Luthori

[Ligbruderkrieg]

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Citadel: Labour's defence budget cuts "not to impact defence projects"
13th January 5711

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Fort William - The Labour government attempted to pursue radical cuts to the military budget, only to be stopped by opposition from the Peers. Following a slimmed-down version of the budgets passed in 5710, the defence budget was decreased by 0.9%. The reason of the decrease was, according to the government to allow for “more thorough efforts to be enacted on other fields”. The National Labour Party, while in opposition, sharply criticised the Tories’ heavy focus on foreign and defence policy while in office, and had previously promised to “sharply” decrease the military budget during their term. 

Unfortunately for the government, their plans were met with the opposition of the House of Peers, which immediately rejected the first budget plan laid out by Chancellor Burke, it decreased Luthorian military budget by 1.5%, this plan was only narrowly rejected by the upper house, but this defeat weakened the government’s large hold in the Imperial Diet, forcing Prime Minister Holian-Keaty to seek out a compromise between the Opposition and the Government. 

Conservative leader Patrick Simon was initially opposed to any sort of compromise that would lead to a sharp decrease in military expenditures, but considering the urging of the Labour government towards that goal, it forced his hand, agreeing to conduct negotiations with the Holian-Keaty Administration, which led to both sides agreeing to a limited decrease of 0.9%. 

The limited decrease was balanced by the inclusion of an increase in the education and healthcare budgets – both fields having been identified as “priorities” of the Holian-Keaty government. Health Secretary Patty Sharpton (Labour) said in the House that “healthcare was totally inadequately prepared to face off against the great challenges of tomorrow” as he argued in favour of the proposed budget, which would increase the healthcare budget by 2.1%.  

While the budget passed in both the House of Peers and the Imperial Diet following the rallying of Liberal and Tory MPs following the introduction of the compromise on the military budget. It’s been observed by specialists that the Labour government has been required to use deficit spending to enact their goals. While Conservative governments aimed at maintaining a budget surplus, Chancellor Burke for his part, said that the government’s concern weren’t with the debt, which currently remains at a stable 74% of GDP, but with “providing Luthorians with the social services that have been lacking under Conservative leadership”. 

With the announced decrease in their budget, the Secretary of Defence Ashcroft remained optimistic, stating that the defence cuts would only “unremarkable and unnoticeable changes to the Imperial Armed Forces’s current development scheme”, same message on the Citadel, where Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Craig Pennyworth addressed concerns from military personnel; saying that the defence cuts were “pre-emptively addressed by the Defence Staff” an audit conducted by the Auditor General of the Imperial Diet revealed that the 0.9% budget cut will not likely be felt on the current status of projects nor on equipment procurement and maintenance. 

This situation allows the Defence Department to continue organising defence operations and continue to strengthen its capabilities, according to a statement from the Citadel in that regard.  

A Defence White Paper for the 5710s placed the Majatran-Artanian Treaty Organisation (MATO) as the “main partner of Luthorian defence”, a move that’ll lead to revamped military strategies, considering Luthori’s continued membership of the alliance since 5707.  

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The Financial Inquirer (FT) is a newspaper focusing on the newest financial and economic information, based in Fort William and belonging to the ChurchillGroup