The National Liberal Party Congress, which began on Monday 15th August and will continue until Sunday 21st, has made great strides in establishing a new, active and rational political class in the party that lost the May 2016 General Election by a hair to the unified Coalition of People’s Democrats, Social Democrats and Green Socialists, and again only kept one seat out of the two lost and three contested in the August 9th-11th by-elections.

The reasons for these losses acknowledged by all was that the Mercian party to rulership, which receives endorsement from the Lord Spiritual of the Mercian Christian Church and that led the country in three successive governments (albeit with the third lasting only 6 days), was suffering from chronic bouts of internal inactivity, with many voters and politicians being caught up in further education and full time employment. This focus on the domestic, sustenance economy of Mercia allowed the Coalition to take power and strengthen their position. But now the pendulum is speedily swinging back to the National Liberals, as the Party Congress which opened last Monday truly gets into swing.

Former National Liberal Party Leader and two-time First Minister of Mercia Baron Fionbarra Ó Cathail opened the Congress with his valedictory address, signalling his exit from mainstream Mercian politics. His speech was positive, full of hope and a touching farewell from the Baron, who’s committed approach to cooperation across the floor of the Mercian Parliament House and unflinching belief in National Liberal values in government single-handedly made the Mercia of today. His speech was made as follows:

It is a great pleasure to address you all for one final time. It has been the greatest honour to lead our party into government, not once but twice. Our work during my tenure as First Minister has cemented the National Liberal Party’s position as the leading political force in our country. We have amassed a broad coalition of moderates, liberals and conservatives, united in our nationalist principles and values. Friends, our party stands at a defining point in its history. At this congress, it is up to us to decide on our future direction. Like the other political parties in Mercia, we face our own unique challenges, which only we can solve through opportunities like this congress. The current government is a farce. It was created in a spiteful reaction to our party being one short of an overall majority. We have a minister who thinks being gay is wrong in the same coalition as our first transgender citizen. Our coalition government consists of a fragile arrangement between a green-socialist party, a now-defunct party of blow-ins and a party whose sole purpose is to dislike the NLP. I have noted time and again that the spirit of cross-party support fostered in the previous two terms has been lost, only to be dismissed by members of the government. The very existence of their government is proof of this point. Their sole aim is to tear down the institutions our nation has treasured since its inception, and to render our culture a bland, secular copy of those seen in other nations. Amidst this shambles, we must be the alternative government, ready to take over the reins of power should the government collapse, something which grows increasingly likely every week. We have shown in the previous two governments that we offer unquestionable stability, and our party is currently the only one which can claim that. At this party congress, we need to put together a very clear vision for the kind of Mercia we want to build, a vision which we will put to the people this September. We must continue to offer policies that will appeal to the broad majority of the Mercian population. We must stand by our principles, especially our defence of our national institutions and our culture. We must continue to build on our strong record on national sovereignty. None of the other parties would have had the initiative, courage or conviction to hold the referendum we successfully delivered back in February on the Wurtige Empire. Our nation is viewed as a leader in the micronational community. But despite the promises of “increased activity” in the area of foreign policy from the coalition, we have instead seen dismal neglect. The coalition’s regard for our foreign affairs is disgraceful. They have done absolutely nothing, and treat the position of Foreign Affairs Minister as a minor role. The NLP will restore strong bilateral relations with our micronational allies, to the level enjoyed during my tenure as First Minister. The micronational community needs a strong Mercia, and for that we need a government which knows how to work with it. As Mercians, we have much to be proud of. We have the most vibrant and active parliamentary democracy in the micronational community. Our system of government is unique, as are the interactions between our religious communities and civil society. Our democracy offers a proper choice between a number of parties. But the choice between them is stark. There is only one choice for preserving the integrity of the Mercian state. There is only one choice for forming a government with a track record of stability. There is only one choice for those who don’t want a secular agenda forced down their throats. There is only one choice for those who want a passionate, accountable, hard-working, patriotic government. That choice can only be the NLP. I want to thank all of you for the support you have given me during my time as Mercia’s head of government. Tonight is indeed momentous, as it marks my final contribution to Mercian politics. This may be goodbye, but there are many bright days ahead for Mercia. Good luck to you all, and God bless Mercia!

The speech was met with rousing applause and cries of ‘Hear hear!’ and ‘Amen!’ from the assembled Party members. Within National Liberal Party channels, the hashtag #ThereIsOnlyOneChoice briefly echoed the Baron’s parting sentiments in the immediate aftermath of his speech.

Later that evening, the declaration of candidacies for the positions on the National Liberal Committee were declared; in a surprising twist, the two individuals considered to be going head-to-head for leader, Earl Joseph Emmanuel and Baron James Thomas Draxe, both decided to compete for the position of Chief Whip instead, allowing current Party Leader Earl Horatio Eden to swoop in for an uncontested second term in leading the party. Marquis Alexander Wagner, the sole National Liberal victor in the recent by-elections, and Baron Henry Twain, a recent defector from the People’s Democratic Party for differences of opinion on the sovereignty of the Lords, are both running for the position of Deputy Leader, and an audio debate is expected before the end of the week. Count James Frisch stands unopposed for the position of Party Propagandist, as does His Lordship Richard I, who is taking the newly created position of Communications Officer without opposition.

On August 17th, a Wednesday, Earl Eden made a speech on the foreign policy of the National Liberal Party, while extensively criticising the failures of the Coalition government to strengthen Mercia’s position on the international stage, especially by assigning by-election winner Baron Ned Greiner of the People’s Democratic Party to the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs mere days before the Baron was set to fly to Barcelona and be unaccessible for the rest of the Parliamentary term. The speech goes as follows:

My assembled colleagues and Mercian countrymen, I would first like to thank you for the honour of having been your party leader for the last few months. During that time, the NLP has proven time and again that we are the only party capable of leading the Mercian government in a straight-forward, common-sense way, the only party capable of providing the legislation and activity that Mercian citizens should have the right to expect from their government, and the only party with the ideals of Mercia and the best interests of the citizenry core to our message. However, with that said, it is deeply disappointing to me that I cannot deliver you a positive speech this evening. The topic, such that it is, is on Mercian foreign policy, and as regards the Coalition, where should I begin? Over the last three or so months of Coalition government, we’ve seen our international relationships go completely ignored; the Lord Temporal is the only active member of our GUM delegation, no action has been taken by the new government to take a step into the international community of both old and new guard nations alike despite their many and sundry campaign promises, and, to top things off and provide insult to the great injury done to our formerly illustrious foreign affairs ministry, they appointed Baron Ned Greiner to the post of Foreign Minister, a Baron with, as we all well know, an incredibly sketchy history. Not only did he spend most of his time prior to the dissolution of Nedland to begin with attempting unsuccessfully to dethrone the Austenasian Prime Minister, Joseph Kennedy, but he has just declared that he will be unable to prosecute the requirements of his office for almost the entire remainder of this government’s term. What sort of message does that send to our international allies? We as a party and we as a country cannot allow our foreign relations to be washed away in a tide of poor ministerial appointments and supposed new-age progressivism; our role in the world, whether we like it or not, is diminishing under the Coalition. With a First Minister who posts lenny faces in Parliament and a foreign minister who refers to things as “cancer” and finds amusement in tearing down respected international politicians, why should people take us seriously? This is a serious issue; as a long-standing, well-known micronation, we have the potential to achieve a great deal of good in micronational society if we pull our collective national fingers out, which is why, fellow party members, it is only the National Liberals who have the capacity to deliver the policy reform needed to achieve that good. To that end, I commend the following two points as new party foreign policy. First: that we review our membership of the Grand Unified Micronational. If we feel that continued membership is key to the successful governance of our country and is better for both the national and international populace, we must step up our efforts to make the GUM and the various projects of the GUM a success; the Diplomabear, for instance, would be an excellent place to start. Taking an active rather than a passive role in GUM affairs, with an active delegation under an outward-thinking NLP government will be a key plank in ensuring that we restore Mercia’s place as a key player in international politics. Second: we appoint a capable foreign minister. This should be something that goes without saying, but the recent appointment made by the Coalition means it deserves reasserting: the foreign office is not a plaything. Instead of just putting someone there for the sake of giving all of your MPs parliamentary portfolios, we should ensure that the person we entrust our international affairs to is of a compassionate mindset, and is someone we can trust to liaise with the community in a way that on the one hand is expected of a country of this calibre, but at the same time impresses upon other nations, particularly those that were created recently, that we consider them valuable members of the community. With that being said, they also should not feel obliged to shy away from condemning poor behaviour wherever we see it, and we certainly should not be in the business of tacitly endorsing actions such as those undertaken by the Democratia of New Starland recently, for example, but what is absolutely key is that we have an open, communicative foreign office staffed by someone who actually knows how to run a foreign office. These two basic planks of foreign policy should be common-sense, but the Coalition has proven once and for all that Mercian politics has gone off the deep end; we must be the party to stable the ship now that the government of Whyatt has driven us to the brink of international irrelevance. What else should be common-sense to the NLP is that current government foreign policy will be electoral anathema for the coalition parties going into the next general election. A party that would appoint Baron Greiner to one of the great offices of state has no place running a nation of this calibre. In short, my point is this: only one party has consistently proven that they have the intellectual capacity, manpower, spirit and good sense to execute the foreign policy of this country. That party is the National Liberal Party, and foreign policy can – if we take our case to the country correctly – win us the next election and put us, and the nation, back on the right track towards a forward and outward-thinking ideal. Thank you, and may God bless us all.

Again, many cheers of ‘Hear hear!’ were heard and there was much applause. The activity and passion shown by the National Liberal Party at the Congress so far, with a slew of new and active members to bring the Parliamentary Party back to life again, caused Baron Henry Twain to declare publicly following Earl Eden’s speech:

Let me just state how pleased I am at the NLP since I’ve joined, and would never for a million years take back the decision to turncoat. All of the speeches hence far have been astounding, and I look forward to presenting my own speech to tomorrow.

With the National Liberal Party coming back into its own, all eyes are now on the Coalition government, where following the by-elections tensions have emerged, with former Social Democrat party leader and Deputy First Minister, now Independent MP Count Adam Belcher voluntarily resigning to the backbenches, and with tensions emerging between the new Deputy First Minister, Green Socialist Leader Baron Newton von Uberquie and First Minister & People’s Democratic Party Leader Baron Alejandro Whyatt as Green Socialist policy is consistently ignored in favour of failed attempt after failed attempt at achieving the manifesto promises of the People’s Democrats.