Varne McCraig

**Varne McCraig** is an ex-politician who served as MP for Greater Barleyton from 1951 - 1972 and East Barleyton from 1980 - 2012 and has worked as a nurse since 2015 after getting a degree from college. He was born on the 12th of March 1929 to Samuel McCraig and Anna McCraig who both worked as shopkeepers for their local shop. McCraig had a quite troubled childhood as he was bullied whilst he attended school as well as being abused by his father which led to further complications in his life. When he left Secondary School he would go on to join S&L in 1949 at the age of 20 and would contest the seat of Greater Barleyton in 1951 and win the seat as its first S&L MP. A month after the death of Joseph Jacks and a lengthy time of discussion of the future of the party McCraig would win the leadership election uncontested due to many knowing they couldn't live up to the reputation of Joseph Jacks. McCraig would go on to serve as the leader of S&L until 1984 when he lost the leadership election but Veronica Lavanad offered McCraig the position of deputy leader which he accepted. He remained deputy leader until 1990 when he resigned and since then lost a lot of interest in politics. He thought about resigning in 1995, 2003, and 2005 but because of support from senior MPs and membersof his party he remained until he lost his constituency in the 2012 Parliamentary Election to Jane Gauldeston. He stayed a part of the party until just before the 2012 Parliamentary Election when he decided to attend college to become a nurse. When he received his qualifications he became a nurse in 2015 and although he is at the old age of 94 he is very healthy and mobile and remains a nurse today.

## Early life

McCraig was born on the 12th of March 1929 to Samuel McCraig and Anna McCraig in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. His family was considered middle-class for the time as Varne's parents worked as shopkeepers for their local shop which allowed the family to have some economic freedom which included having vacations from time to time. Varne remarked his first vacation to the Scottish highlands when he was around 8 years old where he experienced abuse from his father as well as his mother being abused. Varne and his mother would experience further abuse from his father after that vacation to the highlands and eventually in 1938 because of the situation that he and his mother was in they moved to Sheaman. Samuel McCraig attempted to find Anna and Varne but to no avail and was forced to return home to Scotland after world war two begun as he had been conscripted. Varne and his mother would become citizens of Sheaman in late 1939 and Varne's mother would work for the local shopkeeper which led to a decrease in money for the family but enough to sustain themselves. After attending secondary school Varne would leave at the age of 16 and would go on to study history in college and when he left college in 1949 with a degree he would join S&L.

## Early political career: 1949 - 1960

He would be picked to contest the seat of Greater Barleyton in 1951 which was considered a very safe USTI seat and highly unlikely to vote S&L, especially for a young candidate. After being selected as candidate for the constituency he would go on to win the constituency with 38% of votes and became one of the youngest MPs to be elected at the time. His victory was very surprising to S&L with the Prime Minister congratulating Varne for his victory and even appointing him Minister for the Treasury after the 1951 Parliamentary Election. Varne would be responsible for majorly decreasing income tax as well as slightly lowering corporation tax, bringing in the largest increase of suicide prevention funding ever at the time, and a major increase of funding for states in Sheaman in 1958. His time as Minister for the Treasury was generally taken positively by the party and the general public and by the end of the 1950s he became a front runner in S&L and politics as a whole. His time as Minister for the Treasury was heavily criticized by LRA which included Oliver C.B Sar who blamed the further economic problems in the late 1950s and early 1960s on Varne McCraig.

## Prime Minister: 1960 - 1961

*This needs to be massively extended, this part of the article is a massive political time for Sheaman*

### Selection for Prime Minister

After the death of Joseph Jacks on the 18th of June 1960 S&L held a meeting during the early morning of the 19th of June at around 5:00 until 8:00 in which they discussed the future of the party. Many hinted towards the end of the party with John Reydall calling for the dissolution of the party with many members backing him. Hank Dagen-Noughtan would refuse to dissolve the party and with the backing of many members of the party including Varne McCraig they managed to petition for the party to remain and no dissolve. Another meeting would be held later that evening to decide on the new leader of the party as well as the next prime minister but the discussions were unsuccessful with some members calling for an election instead to "receive a mandate" from the population. The party would meet again around lunch time on the 20th of June to finalize a decision on the next leader and prime minister but ended unsuccessful once again leading to a stalemate in talks with no apparent leader taking form. For the last time the party would meet around 8:00 ending their meeting minutes before midnight where they decided to appoint Varne McCraig prime minister after all the member's of the council refused to take up the position leaving Varne with the role. Although no leader of the party had been decided they had appointed a prime minister with Varne officially becoming prime minister at 12:00 on the 21st of June 2023.

### Formation of the McCraig Ministry and Cabinet

*Main Article: McCraig Ministry*

After being appointed Prime Minister of Sheaman on the 21st of June 1960 Varne set out to organize and form his first ministry as well as his first cabinet by the end of the month.

### June to October

After the death of Joseph Jacks nobody knew what to do and it took three days for a decision to be made about a Prime Minister. Varne put himself forward as Prime Minister and the party selected him as Prime Minister without opposition becoming Prime Minister on the 21st of June 1960, three days after Joseph Jacks had died. He would form the McCraig Ministry which was also known as the Post-Jacks Ministry and appoint members of his cabinet that was finalized on the 1st of July 1960 after lengthy discussions and problems. His party agreed not to hold a leadership election as if he lost the leadership election he would've been prime minister for less than a month so to combat that they cancelled the election and he became leader of S&L on the 5th of July 1960. As Prime Minister he would see early on that many MPs began to either resign or join other parties, many joined a new party called SWLDP but some would join P&D and LRA. This sudden loss of MPs led to McCraig's ministry turning into a minority overnight on the 9th of August 1960 after two MPs left and joined SWLDP at around 00:10 on the 9th of August 1960. McCraig was recommended to call an election rather than risk a vote of no confidence and although he did not support the idea he "felt forced to do so" and announced an election in the 24th of August 1960 that would be set for sometime in February 1961. This did not stop a vote of no confidence in his government on the 3rd of September 1960 but it led to a slim victory for McCraig. Varne would reconsider his position in September and though about resigning but his piers urged him to not do so at it "could've destroyed the party a whole" which was said by Harold MacDonald in an interview in October.

### November to February

Varne would push on but by December his party had lot 50 S&L MPs via resignation or changing parties and it put a lot of stress of Varne who once again thought about resigning but was once again convinced not to do so. Varne looked back on that time and called it a mistake and that the reason nobody wanted to be prime minister at the time was because of the current political climate; "any leader succeeding Joseph Jacks would've been shamed for taking the risk."

### 1961 Parliamentary Election

On the 21st of February 1961 the election would take place and lead to S&L being ousted from government decreasing their seat count from 205 to 83 seats which was even worse considering that the seats in parliament had been increased from 383 to 412. SWLDP barely received a minority government and rose above the crippling party that was S&L and appointing Sophie White as Prime Minister of Sheaman on the 21st of February 1961. Varne considered resigning as leader of S&L but decided to remain leader and intended to fight the next election as a much stronger candidate and to prove that he could form a strong government and lead as a strong prime minister.

### Maxwell Interview & fall in the polls: 1961 - 1963

After being replaced as prime minister he continued to lead S&L and vowed to at least stand for the next election (which he did). the early 60s for Varne was a time of a lot of interviews as he had been pronounced "The worst Prime Minister Sheaman has ever seen" by George J. Maxwell in October 1962. The interview in question was on the Politics & Tribulation channel on SBTC (Sheaman Broadcasting Television Corporation) when the interviewer (George J. Maxwell) berated McCraig for his time as prime minister and as mentioned previously, called Varne the worst prime minister Sheaman had ever seen. Varne completely denied that title being bestowed upon him and fought back by recommending Wallace Tizelle, Robert E. Johnson, and Alistair Cameron as the three worst prime ministers and blaming the lack of support for S&L at the time. Boris Cameron came out against Varne's idea that Cameron was one of the worst prime minister's and called Varne a "disgrace to the party that was once led by my father." Varne apologized for calling Cameron one of the worst prime ministers of Sheaman but decided not to resign as leader of S&L which led to S&L dropping in the polls by up to 10% as before the interview S&L was barely in 2nd place just ahead of ROSP, after the interview/apology S&L would become the 3rd and then 4th most popular party.

### 1963 Parliamentary Election, 60s, 70s & the banning of parties: 1963 - 1980

When the 1963 Parliamentary Election results came in it was a devastating for S&L with the party decreasing it seats from 83 to 19. Varne however would not resign and respected Sophie White forming a majority government in 1963. The rest of the 60s was quite quiet for S&L but Varne opposed the illegal ban of ROSP in 1970 after a bill to ban ROSP got passed when Sophie White put forth a bill when most of the opposition had left for the day and the parliamentary session had ended for the day. Varne spoke out against White many times and throughout the late 60s and early 70s and even spoke out against Sophie White with Javier Jacks even though the two opposed each other's politics. Eventually in 1972 all parties would be banned by Sophie White including S&L and Varne was given a warning to not speak out against he government's decision or he'd be "prosecuted for [his] actions." Varne would not speak out against the government again until Ivan Jacks became President as well as being crowned King when he attempted to march on the capitol with a large crowd but it ended in his arrest. He would, however be released only a month later without charges but with the government keeping an eye on him. Throughout the rest of the 70s under the Jackonian dictatorship he would not oppose the government and remained quiet until he attended the feces protest in 1979 and joined in throwing human waste at political figures of the government including Ivan Jacks. Varne's reputation from then on would be rebuilt and the public would somewhat regain trust for Varne because of his loud voice against Sophie White as well as the Jackonian dictatorship.

### The "Restored Republic" & last years as leader: 1980 - 1984

When Sheaman regained its democratic system the government decided to keep the monarch and would make the one year old James Jacks, king. Varne would oppose making a baby king of Sheaman but his opinion was not popular as he would fail to even win a single seat in the 1980 Parliamentary Election and once again the 1984 Parliamentary Election. Because of this he resigned as leader of the party months after the results of the 1984 Parliamentary Election but agreed to become deputy leader after the leadership election.

## Deputy leader of S&L: 1984 - 1990

As deputy leader of S&L he would work closely with the chairman of the party and campaigning for the 1988 Parliamentary Election but once again the election led to 0 seats being won. Varne would consider retiring around the late 80s because of his old age and S&L failing to win election but instead or resigning he decided to search for a new party to join sometime around mid 1989 to early 1990 eventually opening up to discussions with Lethabo Doema on joining BIL. He discussed this with his party as well who urged him to stay a part of S&L and warning him that he couldn't win his seat as a progressive but eventually he decided to join BIL anyway.

## BIL MP & later political career: 1990 - 2012

### BIL/SGLR MP: 1990 - 2000

He joined BIL sometime in summer 1990 and campaigned with "all his might" to win his seat as John K.M Curtis described it. Eventually he would win the 1992 Parliamentary Election with a slim majority of 0.8% over the Conservative Party and would be a part of the opening speech with Lethabo Doema. He would once again win his seat in the 1993 Parliamentary Election and much easier as the conservative party had dissolved sometime between the 1992 and 1993 Parliamentary Election leading to a larger majority of 6% over the Sheaman Liberal Party. Varne would celebrate his success with Doema who praised Varne's election victory and would even be appointed Minister for education in Doema's cabinet and Varne thanked Doema many times which was noted in his journal (released in 2012). After winning his constituency again in the 1995 Parliamentary Election he would lose the position of minister for education and instead be replaced as minster for transport which he took negatively but still accepted the position. Varne would get frustrated with Lethabo Doema in the late 90s and after the 1999 Parliamentary Election, barely winning his seat once again he would finally be removed from the cabinet and lose his ministerial role as minister for transport. After only a year as a SGLR MP he would decided to leave SGLR and join the conservative & unionist party in 2000 and was accepted as a C&U MP.

### C&U MP: 2000 - 2012

Varne described himself as a progressive conservative by the mid 1990s and blamed his old age for becoming more conservative but instead of fighting his growing conservatism he would decide to accept that he was aging and becoming more conservative. He started to described himself as a moderate conservative by around 2001 and in 2003 he won his seat with 54% of votes and a large majority. Doema mocked his decision to swap parties after the 2003 Parliamentary Election and in the 2005 Parliamentary Election Doema convinced the leader of the socialists to remove their candidate from Varne's seat in an attempt to get him ousted from power. This was however successful and he would be elected again the 2005 as well as 2007, with majorities of 51% and 58% in 2005 and 2007 respectively. He would be reelected in 2008, 2009, and 2010 with better majorities each time and attempted to be a part of Sophie White's cabinet in 2010 which he was successful in doing so by becoming minster for business, energy & industry from 2010 to 2012. His career as MP was put in danger in the 2012 Parliamentary Election when P&D and SOCS (although traditionally "enemies") worked with each other by agreeing to remove the SOCS candidate from the race. Because C&U didn't do as well this year compared to the last it led to P&D's candidate to win the election for East Barleyton and oust McCraig from power which ended McCraig's 32 year run with the constituency.

## Nurse Career & Present: 2012 - Present

Varne would go to college to get a degree in nursing only months after losing his seat in the 2012 Parliamentary Election where he would graduate from college in 2015 with his degree and become a nurse. He is said to be the oldest nurse ever hired in Sheaman being hired at the age of 86 and currently still remains a nurse but says that he will be retiring as a nurse by December 2015 as he said to the media in late 2022 that he know that he will die soon and wants to rest and have as much time with his family before that day comes. He is currently 94 years old and will turn 95 on the 12th of March 2023 and had this to say when interview on his political life in 2019; "I hope that people see my political days are gone now. I'm no longer a young even if i didn't look so in my 80s working as an MP (chuckled) but no really , I'm done with politics and I've thought of leaving since the 90s so I'm happy as a nurse and I'm happy how free i am now to say what i want and to think what i want."