National Party

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National Party
Leader Kristine Dawkins
Chairman Owen Cullen
Founded 1 March 1935; 89 years ago (1935-03-01)
Preceded by
Headquarters WB Clarke Building
23 Bradley St
Shepton, CENT
Ideology Conservatism
Political position Centre-right
Colours      Blue
House of Assembly
51 / 128
Senate
17 / 68
Politics of New Ingerland
Political parties
Elections

The National Party is a conservative political party and is, along with the Democratic Party, one of the two major political parties in New Ingerland. The Nationals have elected representatives in both Houses of Parliament and in all local councils. Today, the Nationals control four of the eight county councils, and have governed New Ingerland for 46 of the 77 years since the party was established in 1935, a period longer than any other party.

History

Background

The National Party is by far the oldest surviving political party in New Ingerland, and can trace its roots back to the Conservative Party, founded in 1892, and the Country Party, which was founded in 1918.

Conservative Party

Country Party

Establishment

The Country Party merged with the Conservatives in 1935 to form the National Party, which became the sole centre-right party in New Ingerland. The former country party leader, Donald Burleigh, became the first leader of the new party. Richard Brabazon, the former leader of the Conservatives, served as the first deputy.

Split

Throughout the late 1940s and in to the 1950s, the National Party was dominated by the leadership of Robert Kettering. Kettering was a strong advocate for the paternalistic One Nation school of conservatism that dominated many right of centre parties of the era. Under Kettering, many of the policies and actions of the socialist Sims government were retained or only slightly modified to make them amenable to the party's upper-class base. However, the new policy direction of the government was not without its critics, and led to many liberal conservative members of the party breaking away to form the Reform Party in late 1954. The breakaways perceived Kettering's policies as being a weak and insipid response by the National Party to growing size of the welfare state and the role of government generally. The Reform Party later merged with the Liberal Party to form the modern liberal Democratic Party.

The split did not prove to be immediately fatal to the government, with Kettering successfully winning the elections of 1955 and 1958. But the loss of volunteers at the local level eventually caught up with the party, and it was heavily defeated by Jonathan Braddock's Democrats in 1961. The party would spend the next 14 years in opposition, whilst many of the attributes of the welfare state were wound back or terminated altogether. Whilst the Nationals under Tony Hendon and John Collier vigorously opposed this wind-back, Collier's successor, Jacob Meyer was very much of the Tory old school, despite his Jewish heritage, and steered the party back to it's traditional corporatist economic roots.

Return to government

Recent times

Policy

National Party policy continues to reflect the moderate conservative model of politics that developed in New Ingerland after the First World War. The National's see themselves as a 'big tent', with many competing ideas and goals. Despite this, the party is renowned for its party discipline and single-focused agenda that is meted out the party's annual conference.

The party continues to focus on agrarian socialism as the central tenant of economic management, and so it is the natural choice for many people who work in the agricultural sector. The party believes in minimum economic intervention, but reserves the right to do so when it believes necessary. On most social issues, the party allows a conscience vote, but in a nation that is essentially socially conservative, it is seldom exercised.

The National Party is strongly in favour of preserving the independence of New Ingerland and maintaining the institutions of government as they were established in the Constitution. Past experience has shown that the party is not afraid to take aggressive action against any nation that would seek to compromise New Ingerland's independence.

Factions

Electoral performance

This chart shows the electoral performance of the National Party in general elections since 1935.

Election Number of votes Share of votes Seats Outcome of election
1935 46.11% National majority
1938 National majority
1940 National majority
1943 National majority
1946 Labour majority
1949 Labour majority
1952 National majority
1955 National majority
1958 National majority
1961 Democratic majority
1963 Democratic majority
1966 Democratic majority
1969 25.47%
27 / 116
Democratic majority
1972 32.57%
42 / 116
Democratic majority
1975 40.05%
59 / 116
National majority
1978 497,167 36.84%
59 / 116
National minority
1981 411,337 30.48%
45 / 116
Democratic majority
1984 455,199 33.21%
58 / 128
National/Christian Democrat coalition
1988
52 / 128
Democratic/Labour Workers coalition
1992 522,196 42.30%
74 / 128
National majority
1996 38.15%
71 / 128
National majority
2000 34.15%
38 / 128
Democratic majority
2004 40.10%
80 / 128
National majority
2008 38.43%
71 / 128
National majority
2012 647,004 35.35%
39 / 128
Democratic majority
2016 654,502 36.55%
51 / 128
Democratic majority

Party leaders

There have been 13 leaders of the National Party since the party was formed in 1935.

# Name In office Duration
1 Sir Donald Burleigh
(2 May 1879 – 4 September 1971)
1 March 1935 – 27 January 1946 10 years, 10 months, 26 days
2 Peter Wright
(6 June 1889 - 30 October 1973)
27 January 1946 – 31 May 1948 2 years, 4 months, 4 days
3 Rob Kettering
(27 March 1903 – 31 August 1994)
31 May 1948 – 26 August 1959 11 years, 2 months, 26 days
5 Tony Hendon
(7 December 1908 – 1 June 1999)
26 August 1959 – 7 March 1961 1 year, 6 months, 9 days
6 John Collier
(born 14 April 1920)
7 March 1961 - 19 August 1969 8 years, 5 months, 12 days
7 Jacob Meyer
(16 November 1922 - 19 May 2011)
19 August 1969 – 21 April 1981 11 years, 8 months, 2 days
8 Phillip Corbett
(22 March 1924 - 3 August 1984)
21 April 1981 – 3 August 1984 3 years, 3 months, 13 days
9 Yvonne Gates
(born 26 March 1943)
20 August 1984 – 24 November 1986[1] 2 years, 3 months, 4 days
10 Jenny Petersen
(born 8 March 1942)
24 November 1986 – 15 May 1987 5 months, 21 days
11 John Tudor
(born 31 July 1940)
15 May 1987 – 22 March 2000 12 years, 10 months, 7 days
12 Jim Goodwin
(born 1 December 1947)
22 March 2000 – 17 March 2012 11 years, 11 months, 24 days
13 Kristine Dawkins
(born 6 December 1961)
17 March 2012 – Present Incumbent

See also

References and notes

  1. Gates served as acting leader of the National Party from 4 August, until her formal election as leader of the 20 August.

Other links