The Chronicle

of the month of Ternost in the year 151

The killing of three members of the City Guard last week appears to mark the start of a new campaign by the Linrodeth Freedom Fighters. The attacks were against off duty members of the guard, who were all ambushed and killed by a group of masked assailants. In a letter obtained by the Chronicle the LFF claim that these officers were corrupt and had forced people to make payments to them, udder threat of arrest. The LFF states that they will continue to "strike blows for freedom against Kerunian oppression".

After much consideration, emotion, endless debates and legal wrangling the trial of Marcus Lambourne has been resolved. Cllr Lambourne defences was that the entire trial was a completely baseless political move which was being deliberately drawn out in order to damage his election campaigning. Bringing the courts attention to his well known interest in his family the Cllr described the idea that he would "deliberately place my wife and children, and the children of the Orphanage in jeopardy" as "frankly ludicrous". In a well times move the Cllr also publicly took the Oath of Loyalty. However it was the intervention of Alderman Monterey and Pendentite Antonius which resolved the matter. In a carefully constructed case they demonstrated that the accusation of misconduct was not a valid basis for a trial regarding someone's loyalty to the City. Lady Andrews promptly halted the trial stating "I concur with the assessment. The question we are being asked to resolve can be summed up as `is Councillor Lambourne a traitor to this City?`. If this is the case then he should be on trial for treason. It is not the role of the Witanmoot to resolve such matters."

Just as the Witanmoot was relaxing from trial hysteria, Alderman Monterey stepped in to start a new farce. In a prepared statement he declared "I firmly believe that Alderman Cutario acted without authority and to the direct detriment of the city in the budget that he set, specifically that he deliberately and unnecessarily under spent the budget set by Lady Andrews, running a severe risk that the roads might become unusable or the bridge structurally unsound, purely to run up a large contingency which he had no intention of spending on Trade." He went on to add " Presuming that he intended to act honourably, the money would either rot unused in the Trade budget until some future year, or would be quietly transferred to another budget. In neither case was that his decision to make, and for these reasons I accuse him of acting unlawfully and against the best interests of the city." Alderman Cutario's bemused response "Is it a crime to under spend a budget?" raised a laugh from the Witanmoot however he must still attend a hearing before Lady Andrews next month.

Alan Monterey's unhappiness with the budgets managed by members of Alderman Cutario's faction seems unbounded. Not content with accusing the Alderman of misconduct, his faction has launched as strong and aggressive campaign against Thomas Osbert's record in Shipping. His scathing views included comments such as "I mean, the Merchant Navy is a great idea, particularly if you're a carpenter, but the rape of Shipping that he did to get it was mad" He went on to add" The docks go unprepared, the Bell tower's been given away, the heroic efforts at storm rescue now go unrewarded and he can't even guarantee that privateer booty hasn't come off one of our own merchantmen. He could at least have asked Lady Andrews for some of the money that went to overpay those mercenaries, that would have been more honest, but no. I hope there's a dockside left after his year of "careful stewardship". The attack appears to have some effect and a concerned Alderman Osbert spent most of the month shoring up his ward vote. Cllr Marcus Lambourne attack during his trial on William Trueman over the funding by the City of the Ravensgrim Mercenaries has seriously backfired. Cllr Lambourne asked "Given Alderman Trueman's view that the City being sacked was a bad thing" why "the man whose mercenaries were responsible for a recent sacking of wards in the city, to whit one Ravensgrim, has just been paid out of our taxes" He went on to query whether the Alderman opinion "was that, that particular sacking good for us" and summed up, much to the amusement of those listening with the view that perhaps if he had been found guilt it would mean that he would be due a big payment in a couple of years time. However in a surprise move General Olvini commented openly that the funding of mercenaries by the Witanmoot was critical to the Cities success at the battle of the three roads. "I am certain that if the forces of Captain Ravensgrim had not been with us that day, we would have been forced to battle rather than being able to negotiate" the General announced. Public response to this intervention by the hero of the Battle is likely to damage the election chances of Cllr Lambourne group, and to a lesser extent that of Alderman Monterey.

In a clear attempt to acquire the political agenda and turn attention away from his trial Marcus Lambourne has launched a radical proposal to review the taxation system within Linrodeth. Announcing his proposal Cllr Lambourne stated "In recent years unskilled labourers have done very well out of certain major projects. Perhaps now is the time to bring them into the taxation system. In return for tax (at a lower rate to full citizens) we might create another, lower, level of citizenship with certain limited benefits such as recourse to the law, but not the vote. This could increase the revenue of the Treasury and, at the same time, allow a welcome reduction in the tax burden for citizens." The proposal has received a mixed response, with notable resistance coming from the more traditional members of the Witanmoot.

With vigorous election campaigning already underway, moves between factions should be rare However the haemorrhaging of Marcus Lambourne support continues with Sheila Herman moving to join Alderman Trueman and Graham Porter moving to join Jim Bottler.

Ann Tasker has given birth to a daughter. Both mother and baby are well and Lady Tasker was even able to make a brief appearance at a civic event only days after the birth.