Following the August 8 announcement of the upcoming General Election date and Lord Hunter Prater’s announcement to run for Prime Minister, a heated altercation took place in the Wrythe Public House between the two election candidates.
Prater’s opponent, Lord Andrew Musgrave, responded to his statement expressing his excitement for the election and disagreeing with Prater’s statement on the Empire collapsing and the prospect of it lasting a hundred years.
Prater made a grand response, which could have been taken for campaigning, essentially saying that Musgrave was wrong.
Musgrave made a response, attempting to take the moral high ground by trying to de-escalate the situation by telling Prater to
“leave the campaigning until the 4 weeks allocated to it”.
Prater came back, guns-a-blazing, accusing Musgrave of attempting to limit his freedom of speech in the Public House.
Musgrave, again responded and belittled Prater’s knowledge of Austenasian laws.
Prater then accused Musgrave of speaking with condescendence and back-handed comments, going so far as to call him a “bully”.
“You’ve got a lot to learn” was Musgrave response, who also brought up his superior micronational experience to Prater’s and then brought Prater’s maturity into question.
Former Austenasian Prime Minister and current New Richmond Republic national, Vera Hewitt, was also in the Public House at the time and she weighed in on the situation.
Hewitt suggested that Prater not pick fights and re-worded Musgrave’s early comment stating that Prater’s campaigning up that point was unconstitutional. She cited her extensive knowledge of the Constitution and previous experience as Prime Minister.
From here an argument occurred between Prater and the team of Hewitt and Musgrave.
Prater’s basis was that the pair were limiting his freedom of speech as an ordinary citizen, whereas Hewitt and Musgrave’s was that Prater’s campaigning was unconstitutional, saying he needed to wait for the allocated 4 weeks.
Prater argued that he was in fact not campaigning and was simply expressing his displeasure for the current government. He even challenged them to charge him for his actions.
Hewitt and Musgrave kept citing the Constitution without actually providing the evidence for their argument. They instead told Prater that he himself should read the constitution, to which Prater insisted they show him.
Hewitt made a sharp comment saying the following to Prater:
“You aren’t very bright and I hope for the Empire’s sake you lose by landslide.”
It wasn’t until a few hours later where Lady Addison O’Halloran dug up the section of the Constitution that was being referred to in the argument. It reads as follows:
“During the first of the three weeks between the order for a General Election and the actual election, any Representatives willing may apply to stand for election to run for the office of Prime Minister. The Monarch must choose at least two applicant Representatives, who from the point of being chosen until the General Election concludes shall hold the status of Candidates. The remaining four weeks may be spent by the Candidates campaigning to attempt to persuade the subjects of the Empire to vote for them.”
It can be argued wether or not Prater’s statements could be considered campaigning or not, but that is a decision that would be best decided by a Judge.
Either way you look at it, here at the Times, we believe that we are in for an exciting Campaign Trail leading up to this General Election and wish both candidates all the best.
