Mercia- UDI 1995

Historical divergence


In this world the counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley declared UDI from the UK in 1996.

There were 8 major turning points in history which don't go as in our realty.


 * 1) A large mass of Carboniferous and Upper Carboniferous era trees grew in a valley, which was later to be home to Worcester several billion years later. They died, rotted and became anthracite coal.
 * 2) Josiah Steven Ball opened a minor coal mine in 1820 by the then town of Worcester.
 * 3) Worcester became rather politically left wing after about 1900 and saw its population grow by about 15%-20% more than it our time line.
 * 4) Josiah's pit was closed in the run up to the 1984-5 miners’ strike (which ran pretty much was the same as in our reality).
 * 5) The dreaded Poll Tax was tried out in Worcestershire, The Metropolitan Borough of Dudley and Herefordshire (not Scotland) in 1989 due to concerns of a voter backlash, a year before the rest of the UK.
 * 6) A statue dedicated to the local Composer Sir Edward Elgar was destroyed in the 1990 Worcester Poll Tax Riot, 6 weeks after the notorious London Poll Tax Riot of our reality.
 * 7) The 1994-1996 Neil Hammitlon v. Mohamed Al-Fayed's cash for questions' scandal had also (wrongly) embroiled (in their reality) the Militant Labour MP for Worcester Josiah Colliery District after he had been falsely accused, by (in their reality) the right wing Conservative MP for Worcester Newfields, of taking cash for questions on behalf of the Ford Motor Company.
 * 8) Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Dudley councils declared UDI on August 1st, 1996, as a bit of a PR stunt, so as to highlight their plight, but it became so much more...

2005-2007
There was a new era of glasnost and co-operation between the UK and The Federation. This included the removal of the border check points on the A491 and A456 motorways.

In 2007 the floods at Evesham and Upton-upon-Severn were the most severe in the towns  recorded history.

Federal Stats




Stats

 * name = The Federal Republic of Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
 * name_short = Hereford and Worcester.
 * Timeline = Worcestershire- UDI 1996
 * otl = The Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, Longbridge, Northfield, King's Norton, Hay-on-Wye (Welsh: Y Gelli Gandryll) and the south western part of the former Seisdon Rural District.
 * motto =
 * Anthem =
 * capital = Worcester (population 111,200)
 * city_largest = Sandwell united urban zone (population 289,100)
 * city_other = Dudley (194,919), Redditch (79,216), Hereford (55,800), Stourbridge (55,418), Kidderminster (55,348), Halesowen (55,273) and Bromsgrove (39,644).
 * area =
 * population =
 * regime = A semi-presidential nationalist republic
 * language =English plus some Punjabi (in Dudley) and Welsh (in Hay-on-Wye).
 * currency = Mercian Pound
 * religion = Church of England, Secular Humanism and some Sikhism (in Dudley)
 * HoStitle = President
 * HoSname = Pieter Richard Smith

Constituent federal districts

 * 1) Seisdon sovereign Rural District
 * 2) The Metropolitan Republic of Sandwell
 * 3) The Independent county of Worcestershire
 * 4) The Independent county of Herefordshire
 * 5) The City state of Longbridge, Northfield and King's Norton
 * 6) The Metropolitan Republic of Dudley
 * 7) The Metropolitan Republic Stourbridge and Pedmore
 * 8) The Metropolitan Republic Halesowen
 * 9) The Freetown of Hay-on-Wye

Defence
The lightly armed forces consist of 25,000 recruits and 22,000 reservists. Most equipment consists of former British army supplies or smuggled in Dutch, Croatian and Bosnian Serb weaponry.

The elite airborne Wyvern Corps consist of 160 men, 2 CH-47 Chinooks, 2 BO 105, 6 UH-1H ‘Huey, 2 206 Kiowa, 2 Sea King helicopters. Training was given to volunteers by 5 renegade SAS members, who are now the Wyvern Corps’ leaders.

National politics
The Federal President is elected every 4 years. The Federal General Assembly is elected every 4 years and uses the former Westminster constancies.

Local politics
Town and parish councils were merged in to the unitary county councils and are elected every 5 years.

Voting system
The elections use the first past the post system and is open to nationals over the age of 17.

Religion
58% adhere to the Church of England [Christianity], 25% are Secular Humanist non-beavers, 9% follow Sikhism (mostly in Dudley), 3% believe in Roman Catholic [Christianity], 2% are in [Hindus] (mostly in Dudley), 2% are followers of [Islam] (primarily in Tipton) and 1% are deists.Small numbers of [Rastafarians] also occur in Dudley and Stourbridge.

Energy
The principal power sources are small oil fired power station near Hereford and 7 wind turbines near Leominster and Worcester. Most people do not have a reliable supply and domestic power cuts are common place due to power shortages.

Transport
Many major roads and motorways cross the region including the A491 and A456 motorways.

There is also a complex network of bus routes that are both interurban and local in nature.

Tourism and some light freight use the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, the Dudley No. 1 Canal and Stourbridge Canal.


 * 1) The Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal restoration project
 * 2) The Dymock and Ledbury Town Halt light railway project

Green issues
The high nitrate, ammonia and lead levels in the River Stour are the leading rural environmental concern. The heavy air pollution that is primary created by motor vehicles is of most concern in Urban Wednesbury and Dudley Port. These issues were being addressed as of 2010, but not much has happened since due to the global economic crisis.

The local beauty spot and national park is situated in the sub-urban Wyre Forest.

Media
The local radio stations are Wyvern FM which broadcasted on 97.6FM, Smooth Radio on 105.7 FM and Sunshine Radio 106.2 FM and 954 kHz Am are the 3 privately run national radio stations. The Federal Press Bureau took over the non-evacuated assets and studios of the defunct BBC Radio Hereford and Worcester which started rebroadcasting in the November of 1998 on its old frequency of 94.7FM.

The Worcester News, the Stourbridge, Stourbridge Chronicle, Express & Star, Dudley News, and the Black Country Bugle, and The Hereford Times are the 7 privately held national weekly newspapers.

The Federal Press Bureau also censor out most of the news that is even mildly critical of the president and the Federal General Assembly out of the national media.

Football
The leading football clubs are-
 * Hereford United Football Club
 * Worcester City F.C.
 * Stourbridge F.C.

Horse racing
Hereford Racecourse is a traditional National Hunt and continued to be used a such after 2000, despite of a 2002 British government complaint to the Jockey’s' Association over the matter.

Rugby
the Worcester Warriors and Stourbridge Rugby Club Stourbridge Rugby Club are the nation's 2 Rugby Union teams.

Cricket
The Worcestershire County Cricket Club is the national cricket team.

Also see

 * 1) The evacuation of Coseley
 * 2) The Stourbridge and Pedmore question
 * 3) The Tipton incident
 * 4) The battle of Worcestershire
 * 5) The battle of King's Norton
 * 6) The battle of Northfield
 * 7) The battle of Halesowen
 * 8) The battle of Kingswinford