William Albright
William Albright | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 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 | |
| Assumed office 12 September 1991 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 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 foundation of the party, 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.