William Albright

William Albright MP MCS
Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Renvyle
In office 13 October 2011 – 24 October 2019
Preceded by	Andrew Boyd
Succeeded by	Ayda Westwood
Leader of the Liberal People's Party
In office 16 February 2004 – 7 December 2019
Preceded by	Hugh Conway
Succeeded by	David Lorimer
Leader of the Opposition
In office 16 February 2004 – 13 October 2011
Preceded by	Peter Cook
Succeeded by	David Lorimer
Minister for Transport
In office 8 June 1994 – 19 September 1999
Preceded by	Dara Bloomsbury
Succeeded by	Amber Kinnock
Member of Parliament
Incumbent
Assumed office 12 September 1991
Personal details
Born	(1951-07-23) 23 July 1951
Nationality	Renvylese
Political party	LPP
Spouse	Charlotte Albright
Children	2
Occupation	Politician, economist

William Albright is a Renvylese economist and retired politician who was Prime Minister for eight years between 2011 and 2019. As the longest-serving leader of the Liberal People's Party since the party's formation, Albright played a historically significant role in cementing its status as the only major party on the right of Renvylese politics. His time in office was characterised by a tax-cutting agenda that, while initially popular, was later blamed by many for the economic issues of the late 2010s.

He was raised in a flat above his parents' shoe shop in the capital city of Lochmour. After authoring a widely-circulated paper that was highly critical of the then-government's interventionist economic policies at the age of just seventeen, Albright won a scholarship at the prestigious University of Sturbridge to study finance and economics. Highly regarded by his professors, he became a leading intellectual figure in the growing 'New Right' movement upon graduating, working for several right-wing think tanks before returning to Sturbridge to serve as a professor in the economics faculty in 1980.

While teaching at Sturbridge he also served as an informal economic adviser to Robin McNamara, the leader of the Free People's Party and Prime Minister from 1983 to 1985. Albright was briefly planning to run for Parliament at the next election, with the promise that he would be appointed Finance Minister immediately afterwards. However, as the FPP-led government became more divided and eventually collapsed in 1985, bringing about early elections in which the party was predicted to lose power, he backed off from this commitment and returned to his teaching role at Sturbridge.

After the merger of the FPP with the Liberal Party in 1990, Albright was recruited to run as a candidate for the newly-formed LPP in the 1991 parliamentary election. Elected as a party-list MP, he spent his first three years in Parliament out of favour with the party leadership, which wanted to distance itself from the memory of McNamara's short-lived premiership. He was eventually brought into the fold and appointed Minister for Transport in 1994, a position he held until the government lost re-election in a landslide defeat.

Following the Liberal election defeat, Albright mounted what was considered to be a long-shot bid for the leadership of his party, finishing a distant third with former Foreign Minister Hugh Conway winning the race. Conway declined to appoint Albright to his leadership team as he was considered to be too right-wing, with the new party leader aiming to move the LPP closer to the centre in an attempt to win back moderate voters. The effort failed, with critics arguing the Liberals failed to draw any sort of contrast between themselves and the popular Progressive government, and the 2003 election saw another landslide defeat for the LPP. Conway announced his intention to stay on in an interim role until a new leader could be selected in early 2004, allowing for a lengthy campaign period.

This worked to Albright's advantage, as it gave him time to steadily build support for his strategy of veering the party to the right and energising the electorate with a radical plan to lower taxes and cut regulations. Despite resistance from some at the top of the party, he was elected party leader in February 2004 with over 60% of the vote and became the official Leader of the Opposition. Despite a fairly hostile reaction from the media, support for the LPP began to grow and Albright received extensive support from the business community which welcomed his proposals for tax relief. At the 2004 election the Liberals greatly surpassed expectations to become the largest party, although they fell just short of a majority and the Progressives were able to assemble a majority by aligning themselves with the smaller left-wing parties.