Great Britain

The United Kingdom

Population: 66,203,000 (approx)
Area: 242,900 sq. km.
GDP: $2,302 Billion

Prime Minister: Elizabeth White (Labour)
Leader of the Opposition: Paul Harding (Conservative)
Head of MI5: Alison Pertwee
Head of MI6: Gavin Buckminster-Taylor
Monarch: King William V

Overview

Despite being one of the smallest 'first world' countries, the United Kingdom is still a powerful force in world politics. It's one of the world's most globalised countries; London is a major financial centre for international business and commerce, the largest financial centre in the world even after the financial crash of the late '00s. Modern British culture has more in common with America than with Europe, a fact exploited by the previous Conservative government when it called a referendum and withdrew the country from the European Union.

Politics

Interestingly, one of the first acts of the new Conservative government in 2010 was to introduce legislation to control the banking sector and increase business taxes. This came as a great surprise from a Conservative government - but even more surprising was the lack of negative effects on British finance. Despite warnings from economists, very few companies abandoned Britain for more tax-friendly countries or failed from a higher tax burden. If anything British business grew. As to why this is, that remains a mystery. But despite their successes in dealing with the banking crisis of the late '00s, they were forced out after only one term by Labour after the failure of their 2015 'Britain For The British' campaign.

New Prime Minister Elizabeth White is well known for her more moderate policies toward Europe, aiming to work more closely with the European Federation rather than joining it. Relations between the two states are thawing, and it looks likely that Britain and the E.F. are becoming closer. Ms White has also expressed her interest in maintaining Britain's 'Special Relationship' with the U.S, although she is always quick to make it clear that Britain is a country in its own right, unwilling to be subsumed.

Business

However, despite a more xenophobic foreign policy the UK is still heavily involved in international finance and business. Almost all major international corporations have offices in Britain and even rising international tensions do little to affect the business of most of them. High-tech industry in particular strong in modern Britain, helped greatly by a number of infrastructure modernisation projects.

The Turning Point

Surprisingly, one of the precipitating events of the UK's focus on high-tech industry was the 2012 Olympic Bombings. Instead of targeting the Olympics (where security was extremely tight) the terrorists instead destroyed power lines and substations across London in surgical strikes. The sudden power imbalance across the National Grid caused a knock-on effect that took left London and many nearby areas without power for over a day. The death toll was over 5,000 people. The country as a whole was shocked by this, and subsequently the government drew up plans to modernise the UK infrastructure - electrical supply, water, communications and more. The south-west particularly benefitted from these improvement programs, although many suspect that this is to support GCHQ's growing Cornwall site.

However, the government also instituted emergency powers to deal with the terrorist threat - increased surveillance, CCTV, stop-and-search powers for the police, military presence around critical infrastructure sites and more. These were billed as temporary measures, but there has been no sign of their being repealed any time soon. Funding for GCHQ and MI5 continue to increase and the new Labour government looks to increase these further. Many citizens are willing to ignore the increase in governmental powers since the country's economy is booming, but privacy and civil liberties groups are growing increasingly loud in their condemnation of the government.

The Monarchy

The Royal Family have had a resurgence in popularity. After the assassination of Queen Elizabeth II in 2013 the country rallied around the new King William (Prince Charles having refused the succession), joining him in mourning for his grandmother. His daughter Elizabeth (born to HRH Beatrice in 2012) has been kept away from the public eye; very few pictures of her are available, and the security around the Castle of Mey where Elizabeth is said to live is higher than that around the House of Commons.

The Republic of Ireland

Population: 10,571,000 (approx)
Area: 70,273 sq. km.

Since 2017, Ireland has been part of the European Federation.

great_britain.txt · Last modified: 2009/10/07 08:58 by helen
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