Luthori

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Re: Luthori

Postby Edmund » Tue Sep 28, 2021 11:47 am

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                    Miners vote 99-1 to strike

                    January 5005

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                    ▲ A train waiting to load coal at Rowbatch pit in Orange

FORT WILLIAM, ORANGE — The Luthorian Federation of Miners' Associations has voted to strike following the breakdown in negotiations with the Mining Industry Association employers' organisation, 3,231,482 to 34,030 and all branches in favour. The prime minister had appealed to LFMA president Chelwin Brailsford to resume talks, but by all accounts a hastily-arranged meeting between the two men quickly descended into a shouting match, with Mr Brailsford accusing Sir Eghard of having "betrayed the movement" and threatening to switch his union's support to the Communists.

A spokesman for the prime minister said the government would "pursue an equitable resolution" to the dispute, and in the meantime work to "protect the national interest." With a negligible coal stockpile and the nation almost singularly dependent on the fuel, it seems as though the miners' victory is almost guaranteed and that the government will be forced to compel the Mining Industry Association to surrender. A spokesman for the Mining Industry Association said that the union had rejected "perfectly reasonable proposals" offered by employers, and was now seeking to "terrorise the nation into submission in the middle of winter."
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Re: Luthori

Postby Edmund » Tue Sep 28, 2021 6:32 pm

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                    Police break up vigil for 'disappeared' students

                    August 5004 [post-dated]

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                    ▲ Police arresting a demonstrator at the planned vigil

FORT WILLIAM, ORANGE — Hours after and less than two miles away from yesterday's state funeral of Lord Thwireford at St Richard's Cathedral, police dispersed a planned vigil for the student protesters whose mass graves were recently unearthed in Duringland after their disappearances under the former prime minister's government. Although organisers had gone to every length to ensure that the event would be peaceful, apparently securing their right to assemble, mere minutes before the vigil was due to begin the government declared the demonstration a "risk to public safety" and ordered the National Constabulary to break it up.

Lady Audrey Adderley, the home secretary, doubled down on the explanation given by the government, insisting on the unlikely presence of "armed troublemakers" in the demonstrators' ranks. When asked for her thoughts on public disgust with the government's actions, she hit back that "the vast, vast majority of Luthorians are disgusted only by the unfounded accusations made against a national hero on the day of his funeral." Polling showed that 90% of Luthorians with a positive opinion of the late Lord Thwireford approved of the government's decision to stop the demonstration from going ahead.
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Re: Luthori

Postby Edmund » Wed Sep 29, 2021 11:30 am

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                    Government announces new energy-saving measures

                    February 5005 [post-dated]

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                    ▲ A Fort William couple takes supper by candlelight

FORT WILLIAM, ORANGE — The government today announced the extension of restrictions on power usage, among the measures taken being rolling blackouts and the imposition of a four-day week for businesses. With Luthori now more than a month into the miners' strike, coal stockpiles continue to diminish and imports have proven insufficient; the miners, by a large margin the best-paid manual workers in the country, are striking for a 10% pay rise.

Disaster was averted when the power workers' unions decided to cross picket lines established by the striking miners in a bid to shut power stations down, reportedly much to the fury of miners' union president Chelwin Brailsford. This comes after railway workers voted last week not to transport stockpiled fuel, which saw the government call out the army to handle deliveries in response.

It has been estimated that more than two million workers have been laid off as a result of the strikes. The prime minister again called for representatives of the Luthorian Federation of Miners' Associations and Mining Industry Association to meet for government-mediated negotiations; Mr Brailsford said that nothing less than the demanded 10% pay rise could possibly be accepted.
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Re: Luthori

Postby Edmund » Wed Sep 29, 2021 5:30 pm

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                    Deal reached: miners to return to work

                    March 5005 [post-dated]

FORT WILLIAM, ORANGE — With sources estimating less than a week left until Luthori's coal stockpiles are completely depleted and forced to the table by the government, the Mining Industry Association has announced its agreement to a 12% pay rise demanded by the Luthorian Federation of Miners' Associations, bringing the miners' strike to an end two months after it began in January.

Although the initial pay rise demanded had been 10%, LFMA president Chelwin Brailsford said that the events of the strike had "demonstrated the significance of mineworkers to the running of Luthori", saying it "only right" that "those who work - in conditions still often dangerous - so that the country can function" receive the "respect and pay they deserve." MIA sources said that the raise, in an industry where workers are already the highest paid of any industry in the country, was "ridiculous" and pushed for by the government in an effort to end negotiations as quickly as possible. "This isn't so much a deal as it is a surrender."

"The prime minister has set a very, very dangerous precedent by caving in so thoroughly, and it will come back to bite him," said one mineowner.
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Re: Luthori

Postby Edmund » Fri Oct 01, 2021 9:25 pm

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Adderley calls snap election
March 5005 [post-dated]

FORT WILLIAM, ORANGE — Reports of the prime minister's intention to call a snap election have been making their way around the grapevine for some weeks now, and today he confirmed them: laying out his proposals for a "corporate state" of "unity between workers, and consumers through a National Council of Corporations" to the nation, Sir Eghard called upon the electorate to give his government a "renewed, undeniable mandate" to put his plans into action.

"When you go to the polls in April, you will have two choices: a country of inefficiency and decay, stuck in the hardships it has suffered for so long; or to empower me to implement a programme of National Efficiency, to cure unemployment, to bring security and plenty for all, to reorganise the economy on the principle of industrial self-government and end strikes permanently."

Snap polling showed that the Socialists could win 40% of the vote in the election to be held on April 5, which would put them in easy reach of a majority and likely require only one other party to support a government or join them in coalition.


PM threatens to sue over affair rumours
March 5005 [post-dated]

FORT WILLIAM, ORANGE — Prime Minister Eghard Adderley has threatened to sue pro-opposition websites, including LuthoriNewsNow.lu, over their publication of rumours regarding the relationship between him and Oliva Fillongley, trade and industry secretary, who was his personal secretary until her appointment to the cabinet following the LSP's victory at the 4997 general election.

The Courier & Advertiser of course wishes to make clear that we reject these baseless fabrications wholeheartedly, and merely report on the potential for a legal case involving the prime minister; online blogs, of course, are not required to submit themselves to the Press Council and, although still covered by defamation law, have more leeway with covering the personal lives of public figures than print media.
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Re: Luthori

Postby Edmund » Sat Oct 02, 2021 2:50 pm

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                    A crisis of turnout

                    April 5005 [post-dated]

FORT WILLIAM, ORANGE — Turnout at this election, having skyrocketed from its dismal, post-Alliance 15% lows to 50% at the 4997 general election in the aftermath of public outrage over the Sambrook government's privatisation of healthcare and rising once again at the 5002 election, crashed back down beyond its pre-4997 lows; indeed, to the lowest turnout since the 3930s. With all parties losing votes compared against the last election, it would seem that the voters were unimpressed by the politicians; even the Democratic Society opposition movement, entering the Diet for the first time with near a quarter of votes cast, won less raw votes than the now-banned Agrarian Populists did with a tenth of the vote in 5002.

Pollsters said that surveyed non-voters showed a disillusionment not just with politics and politicians, but often with the democratic system itself. "Can any government claim a mandate to govern on this turnout? It's a question we're going to be confronting yet again, with turnout back where it was," said Michael Patterson, professor of political science at the University of Fort William. "You can say that non-voters had the choice to vote and have a say, but didn't and therefore don't have a say, but when only 15% of the electorate is turning out to vote the rest are having their say by denying the government - or any party - their vote. And what they're saying does not bode well for the future of democracy in this country."
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Re: Luthori

Postby Edmund » Sat Oct 02, 2021 3:12 pm

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                    Adderley resigns, Longham forms government as early elections called

                    July 5005 [post-dated]

FORT WILLIAM, ORANGE — Sir Eghard Adderley has resigned as prime minister following a failed motion of confidence in the Diet, called after the Communists announced they would be withdrawing support for the government and were willing to support Eva Longham as prime minister. Mrs Longham met with the Empress shortly after the vote to be appointed to the premiership; coming out of the meeting, however, she was faced by the news that the Communists who had put her into government were now supporting a motion by the Socialists for early elections, which passed 158-142.

One senior Liberal insider confessed that the party had not expected for Mrs Longham to form a government. "I hear that the Empress really raised an eyebrow at the hastily crossed-out names, even 'Sambrook' for 'Longham', in the cabinet appointments list we gave her. I think we just dug it out of a box somewhere. This is the third time Largan and Holmes will be at the treasury and Home Office." Rumour has been that the Empress is none too thrilled by the appointments of full-time political activists Ernie Jones and Anabelle Harvey as foreign and defence secretary respectively.

"The Liberals have, effectively, appointed people whose only experience has been kicking up a fuss at anything they see fit to some of the most important ministries in government," said a source in the Imperial Household. "How do you think a conference between Jones and [Mordusian foreign secretary] Jacob Thomas is going to go down? This is going to seriously damage their prospects heading straight into another general election."
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Re: Luthori

Postby Edmund » Sun Nov 07, 2021 1:43 pm

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                    The Shieldwall and its future

                    October 5024

FORT WILLIAM, ORANGE — The past two years have seen nothing short of a revolution in Luthorian politics: first, running against a set of parties all in favour of a republic following the one-election ban of the White Rose, the ‘Three weeks to save the Empire’ movement found itself only four seats short of a majority less than a month after being established. The Liberals, in return for a few economic concessions, opened the doors of government to the party. Then, just a short while later, vacancies saw it assume an outright majority in the Diet. While it maintained an all-monarchist, ostensibly big-tent façade until reforming into the Luthorian Shieldwall of the National Restoration last month, its full political allegiances were plainly obvious and no obstacle to the party’s historic success.

With the White Rose’s ban having expired (and an inquiry into the circumstances in which it was imposed underway in the Diet), it is inevitable that the Shieldwall will fall back from its high-water mark come the fall of 5027 – when the prime minister has made it abundantly clear that the next election will be held, and no sooner, keen to make the most of the unrivalled opportunity he has been given. Beyond then, though, the new party has managed to build a winning coalition that could see it take on the same ‘natural party of government’ role as the Socialists and Alliance before it and remain firmly in the driving seat of a Luthori not just maintained but renewed in its vision.

Working-class Fort William, having assumed virtual self-governance in the aftermath of the general strike but still the hotbed of loyalism so exemplified by Attridge ninety years ago, backed Mr Langley in a landslide two years ago despite his ambiguous economics beyond a vague commitment to ‘Luthorian interests’. The Shieldwall’s embrace of a corporatist, semi-syndicalist economic programme will now prove an enticing offer to these voters, giving them a reason to continue supporting the party now that the imminent threat of republicanism has passed.

In the countryside, where the squires exercise vast networks of patronage and have many hundreds of votes in their pockets, the Shieldwall will be able to build up their margins for as long as they can convince those power brokers to back them over the only alternative on the right, the White Rose. Given that party’s long association with the ‘grand aristocracy’, which has seen it for many centuries function as little more than a political vehicle for the Weston and Stinson families, absent a major change in the political landscape of the right the Shieldwall can be confident of their position.

Most importantly, the new Luthori of the Shieldwall is one where the party can market itself as, having built it, being best able to manage it. As the only party fully committed to the new status quo, the Shieldwall is in the perfect position to win those many voters who seek not change but stability and good government: a powerful section of the electorate, as the last election proved.
Edmund
 
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Re: Luthori

Postby Edmund » Sun Nov 07, 2021 4:20 pm

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                    GDP out, GNH in

                    February 5025

FORT WILLIAM, ORANGE — With Luthori’s gross domestic product (GDP) in freefall as a result of the Diet’s vote to impose severe restrictions on women working, the government has turned to an alternative method of measuring its success: ‘gross national happiness’ (GNH). “The fixation of some on GDP is nothing but the worship of mammon,” Prime Minister Algernon Langley told the Diet. “It is a measure merely of money, not even of economic health as its proponents purport it to be.”

“The Imperial Statistical Office will henceforth no longer make quarterly estimates of supposed expansion and contraction. Instead, a new measurement of gross national happiness will be adopted, taking into account family life, community participation, work-life balance, mental and physical health, and godliness.” The prime minister said that early measurements had been ‘encouraging’ and ‘demonstrative of the government's successes’.
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Re: Luthori

Postby Edmund » Mon Nov 08, 2021 10:50 pm

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                    Government sets out Masterman Reforms

                    September 5025

FORT WILLIAM, ORANGE — The government today released its long-awaited plans for military reforms, a pledge to review which being among the few points in the manifesto its candidates campaigned on. Under the proposed reforms the active-service forces will become a professional, volunteer-only core, with increased pay and a look to equipment modernisation. Currently conscripted to the active-service forces for a year upon reaching adulthood, 18-to-35-year-old men will instead automatically serve in their county's yeomanry, receiving military training and only to be called up in the event of national emergency.

"Along with promoting local identity and imperial loyalty, this will also work to build cross-class solidarity, with labourers, clerks, and squire's sons of the same county all serving together," said the defence secretary Thomas Masterman, after whom the government's proposals have been dubbed the 'Masterman Reforms'. In practice, a strong divide between the classes and masses exists within the conscript forces; where the working class are alotted to the infantry, the upper class are to the ceremonial guards units.
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