NationStates Jolt Archive


Elections and New Directions (MT)

Clandonia Prime
09-12-2008, 15:13
Warminster, Imperial Crown Kingdom of Clandonia

The economic and political centrepiece of the vast Empire that spread across Haven was in Warminster, amongst the merchant bankers and traders of The City to the marble arches of Whitehall and Parliament where the powers to be conducted the daily running of government across the seas. The general election the 9th of December in the Year of Our Lord was not a surprise. The collapse of of liberal internationalist voices in the Liberal Tory coalition brought on by the failure against of Questerian foreign policy in the War of Liberty against Doomingsland, a long time ally. With no end to a war that was a waste of resources on both sides a step towards a more realist perception of the world had returned, traditional conservatives like Prime Minister Sir David Sistilin and the newly appointed Minister for Colonial and Foreign Affairs Sir Peter Langford triumphed this return. In the wake of the massive colonisation quests in Haven (http://z15.invisionfree.com/Haven_Region/index.php?showtopic=537&hl=) the government looked shaky with many on the liberal side of the party expressing a concern for a return to Realpolitik as the theory of how the Crown ran its foreign affairs. On a bright but cold morning the results were already clear, the Liberal and Whig Party was in danger of collapse as the Conservative Party took the crucial swing seats in the Home Counties, the Welsh speaking South West returned Tory seats as well giving the Tories three hundred and ninety seven seats once the final count was finished on early Wednesday morning. The Tories had an astounding majority of one hundred and fifty one votes against the opposition of the Labour Party, winning in their usual strong areas of the industrial North, the ship building estuary constituencies. In terms of colonial seats the Tories pulled strongly through with many analysts supporting that the Conservative manifesto was a deciding factor for many overseas voters.

In total the votes were as followed out of a total of 650:

Conservative Party 397
Labour Party 209
Liberal Party 23
Clandonian Black Labour 3
Clandonian Cyrmreig 2
Clandonian National Party 2
Clandonian Communist Party 1
Bomb Prestonia Party 2

In Clandonian South Haven the area returned five surprising candidates, the Bomb Prestonia Party took two seats near the troubled border zone and in the plantation areas Black Labour took three seats prompting shock and horror by the white Clandonian settlers and discussion if the Negroid voters should be even allowed in the franchise with their radical views on land redistribution and black socialism. Little change in leadership of the country however with a purge of any liberals from the new fully Conservative cabinet, Sistilin appointed several new ministers and whips, to ensure even with the sizeable majority that the government benches would vote correctly and not be influenced by any liberal elements that had survived the onslaught of the General Election.

In terms of policy the Tory policy was quite radical, deployments of troops and the enlargement of the standing army pushing defence spending up to nearly 6%. The latest news of the colonisation in the South with Rahland and the Falklands where valuable oil and gas reserves were expected to be found had meant a huge naval force was to be built, nearly half a million troops would be deployed as part of the Imperial South Haven Force (ISHF). To the East in the Cook Islands, a substantial naval and air deployment, designed to keep the waterway protected, easing the dependency on the canal link administrated by Aequatio. To the worrying residents of Clandonian South Haven and the issues raised by the fear of Prestonian based terrorism the government was announcing a massive military package, a Royal Naval squadron, new Coastal Command Air Wings, more divisions of both armour and air assault forces pushing up the number of Clandonian military personal in the colony to 1.2 million. A package welcomed and whole heartedly supported by the regional government in South Haven after seeing the effects of terrorism in Questers. To tackle the problem of terrorism in external reagions there would be more deployments of fast response squadrons on a rotational basis to Karain.

As the pictures of the wreckage of the Royal Clandonian Society burning in Questers played into the mind of many voters on election day, there were calls to launch a war of retribution on Prestonian Maasailand, several MP's were calling for a bombing campaign-'to make their rubble huts into smaller bits of rubble'. What was for sure that relations with the Prestonians would now be worse than ever, hardline Tories in the Cabinet would be very unforgiving follow the terrorist atrocity in Jesselton.