Jeroen Kost

Jeroen Kost (22 December 1908 - June 28th, 1971) was the Prime Minister of Doggerland from 1964 to his assassination in 1971. His premiership would be defined by constant fights with the NPD and his determination to modernise Doggerland.

Early life and education (1908-1926)
Kost was born to a wealthy Dutch Calvinist family in Mistlân, Zuidvis. His father ran a Large shipping company and had become the richest man in Doggerland. His mother was an opera singer from one of the many aristocratic Dutch families in Doggerland. He was an excellent student at his private school and excelled in studying history and math. In 1926 his father died when the NPD burned down the church he was attending just a week before his sons graduation. This would lead to his lasting hatred of Doggers.

Oxford Education (1926-1934)
Kost got a scholarship to go to Oxford and study economics. When he first arrived he was shocked to see how wealthy England was. During his time there he became attracted to the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes and began to believe Doggerland's economic system was inefficient. For his thesis he wrote a paper arguing that foreign investment and free trade could turn an economic backwater into a successful economic powerhouse. He got his PHD in 1934 and retuned to Doggerland shortly after.

Teaching Career (1934-1948)
After returning to Doggerland, he became a Professor of Economics at the University of Carabou. There he met Johannes deVere a student, who he would later marry in 1942. During his teaching career he started to advocate free trade and robust welfare system. He also wrote a paper describing how he believed Doggers in the north where keeping the country back by forcing it to buy their supposedly lower quality and more expensive steel. He also wrote about how he believed it was the responsibility of the Dutch and English population to "civilise" the "backwards" Doggers. this led to heavy criticism so he wrote a letter of apology stating that he did not mean that all Doggers where uncivilised and that he only meant that most where poor and uneducated. during his time at the university, he got involved with the Liberal Party believing they where the only ones who could bring Doggerland into the future, "even if it went kicking and screaming."

Early Political Career (1948-1952)
In the 1948 elections Jeroen Cost was selected to run as an MP for the Liberal Party and won a seat in Parliament. The Liberal party was in the opposition against the dominant National Democratic Party and he knew this meant he could get few bills passed. Despite this, he still managed to create and pass a bill that required all schools to have mandatory Dutch and English classes and cut funding for a Doggish language programs at the university of Carbou. His justification for this bill was that Dutch and English were much more useful languages than Dogger, which few outside of the country spoke. But many Doggish nationalists saw this as an attempt to destroy their heritage. During his time as MP, he rarely engaged in debates and instead focused on writing legislation.

Minster of Trade (1956-1959)
In the 1956 election the Liberal party beat the Progressive Conservative party in a landslide. The leader of the Liberal party Anders Beekhof, was sympathetic to Kost's ideas on Trade and so he appointed him to be Minster of Trade. As Minster of Trade, he renegotiated trade deals with Britain and other Western European States. These new deals lowered tariffs on steel and coal and slightly raised tariffs on manufacturing goods. This led to many steel mines in the north closing due to a flood of cheap goods and many factories opening up in the south due to cheaper resources. In the 1956 elections, the north largely voted against the Liberal party and for the Progressive Conservative and the Workers' Party. This forced the Liberals to go into coalition with Labor party. Kost remained Minster of Trade and continued his reforms. The Labor Party became a big fan of his as employment for Dutch workers rose substantially after his reforms were implemented. Then in 1960, a group of staffers came forward and said that Anders Beekof had been using government funds to cover up an affair with a Journalist. This led to the government falling and snap election taking place. The election ended with the Progressive Conservative Party in government, supported by a small establishment Liberal splinter group who opposed Kost's reforms.

The Opposition (1959-1964)
In 1959, Jeroen Kost Became the leader of the Liberal party. The new platform he created for the Liberal Party called for Free trade, Cooperation with the west, legal divorce, and the assimilation of the Doggers. The Progressive Conservative party raised tariffs on steel and coal in a desperate attempt to fix the unemployment crisis in the north. This was sharply criticised by Kost who believed this would stifle economic growth. In 1960 The Prime Minster David Stevens proposed large cuts to welfare in order to balance the budget. Kost reached out to few a Progressives Conservative MPs and convinced them to stop the cuts from passing. When the vote was defeated, Stevens asked Caribou the XI to hold a snap election. Jeroen Kost was confident that his party would win, as most polls where predicting a liberal landslide. But when the election came The Workers Party and the Labor Party won the majority of seats and formed a coalition. Kost lost confidence in polling after this. Kost knew that he would be facing a leadership challenge and he was now quite unpopular with the party elite and so he decided for the first time ever to let all liberal party members vote on the new leader. He won this election and kept his position. In the lead up to the 1964 election Kost used his connections to the Dutch elite and Doggerland Mob to raise large amounts of money for the campaign, though he did not keep the mob donations on the book fearing that his opponents could use it against him. He then used this money to buy up huge amounts of TV advertising that many believe led to his victory in the 1964 election.

Beginning of Administration (1964-1966)
After the 1964 election the Liberal Party held a majority of 15 MPs, so Kost new he should not do anything that could offend his party. His first few actions therefore had high amounts of support in his party like legalizing divorce, cutting farm subsidies, and lowering tariffs on steel and coal, cutting corporate taxes, and privatizing the state oil company. The now low tariffs and low corporate tax rates led to large ship building industry forming in Nandels Port. To deal with the growth of Dogger Nationalist organization in the North, Kost wrote the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1964. The Act would allow for the surveillance of Catholic Churches suspected to be aiding the NPD and other Dogger Terrorist groups. The bill was controversial with many Liberals and criticised by most in the Workers' Party but still passed with support from many Progressive Conservative MPs.

Long Pennace (1964-1971)
On September 23rd, 1966, Reverend Alof VeCinnéide led a large protest in Port Nandels. Kost ordered the police to be as aggressive as possible to "send a message to the Dogger population that violence will not be tolerated". This resulted in the protest turning into a large riot, which many believe began The Long Penance. Over the next month huge riots rocked the nation and on December 24th, NPD members opened fire on police in Kost's home town of Milstan. Kost realized the situation was now out of control. He deployed 7,000 soldiers and assumed emergency powers with the passing of the Emergency Enabling Act. At the funeral of a Police Chief assassinated by the NDP, he told police officers they could take "whatever means necessary" to put down the rebels. The next year he suspended habeas corpus and started arresting any one suspected to be a member of the NDP. In March 1967, he ordered the arrest of Ciaran Mocileanach, who he believed to be the ring leader of The NDP. In response, the NDP set off a bomb at the University of Carabou while Kost was making a speech there. In the lead up to 1968 Kost closed many polling places in Doggish majority areas citing violence there. In the 1968 election Kost won the election with the largest majority in 50 years. In 1969 he started to shut down many Doggish newspapers he believed were too sympathetic to the NPD. He also gained the support of the CIA in his fight against NPD, after telling them that The Doggers wanted to install communism in Doggerland. After the NPD launched an attack at Carlé Abbey Prison, Kost signed the Dogger Safety Act. The act put up military check Points all over Northern Doggerland and it also created a series of work camps for suspected NPD members. The act also created a series of strategic hamlets in the rural parts of Bloca.

Assassination and legacy
In an attempt to rally demoralised troops at Fort Åleselle, Jeroen Kost went on personal visit there. While he was making speech Private VeAnndrais fired 5 shots into Kost's chest. Veanndrais was then fired upon by almost every other officer near him. As Kost was rushed to field hospital where he died 30 minutes later.

His death was used as proof in NPD Propaganda that they could win. Dutch people who were angered by his death began to burn down many nearby Dogger houses and business.

To this day many Doggers see Kost as an almost Hitler-like figure, while many Dutch people see him as man who did what was right to modernise Doggerland and preserve the nation.

Kost has a city square named after him in his hometown of Mistlân, though it is frequently vandalized by Doggish criminal organizations in the city.