Jon Craig
Jon Craig, the Duke of Somerset KC is the current Leader of the House of Lords of Lianna and member of the Conservative and Unionist Party. Craig is a former Lianna representative from Ipswich and West Lothian, where he served as House Minority Whip twice and the House Treasurer once.
Contents
Positions[edit]
- Leader of the House of Lords: Craig is the Leader of the Lianna House of Lords, holding a firm grasp on the entire house itself. Craig is one of the most junior members of the house, only have eight years of lordship himself—yet he is a former senator and had known the due process of being a lord for quite awhile.
- Leader of the Unionist Bloc: Craig is the de facto leader of the entire unionist bloc in the Conservative and Unionist Party. He helped found the first version of the Unionist Party—the Liberal Democratic Party.
- Lord for Somersetshire: Craig inherited the position of Lord for Somersetshire from his father, James Craig, who was the Speaker of the House of Lords himself once.
History[edit]
Early Life, University, and Parliament[edit]
Jon Craig was born 43 years ago on the planet of Rhodesia in his father's childhood home. His father soon took Craig off planet to Lianna, where James Craig (Jon's father) was serving the public as the Lord for Somersetshire. The lordship had been in the House of Craig for over nine generations, dating back to the Earldom of Chessery. At the time, the Chamber of Earls and the House of Lords were regarded as incompetent and a waste of public funds—"Hereditary peers who sit by birthright instead of by election or appointment." James Craig helped reform both chambers, while still allowing hereditary members of both chambers to sit, into a better and more efficient part of the Lianna government. As King Ashford IV went through his coronation, the House of Lords was rid of 80 of its lords and the Chamber of Earls lost over half of its Earls—all due to the King's effort to slow the government's growing size. All the displaced earls and lords soon became part of the newly created King's Court, and some of the most senior lords and earls became part of the brand new Privy Council. All of the ideas mentioned above were crafted by James Craig.
Jon Craig attended the University of Somersetcastle, a small private university that had educated entire generations of the Craig family. Craig got a degree in political science, like his father, and soon was given a post at a leading Lianna political consulting firm. The Conservative Party soon offered Craig a place at the table, a candidacy in the swing district of Ipswich and West Lothian—in the state of Lancaster. Craig was able to easily triumph over his Liberal Party opponent, who had tied Craig with the aristocracy. Craig vindicated with a 60% share of the vote. He served as a representative for twelve years, and by the time that he had resigned he was a respected member of the house. Craig's father was in ailing health and vacated his seat in the House of Lords. James Craig died a year after Jon left parliament.
Lordship and the Unionists[edit]
Jon inherited his seat in the House of Lords from his father, and at the time of his inauguration he was given the honor of being King's Council (KC), regardless of the fact that Craig had no experience in law. In response to Craig's efforts as a representative, Chancellor Crawford asked the King to make Jon a full fledged Duke—something that was granted. Craig became the Duke of the Duchy of Ipswich and West Lothain, a purely honorific title. Jon was awarded the position of the deputy whip of the Conservative Party for the House of Lords, something that he had also inherited from his father. Craig immediately started out by attempting to pass legislation within the Conservative caucus within the Lords that moved the party closer to the center—it was shut down by most of the peers.
The Conservative Party was never actually a choice for Craig—it was almost all from James Craig's influence. Throughout his first six years in the Lords, Craig had been working with Lord Kenneth Cooper in creating a new "Liberal Democratic Party"—which would be a center-right party instead of just a right party. He finally went through with it 9 years into his lordship, and Kenneth Cooper became the new leader of the Liberal Democrats. Following the merger a week after the party's creation with the Social Unionist Party, the party became known as the Liberal Unionists. Craig was able to draw a huge amount of the House of Representatives to his side as the Liberal Democrats, but he strongly believed that the Social Unionists were nothing but far-left socialists who had gone to the center to appease people. Craig resigned from the party leadership, and a week after the Conservative Party merged with the Liberal Unionists—forming the Conservative and Unionist Party.
Leadership[edit]
Craig lobbied for the position of Leader of the House of Lords after he talked things over with two other potential candidates: Hans Heathrow and Kenneth Cooper. He beat both of them out in the first round of voting, and immediately placed both of them as his "running mates" for the whole leadership election. As the Conservative and Unionists greatly outnumbered the opposition, Craig easily won the position as Leader of the House of Lords. After David Strathclyde's term as Leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party ended, Craig lobbied for the position, but was defeated in a massively one sided race. Craig returned badly bruised, but a result of his loyalty to the party he was made the Deputy Whip for the Conservative Party by Chancellor John Crawford.
Crawford placed five more lords into the House of Lords after three lords died without any heir, and the other two were upgraded from the Chamber of Earls. This gave Craig a supermajority of 249 seats to the opposing 154 lords—which allowed Craig to craft as much legislation as he wished. Heathrow's position as Craig's deputy gave him the power to work with other lords across the aisle—something he did regularly. He got 14 independent lords to switch to the Conservative and Unionist Party after its switch to a center-right stance.
