Anthony Brockett
The Right Honourable Anthony Brockett | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Anthony Brockett, 1981 | |
| 12th Prime Minister of Imagua and the Assimas | |
| In office 23 April, 1980 – 23 April, 1984 | |
| President | Querano Piro |
| Deputy | Isaac Egnell |
| Preceded by | Querano Piro |
| Succeeded by | Edmondo Privitera |
| Member of Parliament for Chatman Hills | |
| In office 23 April, 1964 – 22 March, 1985 | |
| Preceded by | Matthew Defries |
| Succeeded by | Elijah Lemar |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Anthony Brockett 14 September 1931 Cuanstad, Saint Ellen's, Imagua, Estmere |
| Died | 22 March 1985 (aged 53) Cuanstad, Imagua and the Assimas |
| Resting place | King's Cemetery |
| Nationality | Estmerish (1931-1937) Imaguan (1937-1985) |
| Political party | Conservatives |
| Spouse | Alice Brockett |
| Children | 1 |
| Alma mater | University of San Pietro |
Anthony Brockett (b. 14 September, 1931, d. 22 March, 1985) was an Imaguan politician who served as the twelfth Prime Minister of Imagua and the Assimas from 1980 to 1984, succeeding Querano Piro, who was elected President.
Born as the youngest of four children in Tarnstead, he first entered politics when he joined the Conservative Party in 1958. In 1964, he was elected to represent Chatman Hills for the first time. During this time, he developed close ties with future leader Querano Piro.
In 1972, he became Deputy Prime Minister, serving under Querano Piro during his two terms as Prime Minister. However, in 1980, Piro ran for the presidency, and Brockett ran for the premiership. Brockett won a reduced majority government for the Conservatives.
However, during his tenure as Prime Minister, Brockett instituted austerity measures and made substantial privatisations and cuts to government programmes, as well as ending the one-to-one peg between the Estmerish shilling and the Imaguan shilling. These actions made him unpopular, and in 1984, the Conservatives lost twenty-three seats to the Democratic Labour Party, and their candidate, Edmondo Privitera.
Brockett stayed on as leader of the opposition until his death in 1985 from a heart attack.
Early life
Anthony Brockett was born as the youngest of four children, and the only son to banker David Brockett and Marion Brockett on 14 September, 1931, in the Cuanstad neighbourhood of Tarnstead.
Brockett first entered school in 1936, when he went to the Tarnstead Primary School. He did well in his studies, and in 1942 was able to enter the Assim Asteris Grammar School.
In 1947, he took the school certificate exam, passing it with flying colours, and then in 1949 passed the higher school certificate exam with flying colours.
He gained a scholarship to the University of San Pietro. There, he studied economics, obtaining a bachelor's degree in 1951, and a master's degree in 1954.
After graduating, he started working for the Bank of the Orient as a bank teller in Cuanstad until 1960. At around this time, he and his family moved to Chatman Hills.
Political career
Constituency association
In 1958, Anthony Brockett joined the Conservative constituency association for Chatman Hills. As a member of the constituency association, he campaigned for the election of Conservative candidate Paul Odell in the 1960 general election, but Odell lost to incumbent MP Matthew Defries of the Democratic Labour Party.
During this period, Anthony Brockett rose in prominence, as he used his financial position as clerk of the Bank of the Orient to help contribute to the local Conservative association, while Brockett also helped promote the party. This meant that by the 1964 general election, Anthony Brockett was nominated to run for a seat in the Lesser House of Parliament by the local Conservative association.
Anthony Brockett faced incumbent MP Paul Odell, and during this campaign argued that Odell had run out of ideas, and that he was not paying enough attention to the interests of the Chatman Hills, while Brockett promised that if elected, he would represent the Chatman Hills and ensure that their interests would be well-represented in Parliament.
When the results came in, Brockett won the election with 52.1% of the vote, to Odell's 46.8% of the vote, allowing him to take a seat in the Lesser House.
Backbencher
On 23 April, 1964, Anthony Brockett was sworn in as Member of Parliament for Chatman Hills. As a rookie member of Parliament, he was a backbencher in the Lesser House of Parliament.
Almost immediately, he first met Querano Piro, and "developed a close professional relationship," with Piro and Brockett voting in tandem with one another. Despite these close ties, Brockett was mainly focused on representing his constituency on the floor of the Lesser House, which helped increase his popularity among his constituents.
In 1968, he was re-elected with 58.3% of the vote, defeating Democratic Labour candidate Sam Mendoza.
Deputy Leader of the Opposition
After Querano Piro became leader of the Conservatives, Brockett was swiftly appointed into his shadow cabinet as the deputy leader of the opposition. While he himself was surprised by this decision, he went along with the decision, saying that "I may be inexperienced in politics, but I will do my damned best to ensure that we get things done in the Conservative Party."
Thus, during his tenure as Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Brockett was firmly established as a second-in-command of the parliamentary Conservative Party, behind Piro. Thus, he was able to exert "outsized" influence on the legislative agenda of the Conservative Party, and was able to use his position to help boost his popularity among both his constituents, and the members of the Conservatives.
However, he also continued representing the interests of Chatham Hills, as he knew that it was a marginal constituency, and thus could swing over to the Democratic Labour Party.
At the 1971 Conservative leadership convention, he endorsed Querano Piro to run for the [[Prime Minister of Imagua and the Assimas|premiership, and Isaac Egnell to run for the Imaguan presidency.
The following year, he ran for a third term in the Lesser House of Parliament against Democratic Labour candidate Noah Fitzhubert. During the campaign, Anthony Brockett promised to "continue representing the interests" of the Chatman Hills, while Fitzhubert argued that Brockett had "no new ideas" and that his re-election would hurt those living in the Chatman Hills.
When the results came in, Brockett was re-elected with 53.8% of the vote, compared to Fitzhubert's 44.5% of the vote, allowing him to become Deputy Prime Minister, and to serve for a third term.
Deputy Prime Minister
On 23 April, 1972, newly-elected Prime Minister Querano Piro appointed Anthony Brockett to serve as Deputy Prime Minister of Imagua and the Assimas.
As Deputy Prime Minister, while it was a symbolic role, as it would only be relevant if Piro were to die in office, Brockett was able to utilize this position as a way to exert influence over the governing Conservative Party, and in Piro's absence would chair cabinet meetings.
Thus, during his first term as Deputy Prime Minister, Anthony Brockett was able to help reduce "onerous regulations" on Imaguan industries in a bid to bring back jobs to Imagua that had left the country in the 1960s, and to increase agricultural subsidies for farmers. In addition, he continued to represent his constituency of Chatman Hills, addressing their issues and concerns in a manner that made him more popular in his own constituency.
In the 1976 general elections, Brockett ran against Democratic Labour candidate Benedict Ohlin. While Ohlin criticised Brockett's policies and argued that he had run out of ideas, Brockett defended his record, and criticized Ohlin's inexperience in politics, which helped increase support. By the time results came in, he kept his seat with 57.8% of the vote, compared to Ohlin's 41.6% of the vote.
In his fifth term in the Lesser House of Parliament, Anthony Brockett helped oversee the reduction in government spending, and reduced taxes, as stagflation affected the Imaguan economy.
In 1979, as President Isaac Egnell was nearing the end of his second term, Querano Piro was nominated to run with the unanimous support of the party, with Brockett expected to run for the premiership. However, Austin Houghton surprised him when he ran for the Conservative leadership.
Despite this, Brockett was able to prevail, and won with over seventy percent of delegates voting in Brockett's favour to run for the premiership.
In the 1980 general elections, Anthony Brockett faced Democratic Labour nominee and Prime Minister Marguerite Ernman on the national level. During his campaign, Brockett vowed to solve the recession by implementing "strict measures to ensure that the government lives within its means," and criticised Ernman for her "naive policies that would lead to the impoverishment of Imagua."
On the constituency level, he faced Ken Lagerfelt of the DLP: while Lagerfelt was popular, Brockett's attacks on the DLP helped increase his popularity, and his performance on the ITS debates also improved his chances of winning.
Thus, on 21 March, 1980, the Conservatives lost three seats in the Lesser House, but were able to still keep a majority government. This meant that for the rest of the month, Brockett and Piro coordinated on the transition between the two premiers.
Premiership
On 23 April, 1980, Anthony Brockett was sworn in as the twelfth Prime Minister of Imagua and the Assimas, succeeding Querano Piro. That day, he unveiled his cabinet, appointing former President Isaac Egnell to be his Deputy Prime Minister.
During his tenure, he attempted to resolve the Imaguan recession as quickly as possible. Thus, the government's first budget, in 1981, was meant as a way to get Imagua and the Assimas out of the recession. The budget cut a lot of Imaguan government programmes and services, such as most of the routes served by the Imaguan Maritime Service, the entirety of Imaguan Government Railways, while privatising other government agencies, most notably Imaguan Civilian Air Service, and most infamously of all, ending the currency board between the Estmerish shilling and the Imaguan shilling, in order for the Imaguan shilling to be devalued, and then floated against all other currencies. He also bailed out the struggling banks.
While in 1980, the unemployment rate had been at 11.3%, and in 1981, it had risen to 12.3%, by 1982, it had fallen to 9.7%. However, these budgets, combined with other austerity measures made the Conservatives unpopular, especially as costs started rising as the Imaguan shilling was no longer pegged to the Estmerish shilling.
Although the economy continued improving over the next few years, Brockett's popularity never really recovered from these moves, which meant that by the time the writ was issued by President Piro in January 1984, Brockett was facing an uphill battle against Democratic Labour nominee Edmondo Privitera.
During the campaign, Brockett campaigned on continuing the policies until Imagua "exits the recession," before instituting policies to ensure that this recovery would "benefit all Imaguans." In contrast, Edmondo Privitera's campaign focused on an anti-incumbency factor, and attacked Brockett for implementing these policies at all.
At the televised debates organised by the Imaguan Television Service, Brockett did not perform as well as Edmondo Privitera, which helped increase Edmondo Privitera's popularity among the population.
Thus, when the results came in, the Conservatives fell to twenty-three seats. However, Brockett kept his seat against Democratic Labour candidate Morris Stewart, with Brockett winning 51.4% compared to Stewart's 47.5% of the vote.
Opposition leader
Despite conceding defeat to Edmondo Privitera, Brockett announced his intention to stay on as the leader of the Conservatives, and at the 1984 leadership review, he barely passed the threshold to remain parliamentary leader of the Conservative Party.
Nonetheless, Anthony Brockett was a fierce opposition leader, with Brockett criticizing the policies of the governing Democratic Labour Party, arguing that their methods of "ending" the recession would only prolong it, and that Imagua would become a poor nation "much like Vilcasuamanas or Marirana." At the same time, Brockett maintained a "solid grasp" on the party apparatus, with only the deputy leader, Isaac Egnell, even coming close to exerting as much influence as Brockett on the Conservatives.
By early 1985, Anthony Brockett's popularity started to recover, especially after it was announced that Imagua had officially exited the recession, with many among the Conservative Party assigning him credit for helping Imagua recover economically. At this point in time, Brockett's health started to deteriorate, but there was very little indication of his fatal heart attack.
Death
On 21 March, 1985, after returning to his home in Chatman Hills, Brockett suffered a heart attack at 6:42 pm. An ambulance was called by his wife, and he was taken to Chatman General Hospital, where he died without regaining consciousness the following day at 2:11 am.
An autopsy revealed that Anthony Brockett had an underlying heart condition, which was the cause of his heart attack.
Following the news of his sudden death, and his autopsy, Brockett was laid in state until a funeral was held on 30 March. Following the funeral, he was interred at King's Cemetery in Cuanstad.
Personal life
Anthony Brockett married Alice Brockett in 1954, and only had a single son, Ben Brockett, born in 1957.
He spoke Imaguan Creole as a first language, and spoke Estmerish, Etrurian, and Ostisk fluently.
Brockett was a devout High Estmerian.
Political views
Anthony Brockett was a neoliberal conservative who believed that the economy would need to not be regulated by the Imaguan government. Thus, he reduced regulations on the Imaguan economy.
Socially, he was supportive of increased immigration, as a way to counteract Imagua's brain drain. However, he opposed legalising abortion and homosexuality, and he was a strong believer in the "traditional family."