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 coniferous 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 it's 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 thier reality) the Militant Labour MP for Worcester Josiah Colliery District after he had been falsely accused, by (in thier reality) the right wing Conservaive MP for Worcester Newfields, of taking cash for questions on behalf of the Ford Motor Company.
 * 8) Worcestershire and Dudley councils declared UDI on August 1st as a bit of a PR stunt, so as to highlight their plight, but it became so much more...

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 area of the former Seisdon Rural District, Longbridge, Northfield, King's Norton, Hay-on-Wye (Welsh: Y Gelli Gandryll) and the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley.
 * motto =
 * Anthem =
 * capital = Worcester (poulation 111,200)
 * city_largest = Sandwell united urban zone (poulation 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 nationanist republic
 * language =English and some Punjabi (in Dudley) and Welsh (in Hay-on-Wye)
 * currency = Mercian Pound
 * religion = Church of England and some Sikhism
 * HoStitle = President
 * HoSname = Pieter Richard Smith

Constiuent 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

Also see

 * 1) The Tipton incident
 * 2) The battle of Worcestershire
 * 3) The battle of King's Norton
 * 4) The Stourbridge and Pedmore question
 * 5) The battle of Halesowen
 * 6) The battle of Kingswinford
 * 7) The evacuation of Coseley
 * 8) The Federal Press Bureau
 * 9) The Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal restoration project
 * 10) The Dymock and Ledbury Town Halt light railway project