Luthori

[Robert F. Kennedy]

The Alchester Moonrise
Luthorian People's Liberation Front announces "resuming" the fight against "capitalism and the bourgeoisie"
5th, February 5363

Fort William, Duchy of Orange, Holy Luthori Empire - One of the many organizations classified as 'terrorist' by the Imperial Security Service, the Luthorian People's Liberation Front, an organization with communist connotations, announced the "resumption of fighting for a red Luthori, free from its chains imposed by the 'bourgeoisie'" , this announcement was considered by Crown Street as predictable news after the announcement of the formation of a government between the Fatherland Front and the Constitutional Democratic Union and the appointment of the controversial far-right figure, Dan Penning as Home Secretary and the announcement of the conditions of the Fatherland Front which were accepted by the CDU, one of which stipulated that "an investigation into far-left movements will be launched", Prime Minister Harrington reacted to this announcement via a press release, the resident of 10 Crown Street announcing that "all necessary measures to protect the territory and the population will be put in place to counter the 'harmful to Luthori' ambitions of this radical group". The announcement itself was made by the man who is called by his men, "Comrade Thomas", his real name, Arnold Jakkins, he is known to the police for cases of theft and crimes of law common, his interaction with groups called "suspicious" by the police led to him being arrested by the Security Service, who knew of the fact that he was in the Luthorian People's Liberation Front, but the ISS did not know the extent of his involvement within the organization. He announced in his speech broadcast by a press organ on social networks, relayed by the media, the following things: "I, Comrade Thomas, with the agreement of all the representatives of the Luthorian People's Liberation Front, decided, after several attempts to preserve peace in the nation, to reactivate the self-defense groups of the Luthorian People's Liberation Front in Luthori [...], after clear signs that the Union and their fascist allies would destroy the only hope that is for the working class, the Workers' Party, we decided, that for a free and democratic Luthori, we must take up arms against the bourgeoisie represented by the cowards of Oranges in their palace [...] We are committed to establishing a republic in this country and will not rest and will use all means to achieve our ends. Long Live the Revolution!", Crown Street announced the establishment of a government commission on the appropriate response to this threat from this organization, the Home Secretary and the Defense Secretary should be part of this committee led by the Prime Minister. On the other hand, the government has decided to increase the funds allocated to the protection of so-called "sensitive" sites such as museums, institutions or other places of large crowds, a 'security plan' which should see an increase in the presence police or military in these places should be announced in the coming days.

The Alchester Moonrise is one of the largest evening newspaper in the Erneshire and Eastern Orange Area.

[Robert F. Kennedy]

The Imperial News
“Luthori has a new defense plan, more comprehensive than the previous one” ~ Chief of Defense Staff.
The Defense Secretary and the Chief of Defense Staff announced in a joint statement issued by the Defense Office that an agreement had been reached on a reorganization of the government plan to support the armed forces.
13th, January 5364

Fort William, Duchy of Orange, Holy Luthori Empire - For around twenty years, it seems that a gap has been built between the armed forces and the government, the latter being less and less comprehensive in relation to the real expectations on the part of the military, the government pushing either for, according to the armed forces, for "objectives already achieved or impossible to see in the near future", the government responded to these criticisms by appointing in the Second Harrington Ministry, a long supporter of the Constitutional Democrats and a former military leader: the former Chief of the Defence Staff and General (Army) Clinton Maguire, the latter, in a joint statement with the Defense Staff, announced the holding of a joint meeting between the Chief of the Defense Staff, the General (Air Force) George Martins and the Defense Secretary Maguire on policy common to apply on the subject of strengthening the armed forces whether at the material or personnel level and the strengthening of their capacities at the level of certain doctrines. This bilateral agreement sees the establishment of greater freedom of collaboration between the Imperial Armed Forces and defense manufacturers even though this collaboration already existed between the two bodies, the government had a rather intrusive right of review over the agreements that could be signed between the two organizations. In this agreement between the two military strongmen, only the Ministry of Defence would have the right to review the agreements between industrialists and the armed forces. This agreement also established clearer communication between the Prime Minister and the armed forces, without intervention from other executives in the Prime Minister's Office or the Defence Office. The Defence Office also agreed to a plan, long championed by the armed forces, for "patriotic" education that promotes loyalty to the nation and the Crown rather than to the branch of the armed forces in which soldiers/sailors serve. In another point, after the meeting, even the Defence Secretary was unreachable after it, the Chief of Defence Staff reacted to the agreement, which was, partially, revealed to the press, he declared that "What helped bring about this agreement was the fact that most of the armed forces were deeply reformist, and were looking for a new path outside of that used for some time by the government."

With a view to an in-depth study of the capabilities of the armed forces after several missions on their part in recent years, after military interventions, direct or indirect for many years have cast doubt on the ability of the armed forces to be able to be competent and professional in the field, joint military exercises should be put in place in the coming years and those with a view to being able to repeat them every 10 years, and those, with a view to 'regularly observe the level of the Imperial Armed Forces in several types of terrain, the collaboration between the land, sea and air armies in different situations given during military exercises, the inclusion of foreign military forces is not excluded, but will have to fall within the "framework of a common strategy with the Defence Staff", to be seriously studied by the latter. The last exercises in which the Imperial Army participated, those organized by Lourenne, saw great professionalism on the part of the troops who were involved in these exercises organized in 5357. In the current perspective of a risk of invasion of Baltusia from Valruzia, a nation gone rogue after the Ordosocialists took power, no official statements were issued by the Foreign Office, nor the Prime Minister's Office, nor the Defense Office, most editorialists suspected that the government was waiting for the first Commonwealth conference before putting in place "a policy consistent with those of Luthori's allies in the region", the armed forces declared themselves ready to "support" Baltusia in "this dark hour" in the words of the Chief of Defence Staff. The collaboration of strategic documents between the Imperial Security Service will no longer be regulated by the government, being "an obstacle" to the effectiveness of the forces, according to certain high-ranking officials, and secret documents will be able to be shared freely between the two bodies. Finally, following these announcements, we can only hope that the armed forces see a real change, rather than seeing the same mistakes being made again.

[hopesfor2]

Erika Harris resigns from Socialist Liberal Party leadership.

25 January 5363

Erika Harris made a surprising turn by announcing her resignation from the SLP leadership today and she said "the benefits that I could made to the party with leadership is over and it is time for renewal within the party". This resignation marked the start of a new era in Socialist Liberal Party as leadership elections which are planned to be held in February 5363 await the party, and the results of the leadership elections will affect both national politics of Luthori and the internal party politics.

The speech that Erika Harris made about her resignation was:

I resign from the leadership of Socialist Liberal Party today, because the benefits that I could made to the party with leadership is over and it is time for renewal within the party. If we want to renew Luthori, we should first renew our own party. Desipite resigning from the party leadership, I did not give up my seat in the Imperial Diet and I will remain as a Member of Parliament because I still can make benefits to the party but not through leadership. The leadership elections which are to be held are planned in February 5363, but the exact date is still not certain and will be announced when it becomes clear. Let's go a bit to the past and come up to now... Our story started with the Progressive Liberal Party, which was a party that Harvey Sunny established in 5317 in order to create a platform for the progressives and republicans to voice their opposition to the monarchy and the governing conservative parties.

I quickly became interested in the PLP and became a party member a few days after its establishment as I could take the initiative to help the rise of the party and its ideals to national prominence. However, some not very good things happened in July 5317, but the monarchist parties exploited the incidents by declaring a so-called 'state of emergency' in order to create a ultra-monarchist dictatorship. When that so-called "state of emergency" was declared, I went to the protest rallies being organized against that and gained some popularity within Luthori. Even after the "state of emergency" was abolished in 5318, political repression continued with so-called "operations" against republican and syndicalist organizations in order to threaten the PLP and the Socialists.

Then, I also partook in the rallies against the "operations" and gained more popularity within the nation, and my efforts helped the PLP to gain 73 seats out of 650 in the 5321 elections and really rise to national prominence. Following the elections, with redemocratization, Luthori became a democratic country once again (because it was an authoritarian dictatorship or at best illiberal democracy between 5317 and 5321). Between 5321 and 5327 not much thing happened in neither Luthori nor PLP. However, in 5327, the PLP was banned under pretext of "connection with the assassination of Charles XI" while the true intention was to deter and silence the people. But NO! Neither me nor any other PLP politician was deterred by that, and we established the Course of Freedom, which was a left-wing populist and democratic socialist political party.

Course of Freedom was much more succesful than its predecessor Progressive Liberal Party, and it gained 112 seats out of 650 and became the third-largest party amidst conservative dominance. The results of the elections were astonishing as they represented a relatively sudden collapse of conservative-dominated political landscape and a quick shift towards progressivism. And with the merger of the Socialists, republicanism was united onder one banner. However, in 5335 elections, setbacks were seen as the Course of Freedom which had 150 seats previous the elections declined to 131 seats. Similar results were seen in the 5340 elections for the Course of Freedom. In 5344, following the dissolution of the Progressives (was a center-left party) and Salvation (was a far-right party), Course of Freedom made a breakthrough by gaining 173 seats out of 650, representing another shift within the Luthorian politics.

However, in 5345, 69 Members of Parliament resigned from the Course of Freedom and the party collapsed, and then it was my turn to establish a party: that would be the Socialist Liberal Party. SLP won 109 seats out of 5346 in the elections, which was a relative success as it was a party being established amidst times which republican politics were in a crisis. However, in 5351 elections, with the sudden rise of the fascist Fatherland Front, SLP suffered losses to 67 seats out of 650, and due to only and only Dan Penning and his fascist party Fatherland Front the worst political crisis of Luthori since 5321 started.

During the 5351-5353 political crisis, elections were held each year, and the caretaker McClair ministry consisted of the Constitutional Democratic Union, Union of the Lion, and the Socialist Liberal Party provided confidence and supply to the coalition. This crisis finally ended in 5353 when the elections in the year resulted in a majority for the CDU-UoL coalition and the Chakarvarti ministry was formed which remained incumbent in 5358 elections but collapsed after the February 5360 elections. The February 5360 elections started another brief political crisis with the rise of the far-left Workers' Party which would last until the July 5360 elections, which a caretaker ministry as a coalition between Constitutional Democratic Union and Fatherland Front was formed.

In 5362, a normal ministry between these two parties were formed, but as given that this ministry was the results of the flip flops from the CDU it is not much trustworthy and their actions... are outrageous, they are labelling the republicans as "terrorists" and are placing republican organizations under unlawful survelliance with clearly specious justifications, what you could expect different from a far-right ministry? The speciousness of these justifications can be proved by showing that the things that they argue are simply biased and distorted. Oh wait... I just keep talking about unrelated stuff. Anyways, what happened in the past can provide insights that what will happen in the future, and I am resigning from the leadership of Socialist Liberal Party because, saying again, the benefits that I could made to the party with leadership is over and it is time for renewal within the party.

Therefore a new era in the Socialist Liberal Party starts and we will see what happens in their leadership election.

Republican Times

[Robert F. Kennedy]

LBC Breaking News
Controversial Political Journalist reported missing.
17th, January 5364

LBC News Offices', Fort William, Luthori - The ultra-monarchist columnist, member of the Imperial Unity League, one of the most radical organizations in the Empire, Count Stephen Wachford was announced as missing by his family in the early morning of January 18, 5364, him, who after spending a weekend with other members of the Imperial Unity League, whose president, Wilfred Maxins-Gerbings, was reported to have disappeared between 5 a.m. and 5:30 a.m., while taking a break at a motorway rest area not far from Martwick, according to certain witnesses who relayed what they saw, initially to the employee present at this rest station, then to the police, what he was described as being 'a kidnapping' orchestrated by several hooded men, who took Mr. Wachford by making him faint in order to be able to better remove him from the board of their van, then, according to several people, they took the road towards from Fort William. Police teams are all over the country, looking for any clue to find the missing collumist, the Imperial Unity League has already accused the Luthorian People's Liberation Front of being the organizer of this "heinous act" which according to the organization "can only be done by communists without law or value" and another communiqué arrived at the journalists' offices citing "that if the life of Mr. Wachford or that of his family was threatened by communists, the IUL did not rule out resorting to violence in order to avenge or defend them." No press release from the Luthorian People's Liberation Front or another far left group, such as the Republican Association or the People's Army have given a press release regarding this situation, although all leads from Imperial Security Service to find this kidnapped journalist. For the moment, the ISS has not yet communicated its leads and the police have not let anything slip on the duration of the investigation. Crown Street announced that "although there are clear policy differences between Mr. Wachford and the Imperial Government, we will do everything we can, through the Imperial Security Service and the National Police, to track him down." Mr. Wachford was known for his fiery comments in favor of the return of the power of the monarchy and the banishment of any ideology which he held responsible for the "decline" of Luthori, especially the left which he accused of being responsible for all the ills of the nation.

[hopesfor2]

Socialist Liberal Party leadership election results.

20 February 5364

In 20 February, 5364, Socialist Liberal Party held an historic leadership election following the resignation of its 18-year long leader Erika Harris. The elections were held through a system of direct member vote and a two-round system with initially all candidates racing, but if no candidate can reach the 50% + 1 thresold then runoff elections between two top candidates would be held, the third candidate would become the second deputy leader of the party. The winning candidate of the runoff would become the party leader, while the losing candidate of the runoff would become the first deputy leader. The candidates in the first round was:

Ralph Henry: Ralph Henry is a new politician who entered to the politics in July 5360 through winning a seat from the Socialist Liberal Party ticket. He is a proponent of Third Way and supports socially center-left and fiscally centrist policies.

Sunday Curtis: Sunday Curtis is an older politician who entered to politics following the 5346 parliamentary elections and he has an experience with politics before he entered to it actively. He is a proponent of eco-socialism and supports socially far-left and fiscally left-wing policies.

Melody Brant: Melody Brant is an old lawyer and new politician who entered to politics in 5358 parliamentary elections and she has been defended many people but usually protesters on trials. She is a proponent of social democracy and supports socially left-wing and fiscally center-left policies.

These three candidates contested in the first round, and the results of the first round were:

Ralph Henry 35.22%

Melody Brant 33.45%

Sunday Curtis 31.33%

The first round was a close contest, and Sunday Curtis became the second deputy leader of party and the other two candidates contested in the runoff:

Ralph Henry 56.83%

Melody Brant 43.17%

Melody Brant became the first deputy leader of the party and Ralph Henry became the party leader.

The elections were a close contest and the first free elections to be held for party leadership since the establishment of Socialist Liberal Party. The elections were seen as a progress towards greater democracy within the party and the results of the elections yielded surprising outcomes.

Republican Times

[Robert F. Kennedy]

The National Newspaper
Luthori's first political newspaper
Wachford declared dead, IUL allies with other far-right organization to wage "war" against far-left organizations. Government announces "hardline" policies.
22th January, 5364 (Post-dated)

Fort William, Duchy of Orange, Holy Luthori Empire - The Empire's most wanted man was declared dead today, after more than 5 days of searching across Imperial territory, his inert body was found at Muxtown Forest, after an intense search saw helicopters, specialized body search dogs and a large force of more than 100 police officers and members of the Imperial Security Service to search for the body alive or dead. The designation of this area as where Wachford may be was confirmed by reports from local farmers who saw a van, like the one described in wanted posters put up by the police and the Imperial Security Service, stop in the vicinity of the town of Mangley-Butling, the occupants of this van, having, according to the testimonies of witnesses who saw certain events, taken a bag, having the size of a body, out of the vehicle, before rushing into the forest, after certain preliminary investigations carried out by the police, it was agreed that the body of Stephen Wachford could be found, little hope remained on the fact that they were alive, with a miracle, perhaps, but little chance remained, after 5 days of disappearance. And the news came, the inert body of Stephen Wachford was found in the Muxtown forest, with a bullet hole in his skull, this announcement was made by the Chief Constable of the National Police, the Colonel-General (Police), Lew Murray, who declared 15 minutes after receiving confirmation from doctors that there was nothing they could do, that Count Stephen Wachford had died from a gunshot wound, a paper message was left near the body , this was collected as evidence to be able to find DNA data and try to find at least 1 person responsible, this message left by the assassins indicates that there were 5 of them in the crime and claims this act for "the establishment of an egalitarian and anti-reactionary republic" and warned that this would only be their first action "to destroy the old regime and create a new one", they also claimed their membership in the Republican Association and the Luthorian People's Liberation Front, which declared that "the death of this f*cking reactionary was a good path towards the establishment of a just society in Luthori and that this act would only be the first", in another side, the Imperial Unity League announced that "this act would not go unpunished" and reassured of its "oath" of loyalty to the nation and the Empress, it announced, like other far-right organizations, as the White Hand or Luthorian Patriotic League, that a "state of war" existed between the far-left "traitors", who according to them "killed a national hero", the Imperial Government, via a press release from 10 Crown Street , did not mince its words, expressing "that any organization violating the law in any way would find itself facing the omnipotence of the law", the Imperial Security Service, announced that it had classified 18 organizations, extreme left as well as extreme right, as being "harmful to the stability of the nation" and therefore, classifying them as being "terrorist", it has also announced a resumption of investigations against republican organizations far left, but also announced to extend it to any group "that could threaten the territorial integrity or the liberal democratic system of the Empire"

[hopesfor2]

Ralph Henry denounces the "hardline" policies of the government as "anti-democratic".

22 January 5364 (post-dated)

Fort William, Duchy of Orange, Holy Luthori Empire - Socialist Liberal Party leader Ralph Henry denounced the policies of government as "anti-democratic" and accused the Emily Harrington ministry of "dictatorial behavior". According to him the government is extremist and throws the blame to other extremists in order to confuse the people.

The full text of his speech was:

I wish I did not have to talk about this topic, but I have to because it would be far more worse to see Luthori sliding back to an authoritarian dictatorship. Today, the government announced "hardline" policies ostensibly aimed at countering extremism, but with a closer examination, who is extremist is clear and those policies are not "hardline" but anti-democratic. After a few months you will see how people are arrested with specious charges. I would hate that if happened, but it seems like it will happen like that. Outrageous, that a party which claims "protecting" democracy would resort to tactics aimed at eroding constitutional government and multi-party democracy, and then would shamelessly attempt to justify it with specious arguments and biased news. What they do, is just throwing the blame to left-wing extremists to justify their right-wing extremism, which is despicable. Your fairy tales are over, no longer plausible, and are getting utterly tiresome! The people is not stupid enough to be deceived by these fairy tales and never were!

I would not like my first year of party leadership to be like that, but it is not time to complain and it is time to display resistance against the anti-democratic actions! This regime fears its own people, this regime is extremely hypocritical and you will see how they get lost in the depths of electoral defeat and loss of power in the elections at next year. Do not forget: together, united, stronger! With this actions, Luthori can no longer be considered a liberal democracy, and currently slided back to an electoral democracy. If you do not want to see the next step of electoral autocracy, then you should avoid supporting the governing parties. Otherwise what I said before will happen and a dark age of ultra-monarchist authoritarianism will plague and cause decline of Luthori. The SLP is committed to a Luthori with democracy, political pluralism, and civil liberties, and in order to reach these objectives, we will resort to various parliamentary means like motions and resolutions. We need reform! We need renewal! This regime is getting rotten and it is time to change the governing parties!

In summary, Ralph Henry said that Luthori can no longer be considered a liberal democracy, slided back to an electoral democracy, accused the government of anti-democratic policies and throwing the blame to other groups, and also accused the government of right-wing extremism and authoritarianism.

Republican Times

[Autokrator15]

WPL antiyeudic?

The Worker’s Party of Luthori has been accused by the Foreign Secretary of supporting antiyeudic views in Luthori.

November 5364

Fort William – On the talkshow Tea Time on channel 2 the Foreign Secretary, Sir Borris Taylor talked about the hard time he has had in getting the new treaty with Beiteynu through the Imperial Diet. The only party opposing the treaty is the Worker’s Party of Luthori, a new extreme communist party that won a large number of seats last election.

On the show the Foreign Secretary said: ‘’Their opposition is without explanation whilst this treaty brings much good to this country. Secondly, they refuse to explain themselves and thus I must conclude that once more this country has a party that stirs the evils of antiyeudic thought or at the very least hints towards it.’’

The Foreign Secretary also stated in the talk show that: ‘’Luthori is an open nation now, we trade with various nations, work with a lot of partners. Such as Dorvik, Lourenne, Beiteynu, Lodamun, Likatonia, Baltusia, Mordusia, Vascani, Kundrati, Malivia. These nations all have benefitted from this relation equally as we have. To say the WPL fights for the workers is laughable, as we – through these deals – bring work to this nation. If the left-wing electorate wishes to seek a left-wing constructive party they should seek out the Socialist Liberals, at least on foreign policy they are a solid party, and unlike the WPL do not hint towards antiyeudic thought.’’

That the Foreign Secretary is so open on his thoughts on other parties is rare, the liberal faction in the CDU is often known for not speaking their mind on other parties and rather focus on ‘their own story’, saying they aren’t in the game to criticize others but convince people of their views. It is speculated by analysts that this move was done to showcase the frustration the party has towards the obstructionist and what they call dubious voting choices of the WPL.

[Robert F. Kennedy]

Economics for Dummies.
Luthori-based economic popularization journal.
SlipStream to move headquarters in Luthori.
5th, January 5366

Fort William, Duchy of Orange, Holy Luthori Empire - It seems that at any time, a person can decide to return home, even if the situation we are going to list is quite different from the opening statement, you will see that it is not too far from the situation to which we will study in this article, in fact, it was announced by the General Management of SlipStream, one of the most renowned defense companies in the world, and having been founded in Luthori, that the company had made the decision to reestablish its head office in Fort William, after having previously left it for Rutania, then Tropica, in view of the political-economic situations starting to get worse in the countries where it was located. Even though in Tropica it had found a hamlet of peace, it seems that the company chose profit over peace, and announced this rather important decision for the Imperial defense industry, it seems that, the opening statement was pretty decent, although this one could be edited to "It seems like at any time, anyone or anything gets homesick", so, the firm announced its return to Luthori after difficulties economic which were noticed in Tropica, country where she had left her luggage after the collapse of the socialist-liberal government in Rutania, country which wanted to be the "successor" of Luthori, which at that time was in full political and economic instability. But, it seems that even if the dream of taking up the torch of the Empire was a good dream, it will only remain in this state, that of a dream, following the failure of the governments of Rutania and Dorvik to convince the countries of the continent to hand over an Artanian Union which would hold in the years to come, meant the end of the Labor government in Rutania, and the country's descent in the international rankings, while Luthori, after almost 4 centuries without being important at the level economic nor military, finally realized that it was time to restart its financial, economic and military machines, began to see a slow, but certain recovery in its economy, returning to its former level. Seeing the recovery and stabilization of the financial markets in Fort William, SlipStream made the economic decision, moving back to Luthori and orchestrating its operations from there. In terms of political stability, Luthori is still not a democratically stable enough country, with issues still unresolved against the far left and the far right.

With this decision, the question arises of the view of competition, Luthori, has a defense industry which is run mainly by the private sector and can be subsidized by the government, therefore, even if the government at Crown Street does not can only be happy with these developments, hoping to find a new collaboration with SlipStream on new weapons that the army requires. SlipStream, to continue to announce its return to the Luthorian scene in full pomp, also announced the establishment of an agreement with Paterson Industries and the Air Force for the beginning of the study of manufacturing, and production of a domestic aircraft to help supply the Air Force, no additional details were shared by one of the three participants in the agreement, the Chief of the Air Force, General Maxwell Shinwall announced that details would be announced "as soon as possible", well, it seems that we can say "hello again" to SlipStream and good luck within the imperial market.

[jamescfm]

Final eight teams confirmed ahead of T20 Cricket World Cup in Mordusia