either World War, because they didn't see the need to participate, and other countries didn't see the need to invade/intimidate them. They do not have a single nuclear weapon in their possession, and the ones made were secretly sold to the US at the tail-end of the second world war. They remain unused.

Ladle were remarkably self sufficient and were not affected greatly by the Wall Street Crash or any other inflation spikes. They loaned £4 million to the USA during the Great Depression, but this proved to be ineffective.

Climate
Ladle's climate is temperate, as it is close to, and on the same tectonic plate as the United Kingdom. However, during the Summer, it has tropical spells. During the winter it usually drops to lows of about -2 degrees Celsius and has highs of 8 degrees Celsius. The record highest temperature winter is 16 degrees Celsius (Recorded 16th January 1948, Myon) and the record lowest temperature in winter is -17 degrees Celsius (Recorded 25th December 2009, San Linguini.) The summer is a lot warmer than that of the UK's, because of a geographic anomaly that scientists have been struggling to figure out. Similar to Spain, it has highs of around 37 degrees and lows of around 28. The record highest is 43 degrees celsius (Recorded August 10th 2019, The Great Ladle) and the record lowest is 12 degrees (Recorded June 29th 1984, San Linguini.)

Culture
In culture, Ladle is very similar to that of both Italy and Ireland, with influences from England. It has inherited Ireland's drinking culture from a previous King, who had associations with Ireland, and it remains close to Italy long after the dissolution of the Roman Empire.

There is a powerful Roman Catholic minority among the population of the outer islands, with some having separate, more Conservative governments.

Media
The largest news source in Ladle is a nationalized one called the Ladle Press. This paper has been praised for its non-partisan views on subjects, and news reporting. Opinion pieces are made by a sub-paper called The People's Paper. This paper reports on things like the Israel-Palestine conflict, being staunchly pro-Palestine in regards to the issue. This has garnered criticism from several other countries, mainly the United States, calling the journalists anti-Semitic.

This issue culminated in a near-war in late 2018, when several journalists were killed in a hostage incident, somewhere within the Gaza strip. Israeli nationalists were supposedly behind the killings. So far, neither country has sent men out.

Music
For a relatively small country, the music scene in Ladle is remarkably large, spawning several large scenes throughout the past one and a half centuries.

The music business started up in the late 1860s, when limited batches of cylinders started to be sold in licensed San Linguini shops. These usually contained a reading of a poem, or a field recording. Few pieces of actual music were recorded on them, and they went on to be heavily sampled.

During the 1880s, the first pop records started to be released, with many of them being simple piano pieces, a stripped back version of actual popular music at the time. Famous recording artists like John Camp came through during this period, and their work is remembered fondly among the nation. Camp released albums into the 1950s, even making an attempt at rock'n'roll.

Camp's influence was expanded on in the late 1900s, as Jazz started to take a stranglehold on the country. Around this time, there was a surge of African migrants into Ladle, and their native music had an effect on the Jazz scene that was put very clearly on display. With many Jazz ensembles employing at least three African members. Jazz albums, usually comprising of 6-10 shellac records packaged in a box.