Benjamin Von Saxe-Coburg Saalfeld

Benjamin Von Saxe-Coburg Saalfeld was born in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, on Dec 11th 1971.

His cosmopolitan family, whose roots sprung from all over Europe, may have had a grand name that emanated from far-off links to Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, but Benjamin grew up on a housing estate near "Brum".

After attending the local comprehensive school, he left school at 16 with five 'O' levels and moved to Cornwall because he knew "several hot girls" who lived there. He worked for a local newspaper before joining his local constituency Conservative Party at 21.

There, his talent for speech writing was discovered, and he worked for John Major for a short time, and then Ben Lutefield, before standing as a candidate in the 1995 General Election in Cornwall South East. Having won his seat surprisingly easily, Von Saxe-Coburg Saalfeld soon became notorious in the CP as a libertarian with socially very liberal ideas. He therefore fared very poorly under the leadership of Cilla Clarke, and upon the return of William Halifax as Tory leader he was one of the three founder members of the Social Libertarian Alliance, which broke away under former Conservative Shadow Chancellor Rivano Moretti to form their own distinctive political base.

Known as a hard-hitting, acerbic MP whose blunt honesty and charismatic appeals to what he felt were "common-sense" principles, he was well-loved in his constituency, and his questions in the House often covered local matters such as tin-mining, local businesses, the fishing industry and transport issues connected to his adopted home of Cornwall.

As an SLA MP, he held the positions of:

Leader 1996 -

Deputy Leader 1995 - 1996

Party Chairman 1995 -

Spokesman on Transport and the Environment 1995 -