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 1984-85 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 symbolically declared UDI on August 1st, 1996, with Sandwell council joining in a day later. It was planed as a bit of a PR stunt, aimed at highlighting their plight, but it axidently became so much more...

2005-2007
There was a new era of glasnost and cross border co-operation between the UK and The Federation. This included the removal of the customs check points on the A491, A456, A449 A-roads and the M5 motorway.

In 2007 the floods at Tewkesbury, Bredon, Evesham and Upton-upon-Severn were (as in reality) the most severe in the towns' recorded history. The townsfolk gratefully collected the supposedly 'unofficial' humanitarian aid that both the British citizens and government had willingly offered them in Federation's hour of need.

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), Bromsgrove (39,644) and Malvern Spa Town (28,749).
 * area =
 * population =
 * regime = A semi-presidential nationalist republic
 * language =English plus some Punjabi (in Dudley), Urdu (in Tipton) 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
 * 10) The Freetown of Tewkesbury

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] and Buddhists also occur in Dudley and Stourbridge.

Literacy and Life expectancy
Literacy in English is 99.5% for both genders.

Literacy in Urdu and Punjabi speakers is at 98.2% for men and 89.4% for women.

Life expectancy is 77 for men and 78 for women of all races.

Economy


The economy relies on 4 sources- Tourism, Agriculture, mining and the limited and sporadic output from both the Longbridge car plant and Wednesburylight industrial estate.

Agriculture
Main agricultural goods include wheat, apples, wool, beer, cider, beef, cattle and sugar beet.

Mining
The coal mine partly reopened in 1998 output varies from 10 to 15% of pre- closure levels depending on demand. The Hey-on-Wye’s Coppermine opened in a nearby hill in 2004 as an unprofitable, but defiant attempt at self-sufficiency. 10.5 tonnes of copper and 100 to 150 short tonnes of coal are produced each year. Some lignite has also been descovered near Pershaw, but it is unvabuley small. The state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. controle all mines in the Federation's territory.

Manufacturing
The sector largely hinges on the Longbridge autoworks and the various products of the light industrial estate at Wednesbury.

Retail
This trade is focused around the shopping areas of Dudley, Dudley port, Merry Hill town, the Merry Hill Shopping Centre, Hagley and Stourbridge.

Banking
There are no significant banks in the nation, but HSBC and Lloyds of London have not closed their branches in the rebel state, unlike most western banks, due to political and fiscal concerns. The rebel state’s Federal State Mint and Federal Treasury Bank Vault are in a south Hereford suburb.

Tourism


Dudley Castel, Dudley Zoo, The Hey-on-Wye Book Festival, Hereford Cathedral and Hereford's Wye Bridge are the nation's leading tourist attractions.

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

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.

Defence
The lightly armed forces consist of 25,000 recruits and 22,000 reservists. Most equipment consists of remaining former British army supplies augmented with some smuggled in Dutch, Croatian, Albanian and on occasion Bosnian Serb weaponry.

The elite airborne Wyvern Corps consist of 160 men, 2 CH-47 Chinook helicopters, 2 BO-105 helicopters, 2 ex-Albanian Shenyang J-6C fighters, 6 UH-1H "Huey" helicopters, 2 206 Kiowa helicopters, 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 (in thier reality) 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.

Foreign relations
Relations were tense, but stable and mutualy respectfull with the UK, Ireland and the EU before the period of D é tente of 2006-2010. Things have inproved greatly since.

11 countries have given De jure recognition to Hereford and Worcestershire. 3 countries have given De facto recognition to Hereford and Worcestershire. 2 country is negotiating moving De facto to De recognition to Hereford and Worcestershire.
 * 1) The DRC
 * 2) The CAR
 * 3) The R of Congo
 * 4) Zimbabwe
 * 5) The TNC
 * 6) Albania
 * 7) Croatia
 * 8) The Netherlands
 * 9) Serpska
 * 10) Serbia
 * 11) Haiti
 * 1) Cuba
 * 2) North Korea
 * 3) East Timor
 * 1) Venezuela
 * 2) Thailand

Transport
Many major roads and motorways cross the region including the A491, A456, A449 A-roads and the M5 motorway.

There is also a complex network of bus routes that are both interurban and local in nature. Astons Coaches, DRM Coaches, Diamond Bus provide an intermittent service on these routes since there are frequent legal procedures to go through at the Anglo-Federal border.

There is a major railway network and include the-
 * 1) Stourbridge Town Branch Lineline
 * 2) Welsh Marches Line
 * 3) Hereford-Dorridge Line
 * 4) Birmingham-Worcester via Kidderminster Line
 * 5) Cotswold Line

Malvern Link railway station was closed between May 5th 1997 and May 8th 1998 due to heavy damage caused by arsonists.

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
 * 3) The Brettell Lane railway station 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.

Droitwich Spa (AKA- Droitwich) is situated on massive deposits of salt that has been extracted there since at least Roman times. The naturally occurring Droitwich brine contains 2½ lbs. of salt per gallon (roughly 10 times stronger than sea water and similar to that of the Dead Sea). Resent small scale salt mining has caused a sharp rise in the salinity of the local River Salwarpe since 2004.

The local beauty spot and national park is situated in the sub-urban Wyre Forest. The River Wye at and around Hey on Wye was also decreed to be a national park and local beauty spot in 2002.

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.
 * Dudley Town F.C.
 * Dudley Sports 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 are the nation's 2 Rugby Union teams.

Cricket
The Worcestershire County Cricket Club and Herefordshire County Cricket Club are the national cricket teams.

Also see

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