Alexander Jameson

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Alexander Jameson
150px-Archibald_Wavell.jpg
Official Title
Lord Lieutenant of the Duchy , Lord Lieutenant of the City of New Westminster the Right Honourable Commander Alexander Jameson of the Grand Duchy of Maannenland , Defender of the Duchy , Lord High Admiral of the Mannenland Naval Fleet and Protector of the Republic of Wilnwick
Place of Birth
Harringdon , Greater Stretford
Political Party
Maanenland First
Constituency
Regentsport Western , Ternpool Province

Commander Alexander William Jameson MODM NSc(St) OLM (1950-) is the 38th Lord Lieutenant of the Grand Duchy of Maanenland. His response to the economic crises of the 1990s have made him one of the most radical and authoritian leaders since the civil war.


Family Background

Alexander William Jameson was born in 1950 to Benjamin and Sally Jameson. Benjamin Jameson was the habour master of Harringdon Port and is married to Sally Jameson , a shopkeeper also born and raised in Harringdon town.

Alexander Jameson is married to Susan Jameson and has three children , Joe (26) , Susan (21) and Paul (18).

Naval Career

Following his education at the prestigous Mayfield Naval University Jameson joined the Royal Maanenic Maritime Defence Force in 1971.

Jameson's first post was a junior officer on the patrol vessel RMDS Bellechurch , after only a few months in service Jameson saaw action after a surprise ambush by southern european pirates. During the resulting battle Jameson's captain was killed and Jameson was forced to take control of the vesell. Despite suffering serious injuries himself as well as being outgunned and outnumbered Jameson managed to stop the attack and get the severely damaged ship into harbour. For his actions Jameson was the youngest naval officer ever to recieve the Maritime Order of the Lieutenancy of Maanenland in 1973 aged only 23.

After a few years as the captain of several patrol vessels Jameson was given command of the frigate RMDS City of Market Harston on peacekeeping duties in northern Dun Eiddan where he again proved himself as a skilled maritime tactician. Following his sucesses Jameson was made officially a Captain in December 1984 , at the time he was one of the youngst captains in Maanenic naval history , following this he was given command of the principal ship the RMDS Greater Stretford engaging in several successful tours backing peacekeeper deployments principally in the Sea of Liberation.

The last promotion Jameson recieved was to be appointed Commander-of-the-European fleet , the navy's largest and most important fleet in July 1986 and was transferred from active duty to the European Naval Command in Dukesport ,Kingsborough. Jameson left this post in August 1987 although remained as Commander giving advice to the navy on maritime issues.

On leaving the service Jameson was made Associate Protector of the Naval Fleet , an honourary title given to naval personell of high service.

Political Career

On leaving the navy at the young age of 37 Jameson was inspired by his work at the Ministry for Territorial Integrity to consider a career in politics , he stood for the Democratic Socialist Alliance stronghold of Regentsport West which he surprisingly won by a landslide majority in the 1990 by-election. He then subsequently rose through the ranks to become Lord Lieutenant only 6 years later in 1996.

Minister for the Ports and Harbour Authorities

Jameson's Naval history made him the ideal candidate for the low-level Ministry of the Port and Harbour Authorities and was appointed by Daniel Phealan following the 1991 Maanenland First majority on the advice of Jameson's close friend the Minister for Territorial Integrity , Alan Kennedy.

At this time the ports were mostly an inefficiently run state business that were somewhat antiquated and ineffciently ran. Jameson set about large scale reforms of the department , he however required the Lord Lieutenants authority for many of his more radical plans. This discussion led to the cementing of an alliance between the two who shared the same political ideology.

The resulting sell-off of the ports in January 1991 met with little controversy as the government still remained large scale controls on the ports , his reforms however transformed the ports into a more profitable private concern and saw massive regeneration of the docklands.

Minister of Administrative Affairs

Jamesons' transformation of the port's and the shared ideology of both him and the Lord Lieutenant led to Jameson's being elevated to the relativly high profile position of Minister of Administrative Affairs following the resignation of Paul Barton following allegations of corruption.

Although this was not Jameson's field of expertise he relished the challenge of transforming the Office of the Central Bureaucracy into a slimlime efficient organisation as opposed to the sprawling choked mass it was under the Democratic Socialist Alliance.

His term of office at the department saw the growth of the provincial councils , much greater powers to city Sublieutenants and more controversially , the cutting of the Civil Service of Maanenland by sacking 800,000 workers at Town Halls nationwide.

Strikes were commonplace throughout his term of office which brought him into conflict with many of the other departments and was brought before the National Executive Committee who cleared him of any wrongdoing.

Special Minister for Economic Reform

After his reforms of the ports and bureaucracy Phealan decided to accelerate the economic reform program as the economic malaise in Maanenland began to turn into an economic depression , to counter it Phealan appointed Jameson to the new position of Special Minister for Economic Reform. This gave sweeping powers to Jameson to co-ordinate the organised privisation of the state owned empire.

The creation of the post however brought him again into conflict with the treasury and Ministry for Trade and Commerce as Jameson had effective control over their departments. In order to increase the demand for the nationalised industries Jameson took control and brought them as near competitiveness as possible by laying off thousands of workers primarilly in the steel industry.

The workers at Maanen steel did not respond well to the announcement and staged a General Strike which took place across the nationalised industries and brought the national economy to a grinding halt resulting in the Great Strike of 1995. Despite having no electricity , unemployment skyrocketing and other problems the middle-class tabloids and the Maanenic aristrocracy as well as business rallied around the government.

Democratic Socialist Alliance Lieutenants with their Trade Unions composition seized on the crisis and attempted to pass a vote of no confidence with the government , although they lost the vote on the 12th September 1995 Phealan was forced to declare a state of emergancy. Many in Maanenland First expressed their concern at the developments but he retained the support of the Phealan National Executive Committee.

As the Long Week Crisis developed Jameson was forced to take the leading role in the crisis as Phealan's heart condition began to decline rapidly because of the stress of the situation , when the Long Week Crisis was over the ill health of the Lord Lieutenant resulted in Jameson being appointed Underlieutenant of the Duchy.

Underlieutenant of the Duchy

The position of the Underlieutenant of the Duchy is not an official post in Maanenland but instead is a de facto position for when the Lord Lieutenant becomes unable to perform his duties fully.

At this point Jameson became the temporary Lord Lieutenant until Phealan recovered or a new election was announced. The reason why the post went to Jameson and not a more experianced cabinet member was never officially revealed , because of the mounting crisis in the nation the appointment was seen as a sign of the collapse of the Maanenic state. Newspapers such as the New Wesminster Heralder said at the time "the maanenic state is crumbling before our eyes , as anarchists and socialists destroy the economy the government has lost any control over the nation...".

When he becaome ULtD on November 3rd , 1995 Jameson was overwhelmed with the position and relied heavily on his Marshals to caretaker run the country. Although Jameson would of prefered to stay as Special Minister he was forced to use his powers to abolish the post by the end of 1995 in order to concentrate on his new role. Rather than appoint a new minister Jameson decided to abolish the post primarily to keep the NEC happy which he required for smooth rule.

In debates and committees as well as official functions Jameson at first appeared somewhat intimidated and for the first few months failed to make a heavy impact at a time when the future of the state itself seemed to be in jeopardy, his strong speeches in the media and unprecedented use of the military made him a powerful figurehead at the time especially as the Duke of Cliffton was publically backing Jameson personally as opposed to the NEC which itself was beset with infighting.

His draconian measures to restore however horrified many as the police and army began to fire using live rounds on protestors and strikers nationwide and ferried in military personell into civilian infrastructure centres such as power stations in tanks. As Oakham County flared up Jameson also ordered the military into there resulting in many deaths on both sides.

On Feburary 13th 1996 Phealan experianced a massive stroke in his Hemsby home as Maanenland burned around him, Maanenland First then prepared for an election for the leader as Phealan resigned due to poor health. Meanwhile Jameson literally fought nationwide to restore order and did not concentrate on an election campaign and as such was unexpected to win.

With an election looming it also appeared that it was unlikely that the government was likely to re-elect Maanenland First after months of shortages and civil strife. Still in the election of March 24th Maanenland first voted by 64% to elect Jameson to party leader to the surprise of many.

Lord Lieutenant of Maanenland

The election of June 4 1996 re-elected Maanenland First with another sweeping majority in the House of Boroughs. On June 21st the Sword of the Lieutenancy was officially passed to Jameson and he became Lord Lieutenant of the Duchy of Maanenland.

First Term

The first term of Jameson's rule was dominated with fixing the shattered economy and rebuilding the social fabric of Maanenland. With the strikes over Jameson sold the Maanen Group for an undisclosed sum but with the compromise of allocation of shares dedicated to the workers which helped calm down the unions somewhat. The resulting sell-off of the group was taken to the stock exchange on September 1996 amid fireworks by the councils at the Cliffton,Ternpool and Stretford stock exchanges. It remains by far the biggest flotation in Maanenland's history.

The money used for the privisation was used to repay debts and thus fix the budget deficit. With the extra cash Jameson embarked on the biggest infrastrucutre building program in 50 years particularly in transport and telephony although health and education also recieved a boost.

Taxation , which rose as high as 60% , was slashed massivly for all tax bands as was corporation tax. This was combined with a massive deregulation of financial services. The results of these were proven with the economic explosion from around 1998 onwards when the Maanenic economy experianced it's greater ever economic with growth in some regions approaching 7%. The Maanenic Pound at this time also increased rapidly during this time.

In terms of legislation the status quo was maintained mostly for the first four years of Maanenland First rule.

In 1999 his close friend and predeccssor Daniel Phealan died aged 75 and Jameson led the funeral proceedings at the New Westminster Cathedral.

Second Term

With order restored in the Duchy and the economy skyrocketing it was no surprise that Maanenland First won a second term with roughly the same majority in June 2000.

Now that the economy was fixed the NECs priority for the second term was the New Maanenland Agenda , a series of radical changes in policy and legislation for the governments program of social reform.

The most controversial of these was the Narcotics Act 2001 which the Lord Lieutenant only got through the legislature with the backing of the Liberal Democratic Party of Maanenland which effectivly legalised all drugs but remained under the control of the government by the watchdog DDCO. This split the Maanenland first between the social right-wingers and the libertarian faction which has still not been resolved.

Euthenasia was a major part of the legislative agenda being legalised this time with less opposition with the Euthanasia Act 2002 despite strong protests for the religous right, however public support was with the government as reflected by polls in the media.

Jameson had planned to introduce Gay Marriage by his third-term , however negotiations and debates in the NEC led to the introduction of Civil Partnerships only in late 2002.

The remaining two years of Jameson's rule saw a massive reworking of the school curriculum as well as reform of the Maanenic Social Insurance scheme which introduced popular within the servics but brought the government into conflict with patient groups.

Third Term

The manifesto for the third term was dominated this time by the Policy and Service Agenda with most of Jameson's reform in place the emphasis switched to tweaking existing services after the re-election of August 2005 which was delayed due to a strike by the Electoral Commission regarding pay.

However the main effect of the third-term was an abandonment of the duchy's and party's traditional isolationism. The main example of this being Jameson's campaign to get the public to back joining the United Nations with a series of TV campaigns , the public eventually agreed and Jameson applied personally to join the international organisation.

Jameson had long promised his former service , the naval service , of greater support when he came to power. Although he had considerably upgraded the navy at the expense of the other services he was now freeer to give a massive budget injection into the service after negioations with the treasury by the end of 2005. The Royal Maanenland Navy and Royal Maanenland Aeronautical Defence Force have objected strongly to the budget increases for the naval services despite they themselves recieving substantional budget increases.

Constitutional reform was in the policy agenda for the third term with Jameson opening talks with the other OCKIS nations surrounding increasing co-operation with nations which is far from Maanenland First's original policy objectives , Jameson appears to have the support of the party on this issue however. The status of Wilnwick has also been discussed by Jameson who has expressed concern by the recent erosion of political freedoms. In Oakham County Jameson has opened talks with local warring factions to try and negotiate a settlement.


Future

After ten years of rule Jameson appears to be a strong as ever despite the concerns of many of his own party and the increasingly militant Democratic Socialist Alliance who still harbour great resentment of Jameson.

He still rides high in opinion ratings and is regarded as one of the most successful Lord Lieutenants in recent history,it is likely that he will stand again for the next election despite him nearing sixty by that time.

In Jameson's party young ministers such as James Walsh and Micheal Jones are likely to be strong contendors for the future leadership and many have compared their relationship to similiar of that of Phealan and Jameson.

Critisism

Jameson has been slated by many of his critics for his authoritian style and tendancy to not compromise especially with the NEC. His economic policies have somewhat polarised the nation as many communities have been badly affected by the loss of the traditional state industries which were the mainstay of many local economies.






Preceded by:
John van der Bruegee
Lieutenant for Regentsport Westport 1990- Succeeded by:
Incumbent
Preceded by:
Ruth Orrell
Minister for the Ports and Harbour Authorities
1991-1992
Succeeded by:
William Butter
Preceded by:
Paul Barton
Minister for Administrative Afffairs
1992-1993
Succeeded by:
Joan Williams
Preceded by:
None - New Post
Special Minister for Economic Reform
1993-1995
Succeeded by:
None - Post Abolished
Preceded by:
Daniel Phealan
Leader of Maanenland First
1996-present
Succeeded by:
Incumbent
Preceded by:
Daniel Phealan
Lord Lieutenant of Maanenland
1996-2006
Succeeded by:
Incumbent