National Party

National Party
Leader	Kristine Dawkins
Chairman	Owen Cullen
Founded	1 March 1935 (1935-03-01)
Preceded by	Conservative Party      Country Party
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 Ingrea 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 Ingrea. 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 Ingrea 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 Ingrea, and can trace its roots back to the Conservative Party, founded in 1892, and the Country Party, which was founded in 1918.

Conservative Party

Further information: Conservative Party

Country Party

Further information: 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 Ingrea. 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.

Policy

This article is part of the series:
Conservatism in New Ingrea
People
Donald Burleigh John Tudor · Jim Goodwin
Organisations
National Party Conservative Party · Country Party

National Party policy continues to reflect the moderate conservative model of politics that developed in New Ingrea 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 Ingrea 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 Ingrea's independence.

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	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

• Conservative Party
• Country Party