Chancellorship of Joel Clark

The chancellorship of Joel Clark began on 14 June 2001 and ended upon his resignation on 27 June 2012. Whilst serving as Chancellor of the Republic, Joel Clark concurrently served as the Minister of State for the Civil Service, the Leader of the Conservative Party (until Cheryl Caldwell was declared Conservative leader on 24 June 2012) and the National Assembly Member for Maidenhead. He remains a member of the Executive Council, having first been appointed in July 1998 when he became Leader of the Opposition. Clark is the Conservative Party's longest-serving Chancellor, the only Conservative Chancellor to have led the party to victory since 1986, and—having led the party to three consecutive federal election victories—also the only Conservative Chancellor to serve for more than 10 years. Clark is both credited with and criticised for moving the Conservative Party closer to the centre of Panem politics, using the term "Compassionate Conservatism" to distinguish his liberal-conservative policies from the more hardline conservative social and economic policies which the party had espoused in the past.

In domestic government policy, Clark's government ushered in a programme for austerity in response to the 1999 financial crisis and the resulting recession. Clark significantly decreased public spending on areas such as healthcare and education and introduced market-based changes to these areas, including privatizing dental care, bringing prescription charges in line with market prices (resulting in an increase in the cost of prescriptions) and introducing tuition fees for higher education. From 2001 to 2005, the federal income tax was increased by 1.5%.

In foreign policy, Clark ardently supported Kinkow foreign policy initiatives, notably by participating in the invasion of Sununu in 2003.

While he had promised before getting into government that he would serve only two terms in office, Clark remained as Chancellor for three of the four years of the Conservative's third term in government. On 7 September 2011, Clark publicly stated he would step down as party leader by the time of the Conservative Party conference in September 2012. On 10 May 2012, he announced his intention to resign as Chancellor on 27 June 2012. On 24 June 2012, Cheryl Caldwell was elected as Conservative Party leader and was sworn in as Chancellor three days later, on June 27.

Economic issues and programme for austerity
The economy was a priority in the continuing wake of the 1999 financial crisis and the consequent increasing government debt when Clark came into office, with the topic being of much concern in Panem public opinion. The government announced a policy, later called 'Plan A', of eliminating the structural deficit and ensuring that the debt-to-GDP ratio started falling by the end of the assembly in 2005. To facilitate this goal, the Office for Budget Responsibility and a government-wide spending review were created. While several government agencies and departments enacted spending decreases.

In 2001, the Behavioural Insights Team was set up to apply nudge theory (behavioural economics and psychology) to try to improve government policy and services as well as to save the federal government money.

In February 2004, Panem lost its AAA credit rating, the retention of which the government had indicated to be a priority when coming to power, for the first time since 1978. By 2005 the annual deficit had been cut by about two thirds, (the initial target was to get it to zero), so the debt-to-GDP ratio was still gradually rising.

Specifically, Clark's first term in office, enacting changes from 2001 to 2004, involved about £100 billion of cuts in government expenditures. In terms of economic growth, the figures that came in were generally below expectations at first, but nationwide growth picked up to an annual rate of 3% by the end of 2004, indicating a mixed picture as many of the new job positions being created have featured relatively low wages. Clark's administration had also pursued a policy of tax increases; however, the bulk of the deficit reduction that occurred, more than 80% of the total, was related to spending cuts.

Immediately after taking office, Secretary of State for the Treasury, James Kearns gave the Federal Reserve Bank the power to set Panem's base rate of interest autonomously. This decision was popular with the Panemian financial establishment in London, which the Conservative Party had been courting since the mid-1990s. The decision helped to reassure sceptics of the Conservative Party's fiscal "prudence". Associated changes moved regulation of banks away from the Federal Reserve Bank to the Financial Services Authority, bringing the regulation of banks more under the control of the Federal Treasury.

Reforms to the benefits system
In 2001 a white paper was introduced by Labour, Social Security and Pensions Secretary Simon Rake to reform the benefits system, merging six benefits into the Universal Credit. The objectives of the policy included creating a more responsive system that would simplify and incentivise a return to work, pay benefits in a monthly cycle more akin to salaries, reduce the high marginal deduction rate that accumulates from the withdrawal of more than one means-tested benefit simultaneously improving incentives, ensure that taking on even a small or varying amount of work would be financially rewarding, and reduce the proportion of children growing up in homes where no one worked. Universal Credit would merge out-of-work benefits and in-work support to improve return to work incentives. Implementation proved to be difficult and was much delayed, with the first roll out of the full system in December 2005, with full implementation targeted for 2010.

Reforms to the National Health Service
The Health and Social Care Bill was the most deep-rooted and extensive reworking of the structure of the National Health Service ever undertaken. The bill had implications for all health organisations in the NHS, not least for primary care trusts (PCTs) and strategic health authorities (SHAs), which were by clinical commissioning groups principally run by local GPs.

The bill was one of the government's most controversial proposals, and in April 2002 the government announced a "listening exercise" postponing further action on the bill. The controversy arose in part because the proposals were not discussed during the 2001 federal election campaign and were not contained in the government's Legislative Programme for Government.

Governmental reform
Upon entering government in June 2001, Clark established the position of Minister of State for Constitutional and Governmental Reform to conduct a review of the federal government system and, in particular, the apparatus of the Cabinet Office. In September 2002, the minister, Lucas Farris, published a report containing recommendations on how to reform the federal government apparatus. In early December 2002, Farris announced a range of sweeping governmental reforms that would be implemented over the Christmas recess. The main reform implemented was the establishment of the Federal Chancellery to replace the Cabinet Office as the central organ of government. This centralized federal government around the Chancellor. While the Office for Cabinet Affairs was established as an agency of the Federal Chancellery to facilitate inter-departmental liaising. In January, to accompany the governmental reforms, there was a minor reshuffle of the Federal Cabinet.

Social reforms
Upon entering government, Clark established the Office for Equalities to be headed by the Minister of State for Women and Minorities who would be of cabinet-level. Unlike previous Conservative Chancellor's, Clark had a more liberal approach towards social issues and, during the 2001 federal election campaign, promised not to conduct any roll-back of abortion legislation and to look into the position of women, minorities and LGBT people in all aspects of society. Significant change took place to legislation relating to rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people during Clark's period in office. During his first term, the age of consent for homosexuals was equalised at sixteen years of age and the ban on homosexuals in the armed forces was lifted. Subsequently, in May 2005, a Civil Partnership Act came into effect, allowing gay couples to form legally recognised partnerships with the same rights as a traditional heterosexual marriage. At the end of September 2006, more than 30,000 Panemians had entered into Civil Partnerships as a result of this law. Adoption by same-sex couples was legalised, and discrimination in the workplace, and in relation to the provision of goods and services were both made illegal in November 2003. Transgender people were given the right to change their birth certificate to reflect their new gender as a result of the Gender Recognition Act of 2004. These policies were controversial with Conservative backbenchers and the government relied on the support of opposition parties in order to legislate them.

Invasion of and War in Sununu
Following the August 5th 2003 attacks on Alleron City and Theed, Clark was very quick to align Panem with Kinkow, engaging in a round of shuttle diplomacy to help form and maintain an international coalition prior to the 2003 invasion of and subsequent war in Sununu. Clark maintains his diplomatic activity to this day, showing a willingness to visit countries that other world leaders might consider too dangerous to visit. In February 2005, he became the first Panemian since Edward Nelson to be awarded a Congressional Gold Medal by the Kinkow Congress for being "a staunch and steadfast ally of the Free Democratic Republic of Kinkow".