Great Britain
Great Britain | |
|---|---|
 Flag | |
| Anthem: "God Save the King" | |
| Status | Country |
| Capital | Manchester 53°28′44″N 2°14′43″W / 53.4790°N 2.2452°W |
| Largest city | Birmingham |
| National language | English, BSL |
| Regional languages | Cornish |
| Demonym | British |
| Government | Direct rule by the British Government within a parliamentary constitutional corporatocracy |
| Currency | UNIT (U€) (UNT) |
| Time zone | UTC+0 (UTC) |
| Date format | dd/mm/yyyy |
| Calling code | +44 |
| Internet TLD | .gb |
Great Britain is a country in Northwest Europe, representing the post-balkanisation remnants of the United Kingdom after the secession of Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, and much of South and West England. Its central administrative apparatus is located in Manchester. With its democratic process long compromised by corporate influence, the country is effectively an authoritarian corporation state.
History
Balkanisation
Between 2030 and 2033, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales seceded from the United Kingdom in the Independence Wars, a series of conflicts triggered by the UK's rejection of Scotland's declaration of independence. The calls for independence originated from the increasing corporate power and corruption in the British government, which had effectively turned the country into a de facto corporatocracy. In 2052, a similar insurrection took place in London, which resulted in the entire city, as well as much of South and West England, gaining independence as the Thames Republic. During the gap between the two conflicts, a referendum was held and passed that officially dissolved the union and renamed the country to Great Britain.
Because of the aggressive balkanisation, Parliament was forced to relocate to Manchester. Much of the UK's government apparatus was thrown into disarray, and the remaining parts that had not already been contracted out to corporations were then handed over. The Ministry of Defence and British Armed Forces as a whole were subsumed by the Helios Private Military Corps, while many other departments were either dissolved or consolidated.
Transport
British Rail operates the majority of Great Britain's rail network, apart from some networks within the corporate territories which are devolved, respectively, to the relevant corporations. For legacy reasons, the ticketing system remains fully paper-based, which is criticised by many as being wasteful and a technology stuck in the past. Identification documents are required to book train journeys, which reflects the heavily authoritarian nature of the transport system.
Internet
The internet in Great Britain is subject to heavy censorship by member corporation states in order to suppress dissent, and is split up into several networks for each one of its autonomous regions, each with differing restrictions. Metatron stands out as one corporation not to place extensive restrictions on its employees, allowing a degree of freer access to the scientific community. Lesser constraints exist in the British Capital Territory, but it is still heavily surveilled by the controlling corporations. Most types of encryption are banned, and where it is allowed, government key escrow is mandatory.
Because of this, the hacker subculture has given rise to underground networks such as the TeleNet in order to circumvent surveillance. Once such network maintains a link through forgotten telecommunications infrastructure, crossing the border to the Thames Republic, which is highly illegal. But despite the corporations' distaste for these activities, they are incredibly hard to suppress due to their decentralised nature and budgetary limitations.