Miranda Hamilton

A spinning top must always fall eventually.

Miranda started her career as a spin doctor for the Wigs, working her way up through the ranks, learning how to lock skeletons in closets they could never emerge from. She also discovered the charm needed to succeed in politics, and when to use it. That part always came harder to her.

She wanted the Wigs to succeed, but she knew that the party’s current achievements were built on a foundation of undesirable money. Money from companies influencing government policy, money from foreign governments, money from groups linked to crime and unethical activities. The public couldn’t know. What they didn’t know couldn’t hurt them.

It wasn’t too hard to twist the King’s arm enough to make him shut down parliament at the crucial moment before the Campaign Finance Reform Bill passed. Just for a few weeks, so the bill would die out, the public would be distracted, and Miranda could focus on the next problems in the political circus. It was a shame that the King had to step down, but he was collateral damage.

Miranda’s resignation came soon after her final visit to the Gazette, before the details of their latest meeting had been published. She knew she had incriminated herself. But at least she could go with some dignity.

That dignity was soon stripped from her by a lengthy public inquiry into her wrongdoings. Her contacts were too good – she knew too much – and she couldn’t resist showing off by boasting about her achievements. Illegally obtaining private information about her competitors and leaking it to the press, combined with blackmailing the King into proroguing parliament, landed her a lengthy jail sentence, which she spent writing a memoir. The book was a bestseller, but Miranda Hamilton went down in history as one of the most despised politicians of all time.