Luthori

[Ligbruderkrieg]

PM's replacement known, Sir Jeoffrey enters Number 10 as Sun and Moon Society prepares to take over government.
March 7th, 5737

End of the crisis within the National Labour Party, as the ruling party successfully rallied under the banner of the so-called “Sun and Moon Society” of influential parliamentary shadowy powerbroker within the Labour Party, Sir Timothy Jeoffrey. Of course, he isn’t well known within the public, but Mr. Jeoffrey has served as an MP for the best course of the last thirty years, first being elected as an MP for Middleshaw, Erneshire in 5712, taking this seat out of Conservative hand, he was however voted out in the 5715 general election, losing to Conservative former veteran MP, Pat Burnell in a close rematch (36.8 pp to 35.9 pp).

As he lost his seat in the Imperial Diet, Jeoffrey entered a brief period of political wilderness, narrowly quitting politics altogether to work in the private sector as an advisor, as he says in his autobiography: “Hope?”, however, once again, the opportunity will rise again for him to make a name for his himself in the 5716 Cherryport by-election. Triggered by the resignation of long-time MP, Stephanie Gomez over health issues, as the veteran MP when resigning has had a long history of complicated health problems which worsened as her tenure grew longer, putting a strain on her health. This proved to be the right opportunity for him to put an end to his forced hiatus and enter back into Parliament, expanding the Henry Schnee’s Labour Party’s majority by a single seat.

Once back on Darlington, he quietly begun to build a network of allies within the National Labour Party, eventually creating the “Sun and Moon Society”, an informal think tank, affiliated with the Labour Party and organizing various galas, meetings, releasing papers on their policies among other activities. The Sun and Moon Society will quickly become his main levy of influence within the National Labour Party, as through the years he confirmed his place as one of the informal “party bosses” of the left-wing dominant political formation. From 5716 to 5737, he continued to expand his influence within the National Labour Party, while not even sitting on either the shadow cabinet between 5723 and 5727 and rejecting to join the successive cabinets after Labour’s return to government.

Using the Prime Minister’s weakened position following the Schismatic Sea Crisis, he entered the race by openly criticizing Prime Minister Wittfield for his handling of the crisis and his willingness to “risk the nation’s future over water”, strategically for his own ambitions, he had avoided taking a definite stance on the crisis and the Labour government’s overall management of it. This stance placed him as a definite challenger to the Prime Minister, as it helped shore up his credentials among the left-wing electorate, who opposed the Prime Minister’s crisis management, although placing him at odds among more moderate Labour Party members.

Using his enormous influence within the National Labour Party at his advantage, he effectively talked down James Robb, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Services from running in the leadership election following the resignation of Prime Minister Pockerfield, effectively running unopposed for his great triumph, as he was elected as Leader of the National Labour Party and ex officio Prime Minister of Luthori with over 82% of the vote. His opponents only gathered 18%. Now, as Prime Minister, what can we expect from Timothy Jeoffrey as the nation’s chief executive. 

After meeting His Majesty the Emperor, he’ll be tasked with forming an administration in his name and the names of some ministers will give the idea of what a Jeoffrey ministry would look like and how it would act. The Sun and Moon Society worked as Jeoffrey’s personal fiefdom, with no real ideological consistency, except ruthless left-wing opportunism, in some days, Labour MPs would describe the SMS as a “left-wing populist” organisation, while on another day, they would describe it as “reformist social democrat” organisation. The lack of ideological coherence within the SMS and its own leader’s own ideological flip-flopping being well-known within Labour Party circles now forces us to ask the following question: What does he actually stand for? 

Of course, he’s left-wing, but apart from broadly agreeing to the party’s manifesto, in some policies areas, he’s well known for his constant flip-flopping, such as his stance on euthanasia. Back in 5732, he stated that he was “favourable to a great debate in parliament and among the public” on the topic, but as he grew closer to the Luthorian Church and left-wing religious voters, he became far more opposed to the practice, stating his worry that the legalisation of euthanasia would “pave the way for abuse” of the elderly and affirmed his “moral opposition to the practice of government-mandated killing”, as he said in a recent statement in 5736. His flip-flopping has constantly been an attack angle for his opponents, who accused him of being “unmoral”, “unprincipled” or other names. His stance on euthanasia is merely one of the few issues in which Mr. Jeoffrey changed his position if it didn’t benefit his political standing, prompting fears among the National Labour Party that his flip-flopping would harm the party’s chances among the electorate for the next general election.

Jeoffrey addressed the Labour Party following his election, stating that the National Labour Party electing him as its leader was the “greatest honour bestowed upon himself”, promising that he will be “rising for the occasion” and would lead the Luthorian Empire into a “bright, new, better era” under his leadership.