Liberal Party (Hjemland)

Liberal Party
Leader	David Smith
President	Si Davis
Deputy Leader	Kate Wilson
Founded	7 September 2019 (2019-09-07)
Ideology	Liberalism Classic liberalism Social liberalism
Colors	Gold / Orange
Parliament	5 / 13

The Liberal Party of Hjemland is a radical centrist, liberal political party in Hjemland. The party is the oldest political party in Hjemland and the largest by membership.

With the support of two independent Members of Parliament, on 17 September 2019, the Liberal Party formed the first overtly political government in Hjemland history.

History

The party's origins date back to the foundation of Hjemland in 2014. At this time, the founders formed two loose groups nicknamed the Tans and Scans. Each group was named after its preformed form of government with the Tans preferring a liberal democracy whereby a ceremonial head of state would assign all but their reserve executive powers to a head of government elected by a supreme parliament. The name Tan was derived from the traditional yellow, gold or buff colours of Whigs and their successors throughout British history.

Despite the preferred government structure of the Scans initially prevailing, the Tans and later Liberal Party were effective in delivering major reforms leading to the Basic Law (constitution) which saw Hjemland convert to a full constitutional monarchy with representative democracy (rather than the previous of an absolute monarchy and direct democracy).

Liberal Party formation

Through the pre-constitutional era of Hjemland politics, the Tans, as advocators of reform and liberal democracy, became known as "liberals" by themselves and opponents. As such, when the party formally constituted itself, this was the name it chose.

Having become the informal spokesperson for the Tans early on in their history, David Smith announced on 4 September 2019 that he would hold discussions on "formalising the [Tans'] position". This was followed by a meeting of like-minded independent MPs on 6 September and the announcement that the Liberal Party had been founded on 7 September. As the only candidate for the leadership, Smith was proclaimed leader of the party on 9 September. Daniel Richardson was proclaimed deputy leader unopposed the same day.

First Government

The enactment of the Basic Law on 31 August 2019 required the King to appoint a government. With broad cross-bench political support, Paul Hetherington was widely considered the best placed to lead the first overtly political government in Hjemland's history. Appointed on 4 September, Hetherington established a "ministry of all the talents" bringing into the government independent MPs of all persuasions.

With the formation of the Liberal Party three days later, however, his government faced almost immediate collapse. Whilst Hetherington could continue to govern using just independent MPs, he opted for stability and invited the Liberal Party to form a coalition government with himself and fellow independent MP James Miller. Initially, Smith was optimistic the Liberals would supplant Hetherington as first minister (as the office was then known) with himself, but it quickly became evident the coalition agreement was reliant on Miller who would only support it if Hetherington was its leader.

On 17 September, the Liberal Party Executive overwhelmingly backed entering into a coalition government with the two independents, agreeing to the proviso of Hetherington remaining head of government.

After tensions (see below) saw two MPs leave the Liberal Party, the government lost its majority. Despite Hetherington trying to go to the remaining independent MPs for support, the government's position became unviable and he called an election on 18 February.

Tensions and split

Almost as soon as the Liberal Party entered into the first government, there were tensions within its ranks about how far political reforms should go. The 'right' of the party, as well as Smith, wanted only what he termed "necessary change" such as a less powerful monarch and replacing direct democracy with representative democracy; nothing that would "alienate the wider population". The 'left' of the party, however, wanted considerable and unconditional reforms such as a referendum on the monarchy.

To appease the left, Smith advised Hetherington to appoint its figurehead, Daniel Richardson, to the Cabinet. He also committed to a bolder platform of reform in any future election. Richardson agreed to tow the line with this verbal commitment.

Despite the successful implementation of one of its key aims – the Basic Law and converting Hjemland into a constitutional monarch with parliamentary governance – the left of the party were not content with the progress made, believing that more concessions could've been won.

After stating at various times that he would consider their proposals, on 11 February Smith held a crisis meeting with the parliamentary party and announced he would not push for further reforms to the Basic Law. Three days later on 14 February, Home Secretary Daniel Richardson and John West announced they had left the Liberal Party, thus causing the First Government to collapse.

Second Government

Four days after the Liberal Party split, having lost its majority and with it any ability to govern, Prime Minister Hetherington requested the King dissolve parliament and called a general election for 7 March. Hetherington announced he would not be seeking re-election.

The two former Liberal MPs, Richardson and West, announced the formation of the Social Democratic Alliance mid-campaign on 27 February. It began polling strongly and, coupled with Hjemland using proportional representation, it looked likely no party would form a majority. On election day itself, the Liberals emerged as the largest party winning 6 of the 13 seats.

Two days after the election, on 9 March, Smith and Richardson – now leader of the SDA – met to discuss the possibility of a coalition government. Finding Richardson making many of the same demands he made while in the Liberal Party, Smith ended the talks the same day and announced he would seek to form a one-party minority government, reasoning that the government and opposition benches each had 6 votes, so any vote of confidence would rely on the tie-breaker vote of the Chancellor (Speaker) whom, by convention, votes to maintain the status quo (i.e. would vote for the government). Thus, being strictly able to "command the confidence" of Parliament, Smith was appointed Prime Minister by the King on 10 March, marking the first "democratic transition of power" in Hjemland.

The State Opening of Parliament, and the King's Speech outlining the government's agenda for the forthcoming term, took place on 13 March. The government was immediately confronted by the rapidly intensifying COVID-19 pandemic. On 15 March, as cases in the surrounding United Kingdom began growing exponentially, Smith declared a state of emergency. After emergency meetings the King-in-Council (official term for the King attending Cabinet meetings) ordered a 30-day national lockdown, coming into effect on 20 March.

Government ministers met with opposition leaders in the following days ahead of the lockdown. The latter agreed to abstain from the vote on the King's Speech, thereby allowing it to pass unopposed and allow the government to focus on the coronavirus pandemic. So that the Government of Hjemland could better coordinate with the surrounding UK, Parliament rushed through the Daylight Savings Act, meaning Hjemland would move forward and back an hour at the same time as the UK (Hjemland previously never used DST).

The King-in-Council unanimously approved a 30-day extension to the national lockdown on 19 April. On 18 May, a 15-day extension was approved which was followed on 29 May by Prime Minister Smith announcing a "scaling down" of the lockdown from 1 June, although no complete end date was announced.

Organisation

The party is headed by the Liberal Party Executive (LPE), chaired by the President of the Liberal Party. The members of the LPE, including the president, are elected annually at the party's conference. The LPE decides the policy direction of the party. While the party conference can pass resolutions calling on the Liberal Party Executive to adopt certain policies or positions, they are not bound to adhere to them.

The party leader, deputy party leader, president and other Liberal Party Executive members can be removed collectively or individually by a motion of no confidence carried out by the conference. Unlike resolutions mentioned above, these are votes binding.

Leadership

The Liberal Party elects a leader and a deputy leader whenever there is a vacancy. Elections are by all party members and are conducted by instant-runoff voting method unless there is a sole candidate, in which case that person is automatically elected.

Although the leader is the most prominent person within the party, he or she is nevertheless bound to the policy decisions made by the LPE. The deputy leader has no specific duties other than to fill in for leader whenever he or she is unable to perform their duties, although they are usually given a prominent role in government should the party be in power.

#	Leader	Tenure	#	Deputy	Tenure
1	David Smith	since 9 September 2019	1	Daniel Richardson	9 September 2019 – 14 February 2019
			Vacant		14 February 2019 – 26 February 2019
			2	Kate Wilson	since 26 February 2019

Electoral performance

Election	Leader	Vote		Seats		Position	Status in Parliament
		%	±	No.	±
Mar. 2020	David Smith	39.1%	new	6 / 13	new	1st	Government
Oct. 2020		38.1%	▼ 1 pp	5 / 13	▼ 1	1st	Government (with Green Party)