Conservative Party (Oceania)

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Conservative Party
Conservative-Logo.gif
Established 1897
Address 918 Charles Gate Road
Imperium, New Britain
United Kingdom
Economic ideology Conservative
Social ideology Conservative
Leader Benjamin Yorke
Colours Blue
Website www.conservative.org.az

The Conservative Party was the second of the United Kingdom’s two leading political parties until its de facto dissolution in the wake of the Accession Crisis of 2005, during which it led Parliament as the government behind Prime Minister Daniel Collins. After the return of Collins’ predecessor, Lord Salisbury to Imperium and Parliament the Conservative Party leadership was arrested for treason and sedition. In the 2006 by-elections to replace 196 Conservative seats formerly held by arrested Conservative MPs, 172 seats went to the Democratic Socialist Party and thereby relegated to a mere 73 seats in the House of Commons.

Platform

Domestic

The Conservative Party espouses traditional points of view on the social agenda, largely preferring to pull government out of the daily lives of the UK citizenry. Prime Minister Violet Clarke succeeded during her term in office in removing regulations and constraints on education – removing much public funding except for the worst of UK public schools. Similar pullbacks from the public sector were announced, but failed to materialize after the Conservatives lost to the Democratic Socialists in 1990.

Recently, Conservatives rallied to fight against DSP legislation that legalised gay marriage. Indeed, the Conservative Party used such proposed legislation as a backbone of its platform for the 2005 General Elections.

Perhaps most importantly for domestic affairs, however, remains the Conservatives’ position on the liberal empire of the United Kingdom formally instituted by Alistair Tetley in 2002. In accordance to their cornerstone belief of freedom and independence, the Conservative Party advocates for the gradual devolution of the United Kingdom from a unitary state into a voluntarily-maintained federal state.

This programme would include the granting of independence to UK colonies that chose such a path through legitimate referendums while granting to each home country the right to form its own legislative assemblies outside of the sovereign powers of a new federal Parliament. The new federal Parliament would likely entail a system of representation for the different constituents along a model used by the United States for equal representation of its many states.

Foreign

Although traditionally one of the largest proponents of the former isolationist stance that charaterised Commonwealth relations throughout much of the 20th century, the short tenure of Daniel Collins as Prime Minister saw a radical shift for the Conservatives as the UK government made numerous overtures to smaller, newer independent states – most notably The Beltway. While Collins defended such moves as common sense, Democratic Socialists criticised the move as being indicative of the Conservative Party being in the pockets of big business.

The short time in office for Collins and his government allowed for no parallel changes in the foreign policy as related to military use. Previous situations showed unwillingness for unilateral use of the UK armed forces, especially at the outset of the Novikov War. Some within the party, such as leader Daniel Collins, seized the opportunity, however, and called for swift military retribution and called Prime Minister Tetley weak on defence. It was, however, a call that was short lived as military operations – unbeknownst to the public – had already commenced.

Economic

As can be expected, the Conservative Party has long favoured little to no government interference in the economic systems of the Commonwealth and now the United Kingdom. While in the past such policies radically separated the party from its Democratic Socialist rivals, the recent neo-liberal trend of the DSP has marginalised the economic policy differences between the two parties. Under Prime Minister Collins, the UK did focus on the expansion of international trade, in particular with the smaller, newer nations aforementioned.

The Future

The Conservative Party now faces an uncertain future, having fallen from the ruling party to the third largest party in Parliament. Within a span of a month the party’s representation in Parliament fell from 245 to 73 seats. The most significant problems facing the Conservative Party are its lack of seasoned veterans to debate the DSP front bench, a lack of middle rank MPs for more bureaucratic functions, and perhaps most importantly the loss of its key fundraisers: the likes of Collins, Kline, and others within the short-lived government of Daniel Collins.

For the time being, the party has announced that Benjamin Yorke, son of former President David Yorke, will take the helm of the Conservative Party. The apparent shadow foreign secretary, Rodger Livingstone, has hinted that the party will seek to create an international alliance of conservative parties to share and better allocate resources to support the election of conservative governments. Many see such an alliance as being extremely beneficial in ending the fiscal crunch that threatens to destroy the party.