Mercia- UDI 1995

Editorial Guidelines-
 * 1) Check your Grammar! Most users get sick of seeing people making complete wrecks of sentences (yes, I have seen worse than my own my spelling and grammar out there).
 * 2)  Plausibility is a must! No robot space ninjas, Cybermen, Borg, wizards or other supernatural elements.
 * 3) Cannon is king. While adding new details to your article is okay, you can't just place something completely out of whack in your article. If it has been established that Nation A invaded Nation B, you can't say otherwise.
 * 4) See- The 'what's cannon note'!
 * 5) Before making changes to another’s article (besides simple grammar changes, or fixing small errors), ask the owner of the article.
 * 6) Before an article is made into Cannon, it must be approved by a senior editor of the timeline or the creator of the time line.
 * 7)  Have fun!

Overview
The Federal Republic of Greater Herefordshire and Worcestershire (AKA- Herefordshire and Worcestershire, The Federation of Mercia-Morgannwg or The Federal Republic) is a state in the UK that declared UDI during 1995 after several decades of ATL miss-rule and harsh rule by the UK's government. The Federal Republic is in some ways a bit eccentric or traumatised, but is on the whole like OTL version of the region.

It covers the OTL regions of-
 * The Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell,
 * Worcestershire, Herefordshire,
 * The Metropolitan Borough of Dudley,
 * Longbridge,
 * Edgbaston,
 * Northfield,
 * King's Norton,
 * Selly Oak,
 * Pleck,
 * Hamstead in Birmingham,
 * Dymock,
 * Tewkesbury,
 * Knighton in Powys,
 * Chuchstoke in Powys,
 * The western portion of Handsworth, Birmingham
 * Southern Shropshire,
 * Pleck in the English West Midlands
 * Hay-on-Wye (Welsh: Y Gelli Gandryll) in Powys,
 * The south western part of the former Seisdon Rural District,
 * The north of Gwent,
 * The north and center of Glamorgan,
 * Breconshire.

Many job and pay riots also devastated Abertillery, Ebbw Vale, Cwmbrân and Torfaen happened during early 1996. Many turned to the former trades unions and the Anglican Church for help.

After much acrimony and debate Hereford and Worcester council voted on declaring a symbolic week long declaration of UDI starting on August 1st, 1995. They knew the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley agreed with them and would soon join in and that the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell was sure to follow. The Hereford Times and Dudley News had been independently promoting such a protest for the last year or so. Once it was declared the people partied in the streets and Hagley’s BR Station Code was unofficially changed by the rebels from HAG to HGY!

The next day Sandwell joined the rebellion with a unanimous council vote. That night the Croatian ambassador offered his support, shortly followed by his Albanian counterpart. President Franjo Tuđman of Croatia recognized the Federal Republic by a presidential decree on the 3rd of August. The situation was further complicated by the reported left wing riots in Blaenavon and Torfaen. Pieter Smith was concerned that the long term militancy at the Welsh pitheads was going to ruin everything.

The Independent county of Shifnal and Codsall willingly joined the union on March 1st, 1996, as pressure from loyalist forces grew in south Staffordshire.

The Gloucestershire Corridor was arranged for in mid-1999 as a humanitarian link to the outside world.

The 2001 UK’s foot and mouth outbreak also hit Herefordshire and Knighton in Powys badly, as in reality.

According to an official analysis by legal and historical experts New England School of Law's Center for International Law & Policy during the year 2000, "Herefordshire and Worcestershire has a right of self-determination, including the attendant right to independence, according to the criteria recognized under international law." They furthered their case by saying "the principle of self-determination is included in Articles 1, 55, and 73 of the United Nations Charter," and were "codified in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights -which are considered (as in our world) to have constituted the international '" Bill of Rights'" and an overarching law greater than national policies and laws on domestic and internal affairs. They went on to state, "the right to self-determination has also been repeatedly recognized in a series of resolutions adopted by the U.N. General Assembly, the most important of which is Resolution 2625(XXV) of 1970." New England School of Law then recognized the Federal Republic on January 6th, 2001.

There was a new era of glasnost and cross border co-operation between the UK and the federation beginning in 2005. The later détente that survived the floods 2007 lead to the de facto economic and transportation assimilation of the nation later that year.

As of June 2011, Ivan Barbalić and ex-Albanian president Sali Berisha have been negotiation the official separation of Hereford and Worcestershire from the UK. The UK’s Prime Minister, David Cameron had hinted to (according to the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper) Ivan Barbalić that formal recognition would occur in the March of 2012. This was amended when the UK, Turkmenistan and several other nations politically recognised the Federal Republic on January 1st, 2012. The rebel's president, Pieter Richard Smith, is planning not to stand for re-election in 2013 due to ill health.

Historical point of divergence


In this version of the world, the counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire, the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley and the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell became disgruntled and declared UDI from the UK in 1995.

There were 14 major turning points trough out their 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) Angery citizens from Blaenavon handed a petition to the giverment condemming the closure of Blaenavon (Low Level) Railway Station in 1962.
 * 5) An even poor than OTL goverment reponce to the Aberfan of the 21st of October, 1966.
 * 6) The Hereford bull that was led down past (our world’s) Whitehall on 6 April 1972, as part of a protest, in which a petition handed in at 10 Downing Street calling for the preservation of Herefordshire, died of a heart attack as the petition was handed over (in their world).
 * 7) 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). The Welsh Vallys were devistated as in reality, but never forgave the powers that be in this time line.
 * 8) The station master at Hagley station was sacked on May 7th 1985, for officially complaining about the BR 3 letter station code reading "HAG". His counterpart at Sandwell and Dudley then resigned in disgust at both the sacking of the Hagley station master and Sandwell and Dudley's BR 3 letter station code reading "SAD"!
 * 9) A local worker tried to challenge the 1989 closure of the Dudley Freightliner Terminal, which was a major local employer, in the high court.
 * 10) The dreaded Poll Tax was tried out in Worcestershire, The Metropolitan Borough of Dudley and Herefordshire (not Scotland, as in our world) in 1989 due to concerns of a voter backlash, a year before the rest of the UK.
 * 11) 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.
 * 12) 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, Bronwyn Annette Hicks, after she 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.
 * 13) ATL unenployment did reach a all time high of 85% in the poast industrial Blaenavon (Welsh: Blaenafon) during mid 1995.
 * 14) Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Dudley councils symbolically declared UDI on August 1st, 1995, 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 accidently became so much more!...

For more information on the Federal Republic and its timeline


Also see-The Federal Republic of Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

Alternate History


Also see-Alternate History of the Federal Republic of Herefordshire and Worcestershire

Also see

 * 1) Mercia- UDI 1995