Luthori

[Ligbruderkrieg]

Shadow Home Sec. Brooke elected as Conservative leader.
24th, June 5670

FORT WILLIAM - The Conservative Party, ever since the 5670 general election, has been going through a crisis. With incumbent party leader, Thomas Hawkins’ inability to snatch away a victory against Prime Minister Howe’s Labour, who was considered as a “weak” candidate by pollsters and the electorate alike, but still managed to get appointed as Prime Minister by the Emperor after skilfully crafting his way to the Premiership, forming a government with the Radical Liberal Party, the Radical Democratic Party and the Green Party. Following this, Mr. Hawkins’ hold over the party after this second defeat in a row was shattered, with numerous newly-elected or senior MPs openly questioning Mr. Hawkins’ leadership qualities and calling for his resignation as party leader. Presumed candidates didn’t wait upon Mr. Hawkins’ eventual resignation (on April 7th, 5670) to make themselves heard. Already in January, following the 5670 general election, the Weekly Telegraph drew up a chart of potential future Conservative leaders, such as Shadow Home Sec. J. Brooke, Shadow Chancellor M. Harper, Senate Opposition Leader T. Pales and others.

Due to the lack of codified ruling in the party’s constitution, the Tories scrambled to even properly find a democratic way to elect their party leader - with Hawkins excluding using the 5302 Committee as a potential way to elect the leader. On April 19th, 5670, 12 days after Mr. Hawkins’ resignation, the Tories officially announced their rules for registration as a candidate for the 5670 leadership election: each candidate would need to be supported by at least 7 MPs in the Chamber of Representatives (out of 127 Tory MPs sitting in the lower house) and 3 MPs in the Senate (out of 84 Tory MPs sitting in the upper house), in short, they needed the support of 10 MPs out of 211 MPs in both Houses of Parliament to qualify as a candidate. 

Seven presumptive candidates secured enough numbers to qualify as a Conservative candidate, Mr. Joseph Brooke, Mrs. Elizabeth Harper, Mr. Thomas Pales, Mr. Gallagher, Mr. Johnson, Mrs. Mary Quelvy and Mrs. Claire August. These seven candidates were given 1 month and a half to campaign to smaller party representations in both Provinces and constituencies, before the Tory MPs were set to decide to narrow the electoral field to five candidates on June 3rd, 5670, with Mr. Johnson and Mrs. August eliminated, while dark horse candidate Mary Quelvy moved through to the second round. On the second ballot, organised the next day and aimed at narrowing the ballot to four candidates, Mr. Gallagher was eliminated after a close contest with Mr. Brooke and Mr. Pales for the left-wing conservative vote. Mr. Gallagher then supported Mrs. Quelvy in a bid to avoid that Mrs. Harper, who had constantly been polling at the number one spot win the leadership contest, Mr. Gallagher described Mrs. Quelvy as the “necessary stable hand that our party and the nation needs” while privately describing Mrs. Harper as a “dangerous reactionary dressed as a libertarian”. On the third ballot, Mrs. Quelvy’s luck finally ran out and she was eliminated in favor of more established candidates such as Mr. Brooke and Mr. Pales, while Mrs. Harper lost the number one spot in favour of Mr. Pales, who surged from the third to the first place after receiving support from losing candidate Johnson.

With Harper, Brooke and Pales on the second-to-last ballot, the MPs had one candidate to eliminate before the last showdown between 2 candidates, where the wider Conservative membership base would get the right to elect their leader, and subsequently, write Luthori’s political future, on this last ballot reserved for MPs, Mr. Pales, Senate Opposition Leader was eliminated, leaving only Shadow Home Sec. Brooke and Shadow Chancellor Harper as the two frontrunners for the Conservative leadership contest. After having been left 2 weeks to campaign in their final election rallies and having gathered the support of numerous candidates, with Mr. Brooke securing the support of Mr. Gallagher, Mr. Johnson and Mrs. Quelvy, while the right-wing flank of the Conservative Party rallied behind Mrs. Harper’s agenda, such as Mr. Pales and Mrs. August, who both announced their support for Mrs. Harper’s bid for the Conservative leadership. The two major tv media that are the LBC (public) and Channel 7 (private) organised two debates where the two candidates exposed their vision for the Conservative Party and for Luthori under a potential government.

Mrs. Harper’s vision of an ultra liberal Luthori (a field day for the Labour Party), where the State wouldn’t need to intervene massively in the market was opposed by Mr. Brooke’s moderate economic agenda, while opposing further entrenchment of the “socialistic” Labour agenda within the economy, he still nonetheless stated that, while liberalisation efforts would be made by his government - it would be made out of consensus with his different coalition partners. The two candidates agreed that the government’s “lackluster” funding into domestic security was “weakening” the nation, with both candidates being known for their “tough on crime” stance. One key element where the two candidates diverged however, was on social issues, Mrs. Harper was far more liberal-minded than her opponent, announcing explicitly that a potential Harper government (while going against the workers and poor people) wasn’t going to backtrack on both abortion and euthanasia, furthermore that these social advancement would be “...strengthened…” under her government. Mr. Brooke, for his part, remained vague, talking about “..official party doctrine…” in opposition to euthanasia and not giving a clear answer about the preservation of these rights. Finally, in an unusual twist, Mrs. Harper announced to be “favourable” in “further” environmental regulations in a bid to reduce Luthori’s CO² emissions.

Nevertheless, Mr. Brooke won with 52.7% of the vote, Mrs. Harper’s arch-conservative credentials and her ties with the Northminster political machine and wealthy billionaires made her too “controversial” to win in 5675. Brooke promised that he would “bring them [the Tories] back into government” in “less than five years”, Mr. Brooke also promised that his leadership would be one of “consensus” - where each faction of the Tory Party would work together in harmony. Furthermore, he announced that he wished to “decentralise both the party and the nation” hinting at future efforts aimed at reducing the influence of Fort William in national politics, by increasing the rights and prerogatives of provinces at the expense of the central government. Mr. Brooke stated that the “government cannot run your daily life…and cannot also answer to all the needs of the provinces that they can’t cover themselves…”.