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Halivar was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the [[Cabinet of Estmere#Shadow Cabinet|Shadow  Secretary of State for Education]], soon being promoted to [[Cabinet of Estmere#Shadow Cabinet|Shadow Minister for Training and Skills]]. In [[Nick Lawrence]]'s 2014 cabinet shuffle, she was brought into the [[Cabinet of Estmere#Shadow Cabinet|Shadow Cabinet]] as Shadow  Secretary of State for Education. Halivar attacked the governing coalition's education policies, arguing that the department had been neglected. She argued that the system was in need of reform, and consistently raised the issue to Parliament. She drafted a number of plans to streamline the system, with the support of Lawrence. One of her most controversial suggestions was to abolish {{wp|grammar schools}}, replacing the current tiered system with an equal opportunies system that allowed students to study at either {{wp|technical schools}} or {{wp|comprehensive school|comprehensives}}. She also suggested that {{wp|polytechnics}} should be equalised with their university counterparts, and subject to the same funding and level of respect.
Halivar was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the [[Cabinet of Estmere#Shadow Cabinet|Shadow  Secretary of State for Education]], soon being promoted to [[Cabinet of Estmere#Shadow Cabinet|Shadow Minister for Training and Skills]]. In [[Nick Lawrence]]'s 2014 cabinet shuffle, she was brought into the [[Cabinet of Estmere#Shadow Cabinet|Shadow Cabinet]] as Shadow  Secretary of State for Education. Halivar attacked the governing coalition's education policies, arguing that the department had been neglected. She argued that the system was in need of reform, and consistently raised the issue to Parliament. She drafted a number of plans to streamline the system, with the support of Lawrence. One of her most controversial suggestions was to abolish {{wp|grammar schools}}, replacing the current tiered system with an equal opportunies system that allowed students to study at either {{wp|technical schools}} or {{wp|comprehensive school|comprehensives}}. She also suggested that {{wp|polytechnics}} should be equalised with their university counterparts, and subject to the same funding and level of respect.


In the [[2016 Estmerish general election|2016 election]], Halivar increased her majority in Harbrough Hillside, but the SDCP saw its national voteshare stagnate. This was the party's third electoral defeat under [[Nick Lawrence]], and his position as leader quickly became untenable. Halivar and the rest of the Shadow Cabinet advised that Lawrence step down as leader, and he did so in early March. In the [[2016 SDCP leadership election|leadership election]] organised to elect his successor, Halivar emerged as an unexpected candidate, though polls showed she was the frontrunner. She beat intermin leader and [[Cabinet of Estmere#Shadow Cabinet|Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs]] [[Isaac Wright]] and former [[Cabinet of Estmere#Shadow Cabinet|Shadow Chancellor]] [[Jon Revie]] in the first round, securing 51.2% of the vote from party members. Her vote share among union members was significantly higher, at 68.7%.
In the [[2016 Estmerish general election|2016 election]], Halivar increased her majority in Harbrough Hillside, but the SDCP saw its national voteshare stagnate. This was the party's third electoral defeat under [[Nick Lawrence]], and his position as leader quickly became untenable. Halivar and the rest of the Shadow Cabinet advised that Lawrence step down as leader, and he did so in early March. In the [[2016 SDCP leadership election|leadership election]] organised to elect his successor, Halivar emerged as an unexpected candidate, though polls showed she was the frontrunner. She beat interim leader and [[Cabinet of Estmere#Shadow Cabinet|Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs]] [[Isaac Wright]] and former [[Cabinet of Estmere#Shadow Cabinet|Shadow Chancellor]] [[Jon Revvie]] in the first round, securing 51.2% of the vote from party members. Her vote share among union members was significantly higher, at 68.7%.


==Leader of the SDCP==
==Leader of the SDCP==

Revision as of 19:25, 9 December 2020

Zoe Halivar
Official portrait of Lisa Nandy crop 2.jpg
Halivar in 2016
Leader of the Opposition
Assumed office
22 May 2016
PresidentAlice Roberts
Prime MinisterReginald Wilton-Smyth
Preceded byIsaac Wright
Leader of the Social Democratic and Co-operative Party
Assumed office
22 May 2016
DeputyOwen Cunningham
Preceded byIsaac Wright
Shadow Secretary of State for Education
In office
11 February 2014 – 22 May 2016
LeaderNick Lawrence
Isaac Wright
Preceded byDoug Harman
Succeeded bySandeep Sangra
Member of Parliament
for Harbrough Hillside
Assumed office
5 August 2012
Preceded byTony Johnson
Personal details
Born
Zoe Lila Rose Halivar

(1980-11-24) November 24, 1980 (age 43)
Morwall, Estmere
CitizenshipEstmere
Political partySDCP
Spouse
David Owen-Smith (m. 2011)
Alma materSt. Joseph's College, Tolbury University

Zoe Lila Rose Halivar (born 24 November 1980) is an Estmerish politician serving as the Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Social Democratic and Co-operative Party since 22 May 2016. Halivar was elected as the Member of Parliament for Harbrough Hillside in the 2012 election, and has served in Parliament since then. Halivar describes herself as a progressive and a democratic socialist, and is considered on the soft left of the SDCP.

Halivar was born in Morwall to a mixed Wealdish-Sivathran family. Her father was an influential Sotirian socialist, and she joined the SDCP at a young age. She was raised in Harbrough, and attended the comprehensive North Harbrough Public School. She attended Tolbury University, and graduated from the constituent St. Joseph's College with a Bachelor of Arts in History in 2002. During her studies, she was elected as President of the Tolbury University Students' Union.

Prior to entering Parliament, Halivar worked as a historian with the United Congress of Trade Unions, working alongside her future partner David Owen-Smith to document the history of the trade unions in Estmere. She has authored many books on the subject, such as Godfredson: Father of the Nation? and Holmes: The Great Reformer. With the support of UCTU, Halivar was shortlisted as an SDCP candidate, and was elected to the Chamber of Commons in 2012.

She was appointed as Shadow Secretary of State for Education in 2014 as part of then-leader Nick Lawrence's shadow cabinet shuffle. Halivar consistently raised the issue of education reform, and drafted plans to streamline the system. After the SDCP's defeat in the 2016 election, Lawrence stepped down as leader, and Halivar won the subsequent leadership election after emerging as a dark horse. Subsequently, the party gained seats in the 2018 snap election. Her leadership has been defined by a new approach, "combining competence with the promise of real change", which has been dubbed One Nation Socialism.

Early life and education

Halivar was born on 24 November 1980 in the Willowston borough of Morwall. She grew up in a mixed household, which emphasied her joint Wealdish and Sivathran heritage. Her father, Sandip Halivar, was a Southern Sotirian and Sotirian socialist, who became a member of the Satrian Section of the Workers' International. He arrived in Estmere in 1972, leaving Mandalore to avoid persecution following the imposition of martial law in Sivathra. Sandip worked as a lawyer for the Steelworkers' Union, and met Jackie Walker - Zoe's mother - during a solidarity strike. Jackie worked as a nurse.

After her birth, the Halivar family moved to the suburbs of Harbrough, where Zoe was raised for the majority of her early life. She attended the North Harbrough Public School, a comprehensive school, and was able to pass the entrance exam to attend Tolbury University. She studied history, and was accepted into the constituent college of St. Joseph's. She was active in politics throughout this time. During her second semester, she was elected as President of the Tolbury University Students' Union, running on a Pluralist Left ticket. She graduated from Tolbury in 2002 with a first class Bachelor of Arts degree in History. Her dissertation topic was Gone But Not Forgotten: An Argument on the Great Shift, which argued that the failure of the SDCP to adapt to changing times doomed it to be overtaken by Reform in the 1980s. This work was published.

Career

Professional and union career

Briefly working at a supermarket chain in Tolbury, Halivar became a chartered member and fellow of the Federal Historical Society, and began working as a professional historian in 2004. Her chief interest was in labour history and identity politics. She briefly worked as an assistant at the University of Sowemere, but from 2007 she worked almost exclusively with the United Congress of Trade Unions, documenting the history of the trade union movement in Estmere.

She investigated a number of historical SDCP and labour figures during this time, writing a number of biographies such as Godfredson: Father of the Nation? in 2006, and Holmes: The Great Reformer in 2011. Her account of the early SDCP, Trials and Tribulations of the Early SDCP, 1881-1916, published in 2009 also recieved praise from Nick Lawrence, the leader of the SDCP at the time.

Early political career

Halivar in 2012 during election hustings.

Halivar was shortlisted as a candidate for the SDCP in 2011, and was eventually selected to run for the party in the relatively marginal seat of Harbrough Hillside, defending the seat for the SDCP as the incumbent Tony Johnson was retiring. Her selection campaign was helped heavily by the UCTU. In the 2012 election, Halivar successfully defended the seat and was elected to the Chamber of Commons, though the SDCP lost seats as a whole during the election, and the Euclosceptic Estmere First surged in many SDCP heartland seats.

Halivar was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Shadow Secretary of State for Education, soon being promoted to Shadow Minister for Training and Skills. In Nick Lawrence's 2014 cabinet shuffle, she was brought into the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Education. Halivar attacked the governing coalition's education policies, arguing that the department had been neglected. She argued that the system was in need of reform, and consistently raised the issue to Parliament. She drafted a number of plans to streamline the system, with the support of Lawrence. One of her most controversial suggestions was to abolish grammar schools, replacing the current tiered system with an equal opportunies system that allowed students to study at either technical schools or comprehensives. She also suggested that polytechnics should be equalised with their university counterparts, and subject to the same funding and level of respect.

In the 2016 election, Halivar increased her majority in Harbrough Hillside, but the SDCP saw its national voteshare stagnate. This was the party's third electoral defeat under Nick Lawrence, and his position as leader quickly became untenable. Halivar and the rest of the Shadow Cabinet advised that Lawrence step down as leader, and he did so in early March. In the leadership election organised to elect his successor, Halivar emerged as an unexpected candidate, though polls showed she was the frontrunner. She beat interim leader and Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Isaac Wright and former Shadow Chancellor Jon Revvie in the first round, securing 51.2% of the vote from party members. Her vote share among union members was significantly higher, at 68.7%.

Leader of the SDCP

Halivar announcing her candidacy during the 2016 leadership election.
Halivar addressing the SDCP conference in November 2019.

Personal life

Halivar married David Owen-Smith in 2011, having been engaged since 2009. The two met while both working with the UCTU; Halivar as a labour historian and Owen-Smith as a legal advisor. The couple have two children, Sidney and Lilian, born in 2015 and 2017. Their first child was named for SDCP founder Sidney Bell.

Halivar is a Sotirian, but does not affiliate with a specific church. She has attended services at Communion, Solarian Catholic, and non-mainstream Amendist churches.

Halivar has said that she supports Harbrough United FC, the local football club for her constituency.

Awards and honours

Publications

  • Halivar, Zoe (2006). Godfredson: Father of the Nation?. Morwall: Harrow Publishing House.
  • Halivar, Zoe (2009). Trials and Tribulations of the Early SDCP, 1881-1916. Morwall: Harrow Publishing House.
  • Halivar, Zoe (2011). Holmes: The Great Reformer. Morwall: Harrow Publishing House.
  • Halivar, Zoe (2016). Change or Die: The Path That Lies Ahead. Morwall: Harrow Publishing House.

Articles

  • "Gone But Not Forgotten: An Argument on the Great Shift" Tolbury Historical Journal, Volume 95, Summer 2002.
  • "A Radical Reinterpretation of Fighting Estmere" Novel Great War History, Volume 47, Spring 2004.
  • "Swandles, Waxons and Duthes: Oh My!" Pre-Modern Estmerish History, Volume 33, Season 2004.
  • "A Brief History of Socialism in Estmere" UCTU Historical Journal, Volume 8, Autumn 2007.
  • "Land and Labour: Localism in the Social Democratic and Co-operative Party" UCTU Historical Journal, Volume 11, Autumn 2010.
  • "The First Unionists: An Account of the Tolbury Martyrs" UCTU Historical Journal, Volume 12, Autumn 2011.
  • "A Few Steps Moore?: A Reinterpretation of Holmes' Successor" Contemporary Estmerish History, Volume 22, Spring 2013.
  • "A Rose Yet Wilted: The Revival of Euclean Socialism" Contemporary Estmerish History, Volume 26, Spring 2018.