Britain: 2300AD

United Kingdom of Great Britain

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Britain: 2300AD

Design and Development: D Hebditch

Britain:2300AD draws upon a number of other works including the published 2300AD canon. Background for the ‘Firefly Factor’ is taken from

David Nilson’s Three Blind Mice. Front image is from the BBC.HMS Camperdown is by Laurent Esmiol other images are generated by the

author or modified from Google commons or Wikipedia entries.

Thanks also to David Gillon and to all members of the Etranger group through the years.

Version 1.2 Copyright © 2010 D Hebditch, All rights reserved

The 2300 AD game in all forms is owned by Far Future Enterprises. Copyright 1986 - 2010 Far Future Enterprises. 2300 AD is aregistered trademark of Far Future Enterprises. Far Future permits web sites and fanzines for this game, provided it contains thisnotice, that Far Future is notified, and subject to a withdrawal of permission on 90 days notice. The contents of this book are for

personal, non-commercial use only. Any use of Far Future Enterprises's copyrighted material or trademarks anywhere on thisweb site and its files should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights or trademarks.

etranger

Contents

Introduction 7

History 8

Government and politics 10

Geography 15

Demography 20

Economy and Infrastructure 23

Culture 27

Director Resources 36

Design Notes 45

Special BranchDetective Sergeant Wilkinson threaded his way across the heavy traffic on York Road outside Waterloostation, trying hard to keep ‘eyes on’ the two suspects who were walking fast to the south. The two menwere hard to track, one white Brit and the other a fairly non-descript Asian of Uyghur descent, both weredressed entirely normally for their age and were blending into the early evening foot traffic. Wilkinson wouldnormally be talking into the comm but for this operation they’d been warned that the suspects had somesophisticated technical counter-surveillance measures. As a result the Special Branch were having to dothings the old fashioned way with passive means and guys on the ground. The only emissions he wasmaking came from his standard civilian issue comm logging into the Data Net, indistinguishable from thatof almost every person around him.

Wilkinson looked up at the cameras dotted up and down the street, using them the Metropolitan Policecould usually keep track of any suspect across 80% of central London. The target cell however had alreadyshown its capabilities to penetrate the standard Met data nets and put ‘ghosts’ into position to cover theiractivities. They’d perfected the technique during a number of seemingly random attacks on party-goers inthe East End, and then used it in a pair of targeted assassinations of anti-Provolution figures. It had beenan embarrassment for the Met and the Home Secretary was insistent that is wasn’t to happen again.

The suspects turned right onto Westminster Bridge Road, heading west towards the Houses of Parliament.Wilkinson followed, risking a glance into the sky where he hoped the covering surveillance drones weresteadily circling. The iconic shape of Big Ben rose in front of them from the gothic walls of Parliament; theancient clock had survived the Blitz and the Twilight and was still steadily ticking away.

‘SFU One at mobile stand to,’ breathed a voice tinny with heavy encryption through the comm link.Wilkinson tensed a bit more knowing the Special Firearms Unit team was within a close rush of thesuspects, already hidden in some backstreets in non-descript delivery and courier vans. ‘Alert. Trans-IndiCorporation CEO due to arrive for meeting with ministers in next five minutes. Possible target for Papa Oneand Two.’ Trans-Indi was heavily involved in the Chinese Arm and was high on Provolution’s list ofopponents. ‘Protection Group moving to alert status.’ Wilkinson swore, hoping that any movement by thepolice at Parliament wouldn’t spook the suspects. Across London dozens of police were preparing toconduct a simultaneous take-down of the Provolution cell, hoping to sweep the group up in one go andavoid the possibility of a ‘dead man switch’ response. They just needed to catch these two in action orirrefutably about to commit a crime before they could launch. He barely noticed the boats and hovercraftracing along the Thames and underneath the bridge, concentrating hard on the two men in front of him andmaintaining his tradecraft.

Then the two stopped, paused a second then turned. ‘Papa One and Two now heading east, potentialabort.’ The two men walked towards Wilkinson, who stared through them, seemingly absorbed in cuttingthrough the crowd of workers heading home or to the pub.

They were five metres from him when Papa Two’s head exploded and Papa One whirled around with halfhis right arm missing. To their left an elegantly dressed girl was covered in blood and crumpled to theground. Papa One, the Asian straightened up in surprise, while on the ground Papa Two jerked andtwitched as blood flooded out of his ruined head. People around him began to scream and scatter, andcars squealed to a halt as Wilkinson locked eyes with the young Uyghur. Papa One jerked twice more andhit the ground, leaving Wilkinson the only person in ten meters of the bodies still on his feet.

‘Papa One and Two are down! Did anyone fire?’ Wilkinson turned and looked south from where the bulletsmust have come, the tall buildings of St Thomas’ Hospital catching his eye. He thumbed his comm andknelt down to feel for a pulse on Papa One. ‘It wasn’t us. Someone’s beaten us to the punch. Probably twofirers’. The man was dead. Sirens began to wail as police vehicles began to push through the traffic anddismounted plain clothes officers ran in. Wilkinson could see the headlines now, two men sniped within twohundred metres of Parliament. Now someone had to make the call to sweep up the rest of the cell beforethey scattered. What the hell was going on here?

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Britain:2300ADBritain

United Kingdom of Great Britain

Introduction

The United Kingdom of Great Britain, also known as Britain or incorrectly asEngland, occupies a group of islands of the north-west coast of Europe. It alsohas a number of other territorial possessions on Earth as well as four majoroff-world colonies. While relative small in terms of population and land size Britainhas had a great influence on the development of the modern world through itshistory.

Britain remains one of the two major ‘peripheral’ powers, alongside Russia, inEuropean affairs and is one of the three current main European powers. Britainhas often been an innovator; in technology, government, society and exploration,but has also been a conservative state favouring the status quo, balance of powerand countering those that it perceive threaten the stability of Europe. British selfimage is built upon its historical opposition of Napoleon’s France, the Kaiser’s andHitler’s Germany and the Soviets as well as its championing of trade and globallinks.

In 2300AD Britain has enjoyed a relatively long period of stability and prosperitysince the catastrophes of WWIII. Britain has expanded into the stars and estab-lished a network of settlements and colonies on the French Arm that have fed theexpansion of the home economy, while also developing their own distinct identi-ties. On Earth Britain has worked hard to cement a group of cooperative alliancesto promote trade and stability, including a close relationship with France and thelong running Commonwealth of Nations which builds on centuries old links. Theconflict between France and Germany however has caused significant tensionswithin Britain’s foreign policy in Europe.

For outsiders Britain remains a nation of contrasts. Traditions, including theMonarchy, remain strong parts of British society which is often seen as stuffy andformal, while British popular culture remains vital and cutting edge. British univer-sities invest strongly in cutting edge technologies, while companies still have astrong presence in space mining while most Britons continue to fanaticallysupport their football teams and enjoy a pint in their local pub at the end of theworking day. The British also retain their tradition of overseas and off world traveland exploration and pride in their colonies.

Britain in 2300AD is coming to terms with the twin challenges of the dramaticchange in the European status quo and the Kafer incursions into the French Armwhich threatens its colonies. Britain has a strong economy and industry thatmatches those of France and Germany in Europe, although it is less militarisedthan those two states and is less influential diplomatically than its more aggres-sive allies.

BRITISH STATISTICS

(From Earth/CyberpunkSourcebook p.49)

Britain runs a close racewith Germany in terms ofeconomic and politicalpower in 2300.

Population: 111,644,000(83% urban, 17% rural)Literacy 99%College Education: 98%Life Expectancy: 93 0male, 97.7 female

Largest Cities:Thames/BirminghamMetroplex (26,740,000),Leeds (7,832,000), Edin-burgh (3,975,000)

Industrial Capacity: 11Rudell UnitsMineral Production: 13%,net importer of minerals(mostly from extraterres-trial colonies)Power Production: 69%(92% solar, 3% atomic,5% mineral), net importerof power

Principal Trading Part-ners: France, extraterres-trial colonies, America,Germany, Japan

The United Kingdom (from Earth/Cyberpunk Sourcebook p.49):

Britain (often called the United Kingdom) was hit hard by the Twilight War. Two things enabledBritain to recover the indomitable spirit of the British people, and the personal example of KingCharles, who survived the war and served as a rallying point for the nation during its darkest hour.

Britain would never again know the world status it had held during the 19th century, but itremained a major European power and stood in uncontested second place on the continent untilthe formation of the Scandinavian Union. Income from trade with its interstellar possessions,along with a continued emphasis on scientific research, has ensured that the British economyremains strong, and British technological expertise is still in demand.

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Britain:2300ADHistory

The modern British state evolved out of the union of English, Welsh, Scottish andIrish states under a single political system and constitutional monarchy throughto 1900. This was underpinned by Britain’s strong trading networks and eventualEmpire which then slowly declined helped by the crippling costs of the 20thCentury’s 3 World Wars and the inexorable rise of larger and ultimately strongernations such as the United States, the Soviet Union and the French Union.

Ireland regained its independence over the course of 100 years of struggle,political wrangling and eventual reconciliation of the Protestant minority of Ulsterafter WW3. The years after WW3 were also difficult ones for the devastatedBritish Isles but by 2050 the nation was back on its feet, although the centre ofthe nation had temporarily moved to the North East of England which had bestsurvived the troubles.

British politics in the 21st Century were dominated by a more decentralisedapproach caused by the devastation of London power centres and the rise ofstrong regional political groups. These were united under the auspices of theCrown which retained the support of the small but effective Armed Forces.Diplomatically the British strongly supported the emerging ‘French Peace’ andcommitted British troops to numerous police, peacekeeping and warfightingactions over the course of a century and a half starting with the Saudi War. TheFrench Peace bought time and opportunity for Britain’s economy and tradingnetwork to regain its strength and rebuild a fractured society, a process that hadbeen completed by the end of the 21st Century.

Thanks in large part to its partnership with Canada across the North Atlantic,Britain once again began to boom on the back of its exploitation of Canadian andGreenland minerals and the revitalisation of highly modern British industry. Thefirst decades of the 2100s saw Britain become a major driver in the economy ofthe Atlantic and Northern European economies and once again British tradingmanufactures became much sought after around the globe, to the chagrin ofFrench rivals. On the back this revival Britain began to expand her economyfurther a field with initially the exploitation of Antarctic territories and then a moveinto extensive mining of the solar system on the back of her membership of theEuropean Space Agency.

The discovery of the Jerome stutterwarp drive that opened up interstellar travelalso swiftly became a major benefit for the British. Although humbled with the restof the ESA in the Alpha Centauri War the nation was able to swiftly opencolonisation and further expand her mining and investment on new worlds and innew systems. The new colonies established on Tirane began to pay a rapidreturn and were a popular destination for emigration for British and Common-wealth citizens. The British were a strong player within ESA, contributing especial-ly to the exploration effort along the French Arm, but also into the other reachesof space. This expansion coincided with the reign of Queen Alice and became tobe regarded as a new golden age for the British. This period saw the establish-ment of colonies on Beowulf, Beta Canum and Crater. British colonisation wasmuch more conservative than that of France or especially Bavaria but hasresulted in stable and prosperous colonies.

At home the economy boomed resulting in an enriched middle class, whilepopulation growth was very strong in spite of the emigration of so many Britonsoff-world. However the steady decay of the French Peace brought instability tothe world, shown especially with the outbreak of the Rio Plato Wars in SouthAmerica which also caused Britain to increase its defences in its South Atlanticand Antarctic territories and the trade routes from them. British rivalry withArgentina, stoked by several conflicts, was ratcheted up further during this period

THE BLOODYTWENTIETH

The 20th Century sawthree World Wars whichled to the deaths ofmillions of Britons and thedecline of Britain from itsImperial glories of the 19th

Century. As Britainrecovered from theTwilight its leaders tookpains to avoid repeatingthose same mistakesbecoming involved in rigidalliances. British supportfor the French Peace wasstrong, but could never betaken completely forgranted, and they couldand did withhold militarysupport on severaloccasions.

In the place of formalalliances bilateral andmultilateral relationshipswere formed with likeminded states. Britishforeign policy once againlargely focused on theneed to maintain thebalance of power, andconcentrate on trade andeconomic prosperity.

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Britain:2300ADand has yet to significantly abate. This increase in military expenditure alsocoincided with a drop in economic growth and the end of the ‘Alician Period’.

Off world changes were afoot with the granting of increasing autonomy and thenhome rule to British Tirane which became the new nation of Wellon. As the firstmajor colony to gain political independence there was much debate about thedecline of British power and the possibility of other colonies taking the same route.In fact most Britons in general were relaxed about the new arrangements; Britishpolicy had long been open to colonies gaining their autonomy and wished toavoid the sorts of problems that had led to American independence. UltimatelyWellon would become as successful a nation as Australia, Canada and NewZealand had before it and trade between the states only increased in the yearsthat followed. Of the British colonies in the French Arm, Alicia on Beowulf andNew Africa on Beta Canum were thriving, although the mining colony of Craterwas experiencing political strife and the new model colony of New Cornwalllooked to be stalled. Nevertheless trade and commerce continued to growstrongly, feeding into the British economy.

The gradual loss of stability on Earth was further shown by the devastating seriesof conflicts over three decades from 2264 which ravaged large parts of Indochina,South America, Central Asia and eventually Europe. Britain stayed on the periph-ery of these wars while supporting its Brazilian and French allies, although theFranco-German war saw Britain remaining firmly neutral while protecting its owninterests. These wars disrupted trade networks but stimulated wartime econo-mies and Britain was able to profit by the production of industrial goods andweaponry. There were political factions that pressed for more active intervention,especially in the 3rd Rio Plato and Central Asian Wars but more isolationistcounsel prevailed and Britain sent only token forces.

While these wars caused immeasurable misery, perhaps the greatest shock tothe British people was the overthrow of the French government by the militaryjunta after the Central Asian War. Britain had always supported the French Peaceand for France to abandon centuries of democracy for military rule came as agreat shock. The Reunification of Germany and the subsequent war with Francecame as a further shock as Britain saw its allies tear apart the heart of Europe.The rise of Nicholas Ruffin to the status of Emperor, albeit an elected one, hascompounded Britain’s deep worries about the soundness of French governanceand her role as leader in the international community. This is reflected in thedivision of support for France between Britain’s two main political parties with theConservatives supportive and the Liberals opposed.

The most recent event has been the conflict on the French Arm with the alienKafers. This war has escalated severely and seen Britain’s military thrown onto afull war footing for the first time since the Alpha Centauri War. British warshipswere heavily involved in initial actions and the pivotal Battle of Beowulf which wasled by a British commander. Two British colonies were attacked and occupiedafter significant resistance but subsequently have been liberated and requiresignificant reinvestment. The British government has committed itself heavily tothe war alongside its allies despite the increasing cost. There is a feeling that thestruggle against the Kafers may well become a defining moment for the modernBritish state.

THE GREAT QUEENS

Britain has had a number oflong lived and influentialfemale monarchs. Theseinclude Elizabeth I, Victoria,Elizabeth II and Alice. Eachhas provided long andnotable service to thenation during times ofchange and opportunity,and found a place at theheart of national legend.There are many who arenow wondering if QueenMargaret will also becomeone of these almostlegendary monarchs.

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Britain:2300ADGovernment and politics

Domestic Government

Britain is a constitutional monarchy which has Queen Margaret as its head ofstate. The United Kingdom includes the historical Kingdoms of England andScotland and the Principality of Wales, although these are no longer functioningadministrative subdivisions. Britain also includes a variety of small islands suchas the Channel Islands and Isle of Man which are under the Crown, but notofficially a part of the UK. There are a further array of dependencies and protector-ates such as the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean Territories, Gibraltar, HongKong and the small enclave in Cyprus. The British off world colonies are also apart of Britain although under different administrative arrangements.

While the Queen is the head of state this is largely a ceremonial position whoseprerogatives have been mostly succeeded by those of Parliament. Neverthelessthe monarch retains immense moral authority and holds solid popularity in thecountry, and their interventions have caused major changes of policy on severaloccasions over the past decades. The Queen’s role of Head of the Common-wealth has largely succeeded that of head of state of the various Commonwealthnations, although a few retain a formal linkage.

Britain has three tiers of government; national, regional and local which is thelegacy of reforms in the 2250s. The national (Her Majesty’s) government sits inthe restored Houses of Parliament in London and consists of the House of Lords,and the House of Commons. The Lords is the upper house and consists ofappointed members; usually senior members of society such as politicians,businessmen, clergy or civil servants. It should be noted that hereditary lordshave no automatic right to sit in the Lords but many lobby for the privilege. TheCommons ‘Members of Parliament’ are elected on a proportional representationbasis from the electoral regions. HMG is responsible for the day to day conductof British policy and enactment of legislation.

National government is effectively conducted by a body known as the ‘Cabinet’which is led by the Prime Minister who is the leader of the strongest party in theCommons. The Cabinet also includes the ‘ministers’ who are in charge of theministries, offices and departments that comprise the civil service which convertspolicy into action. The most senior ministers are the Chancellor (finance), HomeSecretary (internal affairs) and Foreign Secretary (external affairs). In addition tothe Cabinet there is also the Privy Council, of which the Cabinet is technically asubcommittee. The Privy Council is nominally chaired by the Queen and inaddition to senior Cabinet members also includes representatives of the coloniesand territories and has a wider remit than that of the Cabinet.

Regional government in Britain has evolved from the fractured nation after WW3and has continued to evolve away from a previously centralised state. Theregions include Highlands, Lowlands, Northumbria, North-West, Mercia, EastAnglia, Wessex, Yorkshire, Wales and the Home Counties. In addition the CrownColonies of Crater and New Cornwall also qualify as regions. The regions havetheir own assemblies and are elected on a first past the post system in individualconstituencies. Regional governments have control over issues appropriate totheir own levels, although some powers have been slowly returning to HMG overthe last two decades in a trend towards centralisation. Local governments includerural and urban councils who are in control of local issues such as roads, rubbishcollection, schools and so forth.

Political Parties

There are three major political parties in Britain; of whom two are currently vyingfor power. The Liberals, a centre-left party, are presently in power although

HOUSES OFPARLIAMENT

The Houses of Parliament,or more correctly thePalace of Westminster, isthe home to both the Houseof Lords and the House ofCommons. Situated on thenorth bank of the Thames inthe Borough ofWestminster it is one of themost recognisablelandmarks in London.

It has been rebuilt severaltimes in its history, after afire in 1834 and mostnotably in 2011 followingthe devastating attacks ofWW3. The building wasrestored in the post-1834Gothic style although onlysome parts of the originalwere retained.

The above ground parts ofthe building are in the oldstyle, however 2/3rds of theworking volume is amodern subterraneanfacility built around the twocourtyard light-wells.

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Britain:2300ADwithout a decisive majority. The right wing Conservatives are in opposition andare gaining support with a variety of populist measures. The left wing Labourparty has suffered over the last 150 years with the increased prosperity of themiddle class and emigration to the colonies of many of their natural supporters.There are several other parties such as Scots and Welsh Nationalists and Greenswho generally have less support than the major parties.

Foreign relations

Britain’s foreign relations are in the hands of the Foreign and CommonwealthOffice (FCO), headed by the Foreign Secretary who is usually a senior memberof the Commons or Lords. British foreign policy is usually one of engagementaimed at increasing stability and trade and support of traditional alliances. TheFCO is also responsible for links with foreign off-world colonies, although there isalso some overlap with the responsibilities of the Colonial Office.

France

The relationship with France has been one of the key drivers of British foreignpolicy over the last 300 years. The French Peace enabled the western world toclimb out of the devastation caused by WWIII by re-establishing trade networksand rebuilding industry and Britain profited from and in turn aided this process.Britain has not always agreed with or supported all of France’s decisions andpolitical relations have often been less than cordial, but in general terms supportfor France has been provided more often than not. There have also been notabledisagreements in the colonial arena, especially on Beowulf.

In recent years however this relationship has started to decay starting withFrance’s involvement in the Central Asian War and subsequent overthrow of the12th Republic by the military. France’s attempted suppression of the ElysianRevolt also drew criticism from many sectors of British society, and the UKremained neutral in the War of German Reunification. The return to democracyin the mid-2290s was welcomed, although the establishment of the 3rd Empirehas caused great debate. The British are still concerned about the lack of stabilityin French politics and the potential for this to spread through the French sphereof influence.

Britain has worked closely with France during the Kafer War. Many warshipscame under French command; while the British led Reserve Fleet had Frenchships attached to it. Cooperation has generally been close although Frenchstrategic goals did not always match those of the British.

Germany

Relations with the German States have generally been good in recent historyalthough most cooperation has been with North Germany and with Bavariathrough ESA. The Reunification of Germany was a divisive issue for Britishpoliticians; most supported the democratic right of the German people to chooseunification but others feared a dramatic change in power structures in Europe andthe colonies. The resulting war between the two states and the humbling ofFrance confirmed that a new power had emerged, although the independence ofBavaria’s huge Tiranean colony meant that France’s position of first amongstequals was not decisively challenged.

Britain has strived to establish good diplomatic and trade relations with the newconfident German state and has generally been successful. British investmentsand trade have continued to thrive although continued Franco-German rivalryhas sometime made this a difficult path to tread. Anglo-German cooperationagainst the Kafers has improved as the war has gone on, notably in the jointsquadron that operated from Grosshiddenhafen and with German troops based

THE ROYAL FAMILY

The Royal Family is a keypart of British political andcultural life. While QueenMargaret has little day today political power she re-mains the Head of Stateand has significant influ-ence behind the scenes. Itis also significant that theArmed Forces swear alle-giance to the Queen andnot to the government ofthe day. In addition to theQueen there are a range ofminor Royals who hold anarray of different titles.

VIVE L’EMPEREUR

The elevation of NicholasRuffin to Emperor of Francehas led to a significantamount of commentary anda little confusion in Britain.Although Britain is amonarchy the election ofEmperor and the re-creation of a formal FrenchEmpire to replace the oldFrench Union is seen asvery strange and asymptom of recent Frenchpolitical instability followingthe fall of the 12th Republicand the military rule of thejunta. Ruffin has visitedBritain on severaloccasions and hasgenerally good relationswith the British elite,although some remaindistinctly wary of hismotives and what directionhe might take the Empire in.

For their part the Frenchpolitical elite are scathingabout Britain’s lack ofreliability as an ally, theirequitable relations withGemany and the continuingcolonial tension on Beowulf.

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Britain:2300ADin New Africa after the fall of their colony on Beta Canum. Germany has lostheavily in the war and British trade and support has not gone unnoticed.

America

Anglo-American relations, based on cultural, economic and historical links ce-mented by the alliance of three world wars, have generally been good. America’slong period of isolationism and post-War decline from its super-power statusmade the relationship between the two nations much more equal. There are asignificant number of citizens from both nations resident in each nation and manyAmericans emigrated to British colonies on Tirane and on the French Arm. Thereis significant mutual investment of capital between the countries and many largecompanies have branches on both sides of the Atlantic.

America’s focus on earth is predominantly focused on its fractious relationshipwith Mexico, which has its parallels in Britain’s long running rivalry with Mexico’sally Argentina. There is also informal agreement on the so called ‘Kostek Doctrine’which has seen Britain concentrate on colonies on the French Arm and Americaand Australia on the American Arm and it is notable that the only ‘foreign’presence on the latter arm is the British outpost at De Villebis. Initial Americanoperations against the Kafers have been mainly coordinated alongside those ofFrance in the Eta Bootis Finger although there has been notable cooperation withthe British, especially utilising the fleet facilities at Queen Alice’s Star.

Europe

A long standing principle of British diplomacy has been to ensure the stability ofEurope and to ensure no single power gains hegemony over it while maintainingtrade routes. Britain has also had a key interest in ensuring the independence ofthe Low Countries, something it has achieved with its long alliance with theNetherlands and recent support of newly independent Flanders. There are alsobeen strong links with the Scandinavian Union and these three nations combinedto introduce and enforce the North Sea Demilitarised Zone during the recentFranco-German conflict. The British are well represented across the continentand are increasingly seen as neutral players in a scene dominated by rivalryacross the Rhine. British relations with Russia are changeable although Britainwas an increasingly large supplier of the Russian military during the Central AsianWar.

Commonwealth

Britain has strong interest in maintaining the influence of the Commonwealth ofNations; a network of former colonies, settlements, protectorates and membersof the old Empire and allies which stretches around the globe and now off-world.The Commonwealth maintains and nurtures economic, sporting, cultural, histori-cal and military links as has been recently shown by the formation of the Common-wealth Expeditionary Force in operation on the French Arm. These links alsoallow access to Britain’s colonies for Commonwealth citizens and businesses.Some commentators see the Commonwealth as a much less formal Anglophoneversion of the French Union/Empire, although the analogy has several significantweaknesses.

Canada is one of the main keystones of the Commonwealth and her partnershipwith Britain has been one of the drivers in both nations achieving their currentprosperity. Ireland rejoined the Commonwealth after unification and its economyis very closely linked to that of its neighbour and no frontier controls exist betweenthe two. Australia and New Zealand are firm, if individualist members, as is tinyTasmania. British links with Azania, linked through both the Commonwealth andESA, have often been shaky in the past due to political differences but aregenerally good. The most recent member of the Commonwealth, and the largest,

THE SPECIALRELATIONSHIP

The ‘special relationship’between an emerging USand a declining Britain wasthe bulwark on which the20th Century three WorldWars were fought on thepart of the West. TheTwilight Balkanisation ofAmerica followed by itssubsequent reconstitution,isolationism and rivalry withMexico has re-cast therelationship to a moreequitable one. In fact the‘Special Relationship’ hasbecome a four waypartnership between theleading Anglophonenations of America, Britain,Canada and Australia.These nations each sharesimilar outlooks andcultures, although haveconcentrated more oncementing trade, economicand cultural relations ratherthan trying to regain pastglories. The new Tiraneannation of Wellon, anotherformer British colony is alsobeginning to cement itsplace in this relationship.America’s re-emergenceonto the global stage withits interventions in theKafer War has been ofgreat interest and seen bymany as a challenge toFrance’s position ofdominance.

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Britain:2300ADis Wellon. Wellon is an enthusiastic member of the Commonwealth, with apopulation who can trace their ancestry from every one of its members, and ischanging the focus of the organisation to an interstellar one.

Earth

Britain has important interests in its South Atlantic territories which stretch fromthe Falkland Islands into Antarctica. This has brought it into repeated conflict withArgentina which regards this as its sphere of interest and the Falkland Islands inparticular to be its territory. As a result a ‘cold war’ exists in the area with tensionsconstantly high between naval and air units and Antarctic patrols. Britain main-tains a strong military presence in the region, although conversely trade hasnever really ceased between the two nations. Sporting events, especially infootball and rugby, are particularly hard fought. As a counterpoint to the rivalrywith Argentina links have been built up with Brazil with notable levels of militarycooperation.

Britain has relatively few interests in Africa which is dominated by France, Azania,Nigeria and the UAR, although it has significant investments in both Nigeria andAzania. The British are somewhat more active in the Middle East with close linkswith Palestine and economic interests in Iran. The Indian sub-continent remainsa constant sore for the international community and Britain is involved in theperennial peace efforts and has strong interests in Bombay. Relations withIndonesia have often been strained, especially following that nation’s incorpora-tion of Malaysia and Singapore. Britain has mixed relations with the ChineseStates but trades strongly with Canton and Manchuria. There exists strongmutual respect between Britain and Japan.

Off-World

Britain’s off world interests are many and can roughly divided into trade, miningand colonies. Britain has a strong trading fleet which plies all of the colonial armsalthough it is concentrated on the more heavily developed French Arm. As aresult small British diplomatic and trade missions can be found scattered acrosshuman space and in times of tension ships of the Royal Space Navy are ofteninvolved in escort missions. Britain has long been a leader in the in-systemmining field, although it has recently been eclipsed by other nations, but still hasmajor investments in dozens of systems that produce vital minerals and feed itsmerchant fleet.

Britain’s colonial interests are concentrated on Beowulf, Beta Canum, Crater, Joiand with a continued presence on Tirane. Britain follows a familiar policy ofstability, growth and trade although this is sometimes not the case with localauthorities. The almost autonomous colony of Alicia on Beowulf has had a longand sometimes violent history of confrontation over border resources with itsFrench neighbour for example, while New Africa on Beta Canum has had to copewith increased tensions between its French and German neighbours. In additionto these colonies the UK usually has a diplomatic presence in the colonies of itsESA allies.

WELLON

The Commonwealth ofWellon is the former Britishcolony on Tirane. It wasBritain’s first off-worldcolony formed after theAlpha Centauri War and itdeveloped rapidly with ahuge influx of Englishspeaking colonists andcapital. As the colony grewit began to demand, andwas granted, additionallevels of autonomy until itbecame a fully self-governing nation in 2271.Relations between Wellonand Britain are very strongwith trade, economic,military and cultural linksunbroken. Wellon hascommitted large numbersof troops and money to thewar against the Kafersalongside Britain, and theiractions are further definingWellon as a nation. Wellonnow has almost double thepopulation of Britain and isbecoming increasinglyinfluential on theinternational stage andmay yet surpass Britain inthe 24th Century asAmerica did in the 20th.

COLD WAR

Anglo-Argentine tensionsover the fate of the FalklandIslands have becomethoroughly toxic over thelast 400 years and anumber of armed clasheshave occurred. Thissituation has not beenhelped by Britain's strongsupport of Brazil in the RioPlato conflicts. Today theBritish maintain a majornaval force in the SouthAtlantic and have fortifiedthe Falkland Islands.Argentina's military isfocused primarily on itsthreat to the north, but hasa significant force heldready against the British. Inthe Antarctic territorialconfrontations and disputesare common betweenBritish and Argentinemilitaries protectingscientists and miners.Every year casualties occuron the ice, while outsidershope this won't erupt intoan all-out war further de-stabilising the region.

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Britain:2300ADArmed Forces

The British military is one that has a long history with proud traditions of serviceand remains an all volunteer force. The Royal Navy is the ‘Senior Service’ andhas long been the guarantor of the security of the British Isles, while it hasdeclined from its pre-eminent position of the mid-2150s it is still one of the mostpowerful fleets on Earth. Today the RN is effectively divided between service inhome waters and maintaining a strong presence in the South Atlantic.

The British Army has long been the poor cousin of the navy, usually fillingexpeditionary or peripheral roles or acting as a colonial gendarmerie. The situa-tion is the same today with the regular army’s divisions assigned to overseasroles in support of European or South American allies with other forces deployedin the colonies. The home defence role is mainly left to volunteer reserveformations and regular units stationed in the British Isles.

The Royal Air Force is responsible for the aerial protection of the British Isles,strategic force projection, land based support to the RN and Army and transport.It has a relatively small force of tactical fighters which in time of war would bereinforced by aircraft from the RN’s Fleet Air Arm. Finally the Royal Space Navy,supported by its auxiliary services, provides Britain’s military presence in space.There are also armed forces raised by overseas territories and off-world coloniesthat contribute to Britain’s military power.

Britain has most recently been heavily engaged against the Kafers with the RSNand the Army being most heavily committed with support from the RN and itsRoyal Marines and the RAF. Colonial armed forces have also been in action,most notably in New Africa, and these look likely to be significantly expanded andenhanced.

Military service in the UK is conducted on a volunteer basis, whether as a full-timeregular or part-time reservist. Recruitment is open to any British citizen, or anyCommonwealth citizen, or from Nepalese Gurkhas. As a result the British militaryis a fairly cosmopolitan organisation with around 10% of its members bornoutside of the British Isles. Wellon is the largest contributor with over 5% born inthat nation.

HOUSEHOLD TROOPS

The Household Troopswere originally theMonarch’s personalbodyguard and retain closelinks with the Royal Family.Today they fill bothoperational and ceremonialroles with a number of unitshaving been in actionagainst the Kafers on theFrench Arm. They remainfamous for their ceremonialduties and uniforms whichcan be seen regularly atevents such as Troopingthe Colour and theChanging of the Guardwhich draw huge crowds oftourists.

There are both cavalry andinfantry elements totallingseven units, giving rise tothe motto ‘Septem Juncta InUno’. This includes the LifeGuards, the Royal HorseGuards and the Grenadier,Coldstream, Scots, Irishand Welsh Guardsregiments each of a numberof battalions. Membership issocially prestigious forofficers and these unitshave a strong reputation fordiscipline and smartness.There are severalCommonwealth units whichare also affiliated to units ofthe Household andsometimes performceremonial functions inLondon.

Impact of the Kafer War

Britain’s Armed Forces have not had to fight in a war of national survival forcenturies. The conflicts they have fought in have been either ‘small wars’,colonial troubleshooting, or as small contingents supporting key allies. Aperiod of modernisation was undertaken following the Central Asian War andthe Franco-German War, but the forces were rather unprepared for thedemands of the Kafer invasion of the French Arm. Since the initial attacks theBritish formed the Commonwealth Expeditionary Forces and worked hard tobring in allies and create a functioning logistics and command structure. Withthe defeat of the Kafers great efforts are being made to train increasingnumbers of colonial troops to defend against any further Kafer assaults.

Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm recruitment poster.

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Britain:2300ADGeography

Physical Geography

Britain is an island located to the north west of continental Europe between theNorth Sea and the Atlantic and is part of the British Isles along with Ireland andseveral thousand smaller islands. Britain has some 230 000 km2 of land area intotal. In general Britain is predominantly composed of lowlands, moors and rollinghills in the southern regions with significant areas of hills in Wales, NorthernEngland and the Scottish Highlands.

Britain is heavily urbanised with some 83% of the population living in towns andcities. These urban areas are notably high density when compared with othercities in America although are fairly standard for northern Europe. The countryhas very well preserved rural areas including farm land and a substantial area ofnational parkland. Britain, as befits a maritime nation, has numerous excellentharbours and ports.

The UK has numerous rivers although these rarely form major obstacles exceptat estuaries, while wetlands and fens are predominant only in East Anglia. Largeareas of forest are rare in the UK with coniferous forests largely exploited fortimber and deciduous forests most often confined to parklands.

Climate

Britain has a largely mild temperate climate with four distinct seasons. It is warmerthan other nations on the same latitude due to the warming effect of the AtlanticGulfstream. Temperature ranges between 35oC and -10oC through the yearalthough do not normally reach these extremes. Summer temperatures arehighest in the south and decline further north while snowfall is common on highground in the winter and sometimes settles on low ground. Rainfall is abundant,although not as constant as foreigners like to believe, and Britain rarely sufferswater shortages.

Regions

The UK is divided into three main countries England, Scotland and Wales whichwere the historic kingdoms and principalities, along with Ireland, that made up theUnited Kingdom.

England

England forms the largest part of the British Isles in terms of geographic size,population and cultural predominance. It includes the Regions of Northumbria,North-West, Mercia, East Anglia, Wessex, Yorkshire , the Home Counties andLondon although these are only the current electoral areas and aren't an accuratereflection of all the local and regional identities across the country. An outsidermight see just an Englishman; but most are proud of their local identities ascockneys, geordies, scousers, brummies and so forth.

The English are a people of contradictions. Napoleon dismissed them as shopkeepers, yet they held together the Coalition that beat him. Hitler saw them as thenation most like his Germany, yet they defied him. They are by and large a peopleof trade and commerce, who thrive on hard work and savvy innovation, but arebetter at inventing things than perfecting industrial practices. They are pragmaticand humorous and yet possessed of an underlying stubborn streak. They usuallyfollow the rules and are generally well spoken, but are also idiosyncratic anddisrespectful of overbearing authority. The English are largely open minded and

THIS SCEPTRED ISLE

Britain has been definedthroughout history by itsisland status, this has givenit resistance to invasion anddriven it towards being atrading nation. Britain hasnot been successfullyinvaded since 1066,although some would arguethe Glorious Revolution of1688 would also qualify,and only the devastation ofthe Twilight period hasseriously disrupted Britain’sdomestic political continuity.Britons today are quietlyproud of their nation, itsachievements and its role ininternational affairs. Theconsistent under-performance of itsinternational sporting teamshowever is often a matterfor resignation or despairand a few consolation pints‘down the pub’.

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Britain:2300ADwelcoming of outsiders but can be alarming parochial, and occasionally violent,when supporting sports teams.

England is by far the most heavily populated part of Britain and heavily urbanised.There are stretches of England where the only green spaces are local parks andthe nearest countryside is almost a hundred km away. It is possible to drive fromLondon to Leeds, over 200km, without leaving an urban area. England is seen asbeing dominated by London which is the key governmental and financial centrefor both England and Britain, but there is much more to the country than that.What countryside that remains is bucolic and beautiful with occasional areas ofnear wilderness.

The English are something of a mongrel nation derived from ancient Britons aswell as invading Angles, Jutes, Saxons, Normans and Vikings and others and theEnglish national identity established itself in the early medieval period. TheEnglish state became the most dominant force in the British Isles, subjugating theWelsh and having a strong influence on both Scotland and Ireland. The establish-ment of the United Kingdom following the union with Scotland saw Englandbecome largely synonymous with Britain. The English became a relatively innova-tive and inquisitive people; being one of the first to limit the absolute power ofkings, develop religious tolerance and later led the way in the industrial revolution.They were also conservative, preferring evolution to revolution in most things, andwere protected from outside influences and invasion by the virtue of their islandnation. Their willingness to trade and settle colonies that would later becomenations in their own right led to the Anglophone dominated 19th and 20thCenturies.

Scotland

Scotland is the second largest part of the Union and comprises the Lowland andHighland regions. The Lowlands encompasses the heavily urbanised central beltand the Borders and is almost as heavily populated as England. The Highlandsinclude the Highlands and Islands to the north of the central belt, this is amountainous and sparsely populated region which is as close to real wildernessas the British Isles gets.

The Scots are a proud, stoic and innovative people who have made a dispropor-tionate contribution to Great Britain through the years. The Scots have produceddozens of inventors, administrators and soldiers who have often been at theforefront of Britain's efforts; be it the establishment of the Empire, through theindustrial revolution and on to the establishment of Britain's off-world colonies.These generations of talented people have often been at odds with the frequentparochialism of the Scottish establishment and achieved far more outside ofScotland than they could have achieved within it. There is a large Scots diasporawith links throughout the English speaking nations and beyond.

Scottish culture is similar to that of England, although with its own uniqueelements such as kilts, bagpipes and whisky that are so much a part of touristmarketing. Scots have their own internal regionalism with divisions betweenHighland and Lowland and Protestant and Catholicstill extant. Scotland's relationwith England can sometimes be prickly with independence often mooted, howev-er the benefits of the Union are largely seen to outweigh the penalties.

Wales

Wales or Cymru, to the west of England, was once an independent principality butwas the first part of the Union to be incorporated into England in the 13th Century.Wales was incorporated into England and had no separate systems like Scotland,although today Wales is a self-governing region of Britain with substantial devolu-tion. Wales is roughly divided into north and south Wales. South Wales is a

UNION FLAG

The Union Flag or UnionJack is the flag of theUnited Kingdom. This is aflag that includes theoverlayed crosses of thepatrol saints of England,Scotland and Ireland andhas been unchanged since1801. The flag notablyretains representation fromIreland, independent foralmost three centuries,while not representingWales. There have beenseveral proposals to alterthe flag through the years,however the prevailingopinion is to retain the flagunder which so manyBritons fought and diedunder during the BloodyTwentieth. It is also a highlyrecognisable emblemwhich is well knowninternationally.

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Britain:2300ADpredominantly English speaking region which is heavily urbanised along itscoastal strip. The central and northern parts of Wales are mountainous and lightlypopulated with a rugged, if often rainy, beauty. The population of North Wales islargely Welsh speaking, although almost all are also fluent in English. The Welshare a passionate people who wear their hearts on their sleeves, and are often theantithesis of the reserved and controlled English.

Other dependencies

Britain has a number of associated islands and territories attached to it on Earthunder a variety of arrangements. These range from the Channel Islands and Isleof Man with historical and dynastic links to Britain under the Crown, but are notformally part of the United Kingdom, through to the South Atlantic territories,Hong Kong, Indian Ocean territories and enclaves on Cyprus which are holdoversfrom the days of Empire.

Colonies

Britain has four major colonies concentrated on the French Arm. These includeAlicia on Beowulf, New Africa on Beta Canum-IV, Crater at Henry's Star and NewCornwall on Joi. There are a number of smaller formal and informal outposts andmining stations. British colonial policy is relatively forward looking and the oldercolonies have substantial degrees of autonomy. Britain's first colony of Wellon onTirane has already achieved full independence some twenty years ago andrelations are very good between the two nations.

Cities and conurbations

Britain’s main city has long been London which is over two millennium old andwas one of the first truly global cities, but was heavily damaged in WW3 givingother cities chance to shine. London has re-emerged as the largest and mostimportant British city but is not as dominant as it once was. British cities havegrown and merged to a remarkable degree over the last hundred years as thepopulation has grown, and many historical cities remain only as districts of thelarger metroplexes.

Thames/Birmingham Metroplex

Although often referred to the Thames/Birmingham Metroplex this conurbation isreally two complexes linked by urban growth along the M40 road corridor whichlinks the two cities. Thames Metroplex is dominated by the Greater London areabut also includes Oxford, Reading and Slough in the Thames Valley and South-end and the Medway Ports in the Thames Estuary. Many of London’s historicbuildings were destroyed or damaged but most have been rebuilt although thecity’s layout is now significantly different in parts than that during the 20th Century.

Ireland

The relationship between Britain and Ireland has often been a rocky andviolent one. England has often intervened in its near neighbour and Irelandhas been a political part of Britain in various ways for a lot of its secondmillennium history. Religion has played a large role in the history of Ireland,with native Catholics general resisting Scottish-descended Protestant set-tlers and the English/British political establishment. The end of WWIII sawthe eventual unification of Ireland with four provinces with a high degree ofdevolution, while the country rejoined the Commonwealth. Today economic,diplomatic and defence links between the two Britain and Ireland are verystrong, while citizens of both countries can travel and work in the two na-tions without additional paperwork. Large numbers of Irish have emigratedto British colonies on the French Arm.

LONDON

Britain's capital and mostrecognisable city has along history which hasbeen both glorious and attimes tragic. Its roots lie inthe Roman settlement ofLondinium but it developedinto a major global city,finance centre and culturalhub. The city has also hadits share of disasters fromthe Great Plague, GreatFire, the Blitz and thenuclear holocaust of Nov1997. London is the mostimportant urban area inBritain and is a majortourist destination thanksto its historic monumentsand cultural sites. It shouldbe noted that that Briton'sfrom elsewhere in thecountry often dislikeLondon's perceiveddominance and will resentbeing asked if they arefrom London.

HONG KONG

Hong Kong was seized byBritain in 1842 to act as acommercial port to tradewith China linking with thecity of Canton/Guangzhou,and it developed into athriving city and financecentre. Britain was due tohand back the enclave toChina in 1997, howeverWWIII intervened and withthe collapse andbalkanisation of thePeople's Republic of ChinaBritain retained Hong Kong.Hong Kong remains anentry port for trade with theChinese states whichthrough its history haveremained suspicious of thewest. Today Hong Konghas almost completepolitical autonomy and isone of the mostcosmopolitan places in theFar East and functionsalmost as neutral ground forthe often competing states.

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Britain:2300ADThe area includes many of the main cultural and economic landmarks of thenation including museums, galleries, libraries, universities exchanges and finan-cial institutions. The area is also home to the Royal family and the Houses ofParliament. London especially remains a cultural melting pot and is home tocitizens of all nations on Earth and many from the colonies.

The Birmingham Metroplex includes Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Soli-hull and Coventry as well as other smaller cities in the West Midlands. This areahas long been known for its industry and manufacturing and this continues todaywith heavy investment in transportation and other manufactures as well asfinancial services. The area is not particularly notable for its architecture howeverand the accent of the local ‘Brummies’ is often laughed at by other Britons.Birmingham is also notable for its self-deprecating comedians and rock musicians.The two metroplexes combined have a population of over 26.5 million people.

Tyne and Wear Metroplex

This area includes Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Gateshead, Hebburn, Jarrow, NorthShields, South Shields and Sunderland in the North East of England. The areawas lucky enough to escape the destruction suffered by most other cities threecenturies ago and it became the main governmental and industrial centre of thecountry for many decades. While London has regained most of its pre-eminenceTyneside remains a major cultural, academic and manufacturing centre withhistorical upscale suburbs. The area is renowned for its lively night life, humourand sporting fanaticism. The 3 million ‘Geordies’ (Sunderland folk remain howev-er firmly ‘Mackems’) retain their distinctive accents and outlook on life.

West Yorkshire Metroplex

Comprising the cities of Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, Halifax and Huddersfield thismetroplex sprawls across the eastern reaches of the Pennine Hills. This is alargely industrial area home to just under 8 million people and is the secondlargest urban area after Thames/Birmingham. The area’s historic economy wasfounded on coal, cloth and manufacturing but now only the latter remains alongwith strong financial, legal and commercial sectors. West Yorkshire and neigh-bouring Sheffield are home to much of the country’s heavy engineering capability.There is little sense of an overarching identity in the metroplex with most of theinhabitants being proud of being ‘Yorkshire folk’ in general and identifying withtheir home districts in particular.

Central Scotland Metroplex

This area encompasses the cities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling as well assmaller settlement in the ‘Central Belt’ which lies between the Border and High-land areas of Scotland. Its almost 4 million inhabitants comprise the bulk of theScottish population. Scotland in general being less heavily populated than Eng-land, in part due to higher emigration rates both off-world and to other parts ofBritain. Accents in this area vary widely and there is still great rivalry betweenGlasgow and Edinburgh. The area’s economy is based on services, finance andmanufacturing.

South Wales Metroplex

The South Wales Metroplex runs along the South Wales coastline and includesCardiff, Newport, Bridgeport, Swansea, and Pontypridd. The conurbation alsoencompasses the English port city of Bristol on the south bank of the Severn. Thisarea is home to some 3 million citizens and the bulk of the Welsh population.

THE PENNINES

The Pennines are a rangeof hills and low mountainsthat run up the spine of thenorth of England fromDerbyshire up to theScottish border dividingeast from west. ThePennines are only sparselypopulated except for thefoothills of the middle of theregion where the oldindustrial towns ofLancashire and Yorkshirehave grown up. ThePennines are a highlypopular are for Britishpeople to visit and the hillsare almost over run withwalkers every weekend.The area is a major watercatchment area and itsmany reservoirs feed waterinto the metroplexes.

ENSIGN EWART

Ensign Charles Ewart wasa soldier of the Royal NorthBritish Dragoons, now onceagain the 2nd (Royal ScotsGrays) Dragoons, whocaptured a French 'eagle'at the Battle of Waterloo in1815. There is a pubnamed after him onEdinburgh's 'Royal Mile'the street that linksEdinburgh Castle with thePalace of Holyrood. TheEnsign Ewart is a classicBritish pub; small,welcoming and undeniablyancient. On the bottomfloor of a vintage stonetenement block it is filledwith Napoleonicmemorabilia as well asmore recent pictures of theGrays who have seenaction against the Kaferson Beta Canum-IV inMontgomery hovertanks.The regulars of the pub area mixed bag, from studentsto members of the Lowlandgovernment.

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Britain:2300ADNorth Western Metroplex

The North Western Metroplex contains the cities of Manchester, Liverpool and awhole raft of Lancastrian towns including Wigan, Bolton, Rochdale, Salford andothers. The area is home to some 4 million people and includes Liverpool’s docksand significant local industry. The region is known for its cutting edge musicians,trans-Pennine rivalries with West Yorkshire and undue reputation for petty theftespecially in Liverpool. The region also contains much of Britain’s aerospaceindustrial capacity.

Long range scan image of HMS Camperdown on service on the FrenchArm. (Laurent Esmiol.)

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Britain:2300ADDemography

Population

Britain has a current population of around 111.5 million citizens. Of these 97.4million live in England, 7.8 million in Scotland and 6.1 million in Wales with theremainder in the smaller islands of the British Isles. In terms of population densityEngland is very high with 747 people per km2, which is amongst the highest inEurope, Scotland and Wales are much lower with 99 and 293 people per km2

respectively. Britain’s population growth is currently neutral with the immigrationbirth rate being cancelled out by overall death rate and emigration. Currently theaverage life expectancy of a British male is 93 and female is 97, which is aroundaverage for western Europeans.

Immigration

Immigration to the UK is currently at a fairly low level, although there is a steadyrate of entrance from citizens of the Indian States fleeing the perennial conflict inthat region. In recent years there has been a high level of immigration of refugeesfor warzones including Central Asia and Indochina as a result of Britain’s historicreputation as a place of refuge. There was also a significant influx of politicallyactive French in the late 2280s and early 90s fleeing the military government.Most of these have subsequently returned to France, although many have settledin communities in London and Edinburgh fearing there will be no place for themin the 3rd Empire. There is a constant circulation of people from the Common-wealth of Nations, France and America through the major cities of Britain,especially through London where many work for several years before returninghome, although some settle.

Emigration from Britain is at a steady rate with roughly 1/3 departing to othernations on Earth, 1/3 to Tirane and 1/3 to other worlds. The most populardestinations on Earth are Australia, America, Canada and New Zealand whileWellon and northern New Canberra are the most common Tiranean destinations.It is not yet known how the Kafer War will affect the numbers of colonists movingto the French Arm colonists, although Alicia has received a recent influx ofcolonists unable to reach the colonies in the lower arm. There were also severalthousand colonist refugees who returned to Earth during the course of thefighting.

Ethnic groups

The bulk of the British population are descended from people who arrived in theBritish islands over 6000 years ago, however there have been numerous wavesof immigration through history. Celts, Roman, Saxons, Angles, Jutes, Norse andNormans have all come to the islands and left their mark.

Britain trading, colonial and imperial heritage has long given it a cosmopolitanoutlook and welcome to outsiders, there has been a black community in Liverpoolfor over 450 years for example. This was especially evident in the years betweenWW2 and WW3 when large numbers of African, Caribbean and South Asianpeople settled in Britain taking up jobs in a range of industries. The integration ofthese communities into British society took some time but was consolidated inthe post-WW3 period although the mainly urban ethic groups suffered dispropor-tionately from the effects of the war. In addition there is a well establishedChinese community, predominantly of Cantonese origin.

More recent immigration to Britain has been driven by the wars of the last 50years and Britain’s reputation as a safe haven for political refugees. In particularthis has included significant numbers from South America, especially from

DIASPORA

The British have long beena nation divided into twobroad categories; thosethat are more than happyliving where they are, andthose with a drive toexplore and travel. Britonshave notably providedsignificant basepopulations for a range ofnations from America toAustralia, but also havesignificant expatriatepopulations in other landsincluding Spain and France.Off world this trendcontinues even outside offormal British colonies orthose of ESA allies, andsmall enclaves of Britonswith the inevitable pub canbe found on many colonyworlds.

MIXED RACE

The definition of 'mixedrace' in British society is acomplicated one and in thecensus there is no fixeddefinition. There have beencommunities of black peo-ple of Afro-Caribbean originin the British Isles since the1700s, with notable num-bers settling in the secondhalf of the 20th Century andin other eras. As a result inthe English cities especiallythere are large populationsof people who could be de-fined as mixed race insome way or another al-though there are no culturalor economic differencefrom the mainstream of thewhite population and is es-sentially unremarkable inmodern British society.Those who define them-selves as mixed race areusually the children of morerecent emigrants to the UKand a British born parent.

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Britain:2300ADUruguay and southern Brazil, and Central Asia as well as smaller but politicallyactive émigré communities from Elysia, France, Flanders and Germany.

In general terms Britain’s long standing ethnic groups are well integrated intosociety and form part of the cultural mainstream and indeed those describingthemselves as ‘mixed race’ is steadily growing. Members of ethnic groups aremost often located in the major city centres such as London, whereas other moreremote areas of the country can be around 95% white.

White – 85.1% - 94.89MMixed – 5.5% - 6.13MBlack – 3% - 3.35MSouth Asian – 4.5% - 5.02MChinese – 0.5%  - 0.56MSouth American – 0.6% - 0.67MCentral Asian –  0.4% - 0.45MOther – 0.4% - 0.45M

Language

English is the main language of the British Isles, from where it originated, and isspoken by almost the entirety of the population. British English is marked by itsprofusion of accents which can often make it difficult for the outsider to under-stand. Accents can be regional, class and profession based and most have theroots in centuries of distinctive dialects.

In addition to English other local languages include Welsh, Irish Gaelic, ScotsGaelic, Cornish and Manx. Of these Welsh is the most used with over half amillion Welsh speakers in North Wales and with most Welsh people having someknowledge of the language. Irish Gaelic is spoken mainly in expatriate Irishcommunities in London, Bristol, Glasgow and Liverpool. Scots Gaelic is concen-trated in the western islands and Highlands of Scotland, particularly in the OuterHebrides. Cornish and Manx are relatively little spoken languages concentratedin parts of Cornwall and the Isle of Man. In addition to these languages many ofBritain’s ethnic communities continue to speak Hindi, Urdu, Cantonese, Portu-guese or one of the Turkic tongues as a second language.

Schools in Britain generally teach one or two languages in addition to English;these are normally French and either German or Spanish. Most Britons have apassable command of French, although most French would naturally disagree,although are far from bilingual. Most world languages can be learnt or are spokensomewhere in the Britain however.

Religion

The early history of the British Isles was heavily influenced by religion, especiallywith the schism between Protestant and Catholic denominations which droveseveral wars, civil wars and dynastic battles. This ultimately led to the establish-ment of the Protestant ‘Anglican’ Church of England as the state church of

Say what?

Many foreigners are generally under the impression, largely generated frommedia exposure, that most British people speak 'The Queen's English'. Theyare often surprised by the range of accents that still exist in the British Isles.Accents and dialects can often be different in towns that are as little more than20km apart and although many regions share similar accents the details canbe very different. Even native English speakers can find it difficult to under-stand very broad regional accents which can sometimes verge on the incom-prehensible.

THE ANGLOSPHERE

The French Peace has ledto the eclipse of English asa global language asFrench regained itspreviously prominentposition. English howevercontinues to be a languageassociated with both trade,air and space travel as wellas the official language ofover 28 nations.

WELSH

The Welsh language is anofficial language in Walesand road signs are officiallybilingual. It can be a difficultlanguage for visitors to pickup. Some informal phrasesinclude:

Bore da - Good morningIechyd da! - CheersDw i ddim yn deall - I don'tunderstandTi'n siarad Cymraeg? - Doyou speak Welsh?Esgusoda fi - Excuse meDiolch - Please

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Britain:2300ADEngland, of the monarch is still ultimately the nominal head of.  In addition therewere also established a range of other Protestant faiths and churches includingthe Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The Roman CatholicChurch is present inBritain but has not had the dominant role that it has in some other nations sincethe time of Henry VIII.

Despite this history today Britain is largely a non-religious nation with over 50%of the population stating that it is either agnostic or atheist. Of the remainder mostprofess to follow one of the Christian denominations, although fewer than half ofthose are regular visitors to their place of worship. The main Christian churchesinclude the Church of England, Roman CatholicChurch, various Pentecostal andEvangelical churches and other groupings such as Salvation Army, Methodists,Levellers and the like. Presbyterianism remains strong in Scotland.

In addition to the Christian churches there is a significant Muslim populationwhich accounts for some 3% of the population and is mostly concentrated in theurban areas of London, Birmingham, and the north of England in the south andcentral Asian descended population. Islam in Britain is mostly integrated into thewider community although there are a small number of mosques where firebrandImams from the CAR or Punjab preach a more radical form of Islam. Britain is alsohome to almost 1 million Hindus, ½ million Sikhs and just under ½ million Jews.

RELIGIOUSTOLERANCE

Britain has had a longhistory of religioustolerance since thebloodshed thataccompanied the country'sbreak with the RomanCatholicchurch. Whiletoday the ProtestantChurch of Englandremains the official statereligion there is absolutelyno bar on people's freedomto worship any faith theychose. However Britain'slargely agnostic outlookmeans that relatively fewpeople are regularworshippers

St Paul's Cathedral

St Paul's is the main Anglican cathedral in London and has a central role inBritish public life. Sir Christopher Wren's 17th Century building was destroyedin the November 1997 firestorms. It was one of the first public building to berebuilt after the war as a deliberate act of King Charles III, although it hasrebuilt since with the current building almost identical to the Wren original andwas opened by Queen Alice. The cathedral holds many memorials andchapels within it, and many of Britain's national heroes are buried thereincluding both Wellington, Nelson and Heller. The building doesn't dominatethe London skyline as it has in the past, but is still a central landmark.

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Britain:2300ADEconomy and Infrastructure

Economy

The British economy is a diverse one which remains one of the most powerful inthe world. In terms of GPD per capita it ranks 3rd in the world behind only Franceand America and ahead of Germany and Australia. It is also a high technologyeconomy with significant investment in modern equipment and research anddevelopment activities.

19th Century Britain was home to the Industrial Revolution although Britishindustry has waxed and waned through the centuries while remaining an impor-tant sector of the economy. Today no fewer than 11 million Britons are employedin industry and manufacturing of goods on the British mainland. British industry isconcentrated in space, aerospace, ship building, motor vehicles and defencesectors. Investment in the space sector is significant, although much manufactur-ing is done in orbital facilities, and is a high return area. The British motor vehiclesector is a strange area as most domestic manufacturers are foreign owned,whereas the British owned portion of the sector is heavily invested in motor sport.Several major British firms dominate the space, aerospace, ship building anddefence sectors of the economy with investments across the board such asBritish Exospace, Rolls Royce and Vickers. Pharmaceutical and chemical compa-nies are also major contributors to the economy.

The services sector makes up a major proportion of the British economy includingfinancial and legal services. London in particular is one of the major financialcentres of the world and has maintained this position in recent years thanks toAmerican isolationism and French protectionism. An array of stock and futuresexchanges together with the famous Lloyd’s insurance market feed the economicstrength of the city. A variety of international and transnational companies havemajor headquarters in Britain and almost all companies of note have some sortof presence. Financial services are not present solely in London and Leeds andEdinburgh are also significant centres of finance.

Tourism has a significant part to play in the British economy as it is an immenselypopular place to visit for both on and off world visitors. Britain’s historical andcultural heritage is the prime attraction for most visitors as is some of its beautifuland well preserved countryside. In all there are over 50 million visitors to Britainevery year.

Britain has a large presence in the global and off-world creative industry. This islargely built on the back of the monolithic British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)which has a presence across film, audio-visual broadcasting and online contentwhich although developed mostly for a domestic audience is procured by almostevery nation on Earth. While the BBC is the largest presence there are an arrayof smaller British content producers who also generate cutting edge productionsin AV, music, films and games. British musicians in particular are very well knowninternationally although develop from a cut throat local music scene. SimilarlyBritish journalists are almost ubiquitous on international broadcast media, espe-cially in foreign correspondence.

As a highly populated island which has been developed for nearly five centuriesBritain has almost completely exhausted its natural resources in both mineralsand petrochemicals. Even off-shore resources from Canada, Greenland, oceanfloors and the Antarctic are no longer as productive as they were. As a result thenation is almost entirely reliant on the import of off-world resources to feedindustry. This drives British investment in belt mining in a number of systems andon-world mineral extraction from its colonies and other worlds. Hand in hand withthis is the large British merchant star ship fleet that moves these goods to the core.In addition Britain is a major consumer of resources from French Africa.

ORBITAL REFINERIES

Bulk resources from off-world arrive in orbit aboveEarth where they are usu-ally transferred to industri-al stations which refinethese materials before on-ward shipping to Earth.There are an array of thesestations owned by Britishfirms, of which the mostsignificant is High Shef-field station at L4. Orbitalrefinement reduces envi-ronmental problems andthe materials produced areoften of much higher quali-ty. Recent development ofremote refining techniquesout in the belt and colonieshave reduced the through-put of the Earth orbital sta-tions and several havebeen forced to close.

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Britain:2300AD

As may be already obvious Britain’s economy is both diverse and internationalised,being strongly reliant on trade and finance across borders. British based tradingcompanies such as Trans-Indi and British Ludlum have major investments inspace and planetary shipping which has grown out of British requirements butalso services other nations. Britain’s current strongest trading partners are France,America, Germany and Japan as well as its off-world colonies and Wellon.

Britain relies almost exclusively on orbital solar power generation for its power.This is gathered by stations in high orbit and relayed down to giant antenna farmswhich are normally located off-shore on large platforms. Additional supplies comefrom fusion reactors and renewable sources such as wind farms and tidal genera-tion. British owned power generation is not sufficient to completely supply thecountry and around 30% of the country’s supplies are imported from foreignsupplies, most significantly French beanstalk surplus.

Britain has a well developed and highly efficient agricultural system but suffersfrom a relatively small area of arable land. As a result the country is not able toeffectively feed itself and relies upon food imported from overseas. The largestsupplies come from America and French Africa. In addition to this bulk suppliesof high density processed foods are being imported from Wellon and other partsof Tirane.

Transport

Britain is a nation which has been industrialised since the 19th Century and hasa highly developed transport system, albeit one which is often derided for its faults.In truth the British have little truly to complain about, but like the weather the shortcomings of the transport system is a popular topic of conversation.

Britain’s road network is comprehensive with only the remotest regions lackinghigh speed routes. Car ownership has dipped noticeably in the heart of the largestcities but there are still nearly 80 million vehicles on the road. Large motorwayslink the major conurbations with a network of routes that spread out from London.The major difficulties however are in the jams that occur at rush hours in spite ofthe high tech traffic control systems that are linked into every vehicle.

Transport within the city varies largely from city to city – some rely on local rail orunderground systems, some have tram networks and others have only publicbusses. The quality and utility of these systems varies significantly depending onage, investment and public support. The worst can be slow, crowded and ineffi-cient but the best match up with anything working overseas.

Britain has invested heavily in a high tech intercity airfilm rail network in recentdecades which links all the major cities. This system has had its critics but iscapable of moving a passenger from London to Edinburgh in an hour and a halfwith stops along the way. This investment has upgraded the Channel Tunnel andallows travellers to reach Paris, and make connections into the European Rail

Irish Sea Bulk Landing Zone

Britain is a heavily built up and highly populated country with very crowdedairspace, and as a result its air and space ports are extremely busy. Toovercome this bottleneck many bulk cargos are simply dead-dropped fromorbit into the water from using re-usable gliders. The main landing area is theIrish Sea BLZ which is an area of restricted access located between Liverpooland the Isle of Man. The landed cargos are recovered by a fleet of speciallyadapted cargo vessels which operate from Liverpool where there is an ad-vanced port linked to a major rail transport hub.

BRITISH RAIL

In the early 19th CenturyBritain developed theworld's first railway networkas part of the IndustrialRevolution. Since then thefortunes of the railwayshave waxed and waned asa result of war, economicsand the government of theday. Today's railways areoverseen by British Rail, agovernment owned body,although many servicesare run by privatecompanies. The currenthigh speed airspeed net is,despite a couple of highprofile accidents, highlyefficient and reliable. Britishpeople, however, love tocomplain about the state ofthe railways regardless ofthe fact it actually usuallyruns on time. The obscurehobby of 'train spotting' isstill popular amongst acertain section of the Britishpopulation.

GIBRALTAR BRIDGE

The Gibraltar Bridge is amajor Anglo-French projectof the late 2100s to createa crossing across theGibraltar Straits that couldbe used by road traffic andmore importantly highspeed rail linking Europeanand North African networks.The bridge joins Gibraltarfrom reclaimed land to theeast of the Rock andpasses over two man-made islands beforetouching land again atPerijil in Morocco. Thecentral span of the bridgeloops high over the centralshipping lane. The bridgewas built at a time whentension was high betweenSpain and the ESA nationswhich is why the bridgewas not built on Spanishground which could havebeen a much cheaperproposition.

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Britain:2300ADNetwork, in a mere 40 minutes. The remaining international connection is theStranraer-Belfast tunnel which links from Glasgow to Dublin via Belfast. Inaddition to the airfilm network there is a substantial legacy conventional networkwhich is much slower but reaches to every major town in the nation.

The UK has a large number of airports, most of which service internationaldestinations as the market for internal domestic air flights is somewhat limiteddue to the availability of rapid rail transit and short destinations. The four majorairports around London are the busiest in the world, surpassing even those ofParis and Libreville and link to almost every destination of note on Earth viatransatmospheric cruisers. Each region also has at least one international airportwhich are normally focused on travel to holiday destinations and certain keyforeign cities. There are some limited airship services that run out of the UK butthese are normally tourist cruises rather than significant movements of freight orpersonnel although some British registered companies do run sizeable airshipfleets.

Britain’s roots are as a maritime nation and this continues to this day with asizeable merchant fleet transporting goods across the world. Major UK portsinclude the Medway complex, Milford Haven and Liverpool with minor ports upand down the coast.

While much of the world’s routine personnel and cargo travel has been directedthrough the Beanstalk at Libreville there is still a market for domestic space lift.The British National Catapult located east of Cambridge in East Anglia, whileseveral major airports operate interface services as do a number of military bases.

British based Transnationals.

Almost all of the major Transnational corporations have some sort of present inBritain, however some have developed from initially British companies which stillhave their headquarters in the UK.

Trans-Indi

Trans-Indi is one of the major trading and transportation companies operating onthe Chinese Arm and linking into the American Arm at De Villebis Station. Whilebased in London Trans-Indi evolved from British companies operating in the FarEast, and has substantial investments from a range of American, Australian,Canadian, Wellonese and even Manchurian investors. Trans-Indi subsidiariesoperate on the American Arm under local flags while larger British flagged longhaulers operate on the Chinese Arm proper. Trans-Indi has a great deal ofinfluence with the British government and during times of high tension it can callupon protection from the warships of the Royal Space Navy.

Interstellar Trading

Interstellar Trading (IT) is the other British based trading ‘major’ alongside Trans-Indi, a combination sometimes referred to as IT/TI. Interstellar Trading operatespredominantly in the Core and along the French Arm, although unlike Trans-Indiit has only a relatively small transport arm preferring to subcontract the movementof its cargos. IT represents the cross-section of British interests with those of ESAand has substantial investments in and from the other ESA nations, of which thelargest currently belongs to Freihafen at 17%. IT is a much less flamboyant firmthan Trans-Indi but one which is deeply embedded across commerce and tradein the French Arm although is notably more profitable. Needless to say its stockvalue has been significantly damaged during the Kafer War.

MILITARY TECHNOLOGY

British military technologyis on a par with that em-ployed by other major pow-ers, although generally it ismore expensive as it is pro-duced in smaller numbers.In general terms Britishequipment can representimpressive theoreticalbreakthroughs but some-times lacks practicality dueto a lack of recent combatexperience.

Land equipment is robustand practical although doc-trine is reliant on training,simulation and experiencegained through Allies.

Sea equipment has beenseen as a traditionalstrength with several majorBritish shipyards develop-ing and producing severalgenerations of warships al-though these are some-times behind the cuttingedge designs of other na-tions.

Air systems are strongly fo-cussed towards tactical air-power capable of operationfrom naval assets and longrange strategic systems al-so these lag behind leadingFrench models.

Space military technologyis often developed in coop-eration with Allies, a trendthat looks likely to continuewith the KaferWar, although several nota-ble designs have been de-veloped unilaterally.

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Britain:2300ADBritish Exospace

British Exospace (BEx) is the largest manufacturer of spacecraft based in Britain,but also one which has a substantial interest in other manufacturing and has asubstantial military arm. The company is well known for its approach of havingsmall bespoke design teams vying with each other to make the latest advances.In truth the company also has a large back catalogue of more functional designswhere it makes the bulk of its profits. BEx’s Military Starship Division has recentlyproduced the stealthy Killiecrankie Class Corvette for intruder missions behindKafer lines, while its British Cargo subsidiary churns out decades old butfunctional BC-4 and BC-7 designs. BEx also has involvement in both military andcivilian ground vehicles, interface and sea vessels.

CAC

The Consolidated Alicia Corporation is based on Beowulf and is intimatelyassociated with the British colony of Alicia, especially in the disputedRhadamanthian Sea, although it also has links back to Earth and along to theother British colonies on the French Arm. The CAC is a large and profitableorganisation which is still under the control of the Cathcart family who hold the titleto the Dukedom of Alicia. CAC has a range of interests but has recently branchedout unusually into privateering; purchasing, crewing and provisioning a number ofraiding ships to operate against the Kafers under letters of marque issued byVice-Admiral Graham.

AMEC

The Aberdeen Mineral Exploitation Company has been a leader in in-systemmining technology for almost two centuries. Its ships and stations have providedthe backbone of the British resource exploitation boom. Especially well known forits gigantic Orbital Mining Stations, it has also produced a range of smaller miningships and stations through the decades. AMEC is no-longer the market leader itonce was and is now substantially reliant on American capital but it still remainsa significant player in supplying the off-planet mining industry.

BLACK ARROW

Black Arrow is Britain'slargest manufacturer of ITdevices and computers.Developed post-WW3 bygovernment scientists it iscurrently a successful,privately owned venture.Black Arrow has areputation for its high R&Dbudgets and links withcutting edge universityresearch, including itssponsorship of EdinburghUniversity's AI department.Black Arrow bases itsbusiness its commercialdomestic and smallbusiness focused Red Dartsubsidiary while continuingwith its high end militaryand scientific work.

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Britain:2300ADCulture

Society

One frequently misunderstood part of British society is the ‘class system’ whichis not actually a rigidly defined or organised system. Simply put class defines anindividuals place on society’s pecking order whether in upper, middle or lowerclasses. Unlike in many other countries where class is largely a factor of wealth,in Britain other factors such as education, family, occupation, merit and comport-ment take affect and there is in fact a very large degree of social mobility.

The upper class is a very small section of the population and is largely defined asthose belonging to the aristocracy or those in socially prestigious roles in thehigher echelons of the civil service, education, industry, armed forces or medicine.The middle class accounts for the vast majority of the population who fill manage-rial, professional, office or manufacturing positions. The Alician Era of the 22ndCentury saw most British people become wealthy and comfortable and theelevation of the old ‘working class’ into the middle class. The lower class includespeople not in regular employment, living on government support, refugees orcriminals.

As an example in general terms in Britain it is more socially prestigious to be alow paid nurse, than a well paid car salesman. To a large extent most Britishpeople do not take ‘class’ into account in their day to day lives, and merit,competence and personality count for much more. British ‘class’ is high profilelargely because of the exposure it receives in novels, plays and movies ratherthan for its impact on everyday life.

Family

Family life plays an important part of life in the UK, although it is somewhat lessintimate than in some southern European countries. Formal marriage, either civilor religious, is still commonplace in the UK, especially in the middle and upperclasses whereas in the working class de-facto relationships are more common.Divorce is also relatively common with almost 40% of marriages ending in divorce,while de-facto relationships have a higher level of break up. It should be notedhowever that de-facto, or common-law, relationships have no legal standing inBritish law unless a separate contract was entered into. Same sex relationshipscan be legally recognised by civil union.

The average family currently raises just over two children over the last decade;this is a decline from an average of at least three in the past century. This declineis in response to increased crowding in Britain and the slowing of emigration ratesto off-world colonies. Children will generally live with their parents until the end ofsenior school, but will usually be dependent on them until around 22 and thecompletion of tertiary education. Usually those attending universities will notundertake study in their own towns, although those completing vocational studywill remain living at home.

British inter-generational family life is generally not particularly close knit.Grandparents will often not live with or particularly close to their children andgrandchildren, however occasions like holidays will see families celebratingtogether. Most British families will have members who are living either abroad oroff-world, although the British do not tend towards a formal diaspora.

Work

The average Briton commences his full time working life once they havegraduated from tertiary education at around 22 or 23 years of age. It is commonfor all people to work, although for those raising children one might only

INTOXICATION

The British love of alcohol iswell known and a vastamount of beer, wine andspirits are consumed on aregular basis. One of theresult of this is significantlevels of drunken violenceon Friday and Saturdaynights in most town centresafter 'closing time'. Theviolence is usually betweenpeople, male and female,who have been drinking butcan lead to nights out beingquite intimidating for thoseused to more 'civilised'entertainment in Europe.Illicit drug use is also high inthe UK, but is usually lesshigh profile than the almostroutine drunkenness.

YOUTH CRIME

Youth crime is a perennialsubject of discussion in theBritish media and society ingeneral. Generally it is amatter of petty crime;underage drinking,vandalism and theft, ratherthan major crime but it isstill a matter of concern.There are areas of majorcities where youth crimehas a more sinisterundertone as groupsaffiliate to more establishedorganised crime groupsand operate as theirauxiliaries. In recent yearsthe 'Draculas' gang ofteenagers from the westernsuburbs of Manchestercame to notoriety thanks totheir willingness to engagetheir rivals with illegallyacquired Central Asian Warsurplus weaponry. TheDraculas were soon heavilytargeted by the NorthWestern Constabulary andsuppressed but there areother groups on the vergeof obtaining similarnotoriety in the hardestneighbourhoods of themetroplexes.

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Britain:2300ADundertake part time work. In general work practices are quite flexible with peopleholding full time or part time employment with home working and job shareschemes not uncommon. British people are usually hard workers, and most willput in hours in excess of what they are contracted for.

Unemployment rates in the UK run at around 3% on average. The unemployedare entitled to monetary benefits and subsidised housing. There is a persistentproblem within some parts of society for people remaining indefinitely on the ‘dole’and not seeking employment and some enhance their incomes by involvement inpetty crime. Every government in recent memory has attempted to resolve thisproblem, although little progress has been made.

Retirement for both sexes is at 70 years of age, although some people are ableto retired early as part of their work packages. Retirement brings access to publicand private pensions and subsidised housing for those that require it. Manyretired people continue to contribute strongly to public and private life, especiallywith charities, arts and foundations. Indeed retired professionals make up animportant ‘unseen’ workforce for the nation. In addition many retired peopleemigrate to warmer climates oversees, with some of the wealthiest emigratingoff-world.

Prejudice

The British are, by and large, not a nation who hold deeply held and virulentprejudices against other people or different lifestyles. British public life has beenmarked by distinct liberalism and egalitarianism through its history. Racial conflicthas not been unknown, but it is usually driven by social factors and localconditions; for example the 2299 riots in ‘Little Kazakhstan’ in south London.

Race, religions and skin colour are not factors that will make much difference tothe average Briton. Indeed local social and geographic rivalries are more likely todrive potential antagonism than race. For example a Scots/English rivalry is morelikely to come to a head than a racial difference.  Sporting rivalries can beexceptionally fierce in Britain especially between fans of different football clubsand some of these reach back centuries.

The British do, however, hold a quiet sense of their own superiority over othernations, although it is rarely socially acceptable to voice this in public. The generalexception in during sporting occasions, almost always involving football, whenage old rivalries with France, Argentina and others will come to the forefront in thepopular press. People from favoured friendly nations, such as America, Australiaor Canada, or who know an individual well will often receive friendly joking abouttheir origins.

Law Enforcement

Regional Police

Britain does not have a single national police force, rather it has police organisedby local jurisdictions, the most famous of which is the Metropolitan Police. Britainonce had over 50 forces, but these are now consolidated on regional governmentlines with 11 major forces, several for overseas territories and others for Craterand New Cornwall. Regional police cover the bulk of policing duties across Britainfrom community policing to serious crimes. British police do not routinely carryfirearms, but all are trained in restriaint techniques, crowd control and less lethalweapons. Armed police are never far away however and are highly skilled.

Special Police

LITTLE ENGLANDERS

While Britain is normally avery tolerant place thereare many in the middleclass especially who canbe immensely smallminded and petty and wholove to complain. ‘LittleEnglanders’ can whingeand be churlish aboutalmost anything; fromforeign food to noisy dogs,the quality of entertainmentprograms to new building inthe neighbourhood. Whileeasily caricatured and notcharacteristic of mostpeople, they are veryeffective in giving Britishpeople a bad nameoverseas.

THE METROPOLITANPOLICE

The ‘Met’ is London’s policeservice. Formed in 1829 bythe then Home SecretarySir Robert Peel it is alsopopularly referred to as‘Scotland Yard’ and in termsof size and remit ofoperations is the leadingpolice force in Britain. TheMet has nearly 40 000regular officers and afurther 10 000 reservist‘specials’, auxiliaries andcivilian staff. The Met isresponsible for enforcingthe law across London,although some of its morespecialist units can beinvolved with nationalagencies and assistingother regional forces. Thebulk of its manpower isdirected towards local andcommunity policing, but italso has a range ofspecialists includingfirearms units, riot squads,detectives, forensics,counter-terrorism andinformation security. TheMet’s officer are usuallyunarmed, but mobile armedteams are normally only afew minutes away

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Britain:2300ADSpecial police are national policing agencies with dedicated remits that take themacross regional borders. The include the British Transport Police, DefenceMinistry Police, Serious Crimes Agency and several other smaller groups. Theseservices have their own powers of arrest and detention and the ability to carry outinvestigations although usually work in cooperation with regional police forces.

Her Majesty's Coastguard

HMCG is responsible for the coordination of maritime search and rescue aroundthe British Isles and has only a limited enforcement role. SAR assets includemilitary and civilian air and sea platforms which is supplemented by the volunteerRoyal National Lifeboat Institute in in-shore waters.

British Border and Customs Agency

The BBCA is responsible for the routine control of Britain's borders includingimmigration and customs and excise duties. BBCA is most fequently seen inBritain's air, sea and space ports but will also track down illegal immigrants orvisa overstayers in concert with regional police units. BBCA also has its own fleetof revenue cutters and long duration UAVs watching Britain's shores and ap-proaches. The BBCA has an intelligence function and will liaise with internationalagencies to track potential smuggling or movement of undesirables onto theBritish mainland.

Corporate Security Providers

Corporate security is a large large sector in Britain, providing a range of functionsfrom routine shop security to pub bouncers through to high-end corporate protec-tion services.It is important to note however that these groups have no more legalpower than the common citizen and only in a very few cases would be able tocarry firearms or other weapons legally. These firms rely on regional police helpand are primarily only able to offer a deterrent effect.

Security Service

The Security Service, commonly referred to as MI5, is the UK's domestic intelli-gence agency with a counter-intelligence and counter-subversion remit. MI5cooperates very closely with the Special Branch units of the regional police forces.MI5's primary target is subversion and terrorist activities which it targets withagents, surveillance and technology. MI5 has been concerned in recent yearswith French and German emigre groups and the rise in Provolution led activities.

GCHQ

GCHQ is Britain's main SIGINT and data net security establishment. It is mostfamous for its codebreaking and data net penetration activities but it also doessterling work in providing security to government data systems. GCHQ has takenon an increasing burden of domestic work in recent years, most notably in theisolation of a number of Provolution backed hacking groups. The organisationhas well developed overseas links and is also rumoured to operate in Britain'scolonies.

Secret Intelligence Service

The SIS, or MI6, is Britain's overseas intelligence agency. It does not routinelyoperate on British soil, but conducts most of its training there.

Facilities Security Group

THE GREENWICH JOB

The Greenwich Job was anaudacious criminal heist onthe historic RoyalGreenwich Observatorymuseum in London in Juneof 2298. The raid by half adozen masked individualsarmed with sonic weaponryseized four invaluablewatches built by JohnHarrison in the 1700s tosolve the navigationalproblem of findingLongitude. The daylightraid resulted in injuries toseveral guards andbystanders and saw theoffenders escape down theThames in a surplusmilitary hovercraft. Thesubsequent investigationhas seen severalparticipants arrested andjailed but the watches havenever been recovered. It isbelieved that they werestolen to order by a privatecollector. The tworingleaders of the heist arebelieved to be living incomfortable exile inBuenos Aries.

DOGS OF WAR

Britain has a strong, if lowprofile, presence in theinternational mercenarymarket. Mostly based onformer members of thespecial forces or crackinfantry regiments theseBritish firms specialise intraining, specialistmentoring and protectionduties. These firms usuallywork off-world or in the lessstable parts of the world,with several firms havinglong running contracts inthe Indian States forexample. Large scalecombat units of Britishmercenaries are largelyuncommon, although thereare exceptions such as the'Black Scorpions', a unitregarded withembarrassment by mostBritish militaryprofessionals.

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Britain:2300ADAlso known as MI7 the FSG is the Colonial Office’s equivalent to both MI5 andMI6 on Earth. In the colonies it is responsible for both intelligence gathering andsecurity. MI7 is known to be a small agency that keeps a very low profile.

Law Courts

Britain has a full panoply of legal bodies which follow a general pattern, althoughthe Scottish system is different:

Magistrates Court - panel of three local qualified magistrates, generally upstand-ing figures in the community, who hear petty charges such as driving offences,minor public order offences and petty theft. For some offences people have theright to either 'go before the Magistrates' or else opt for jury trial at the CrownCourt. All criminal cases start off here with serious criminal offences remanded tothe Crown Court with a Committal Hearing.

Crown Court - for more serious criminal offences - Judge and jury of twelvecitizens.

County Court - for civil cases - judge and jury

Court of Appeal - panel of five judges - for sentences passed down by Crown orCounty Courts.

House of Lords - a panel of five senior judges who also have seats in the Lordsalthough the legal function is now separated from the legislative function of thelords.

Sentencing

Sentencing in British courts tends towards leniency, at least for first offenders, butthen rapidly becomes more punitive. Fines and community service sentences arecommon at first in part because jails are seriously crowded. Recidivism is aserious problem and calls for tougher sentencing are commonplace, althoughhard to effect due to the overcrowding. Britain still has the death penalty on thebooks, although has not carried one out since the Twilight Era. Life sentences aregenerally for only 20 years, except in very serious cases.

Crime - Sentence (min/max)

Assault - Fine/6 months imprisonmentAssault with intent - Fine/6-24 months imprisonmentBurglary – Community service and fine/3 yearsDealing (Drugs) - 1-5 yearsDealing (Firearms) - 2-10 yearsDrunk driving - Disqualification/1 year imprisonmentEmbezzlement - Disqualification/5 yearsEspionage (Industrial) - Fine/5 yearsEspionage (National) - 3 years/LifeManslaughter - 3-20 yearsMurder - 5 years/LifePetty theft - Community service/1 yearPossession (Drugs) - Fine/Community servicePossession (Firearms) - Fine/2 yearsSexual assault - 3 years/LifeSpeeding - Fine/1 yearsVandalism - Fine/1 years imprisonment

Prisons

CYBER CRIME

Cyber crime in the UK is agrowth industry, although itis often driven byindividuals rather thanlarger syndicates, andindeed many individualhackers have been knownto spontaneously 'takedown' their less skilledbrethren working fororganised crime. In manyways the typical Britishhacker is an outgrowth ofthe 'boffin' phenomenon -single, highly motivated,highly intelligent buteccentric and rarelymotivated by money alone.British hackers are wellknown for attacking foreignagencies for a challenge;the French DGSEdatabase was famouslyhacked by a Briton in 2294and for some reasonAmerican militarymainframes remain aperennial target. For alltheir innovation and brioBritish hackers are usuallyseriously outmatched byforeign networks, althoughthe almost legendaryTuring organisation(supposedly an informalalliance of the finest Britishhackers) is rumoured to beincreasingly active againstforeign agency ledintrusion into the BritishData Net.

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Britain:2300ADBritish prisons are run by Her Majesty's Prison Service in England and Wales andthe Scottish Prison Service north of the border. British prisons are generallyageing and overcrowded and run to fairly strict regimes. Violence is a problem,although not to the extent seen in their American equivalents. The most notoriousprisons include HMP Dartmoor, an ancient mouldering pile located on that darkmoor, and HMP Isle of Wight a state of the art high security facility housing someof the worst offenders in Britain.

Healthcare

Britain has a system of universal healthcare called the National Health Servicewhich is paid for by general taxation of the population and is administered byHMG’s Ministry of Health. The NHS is a national institution but is often the targetof vociferous criticism from all sides of the political spectrum attacking, waste,standards or waiting lists. In spite of some of its faults and flaws the NHS isgenerally a successful organisation which has done much to maintain the gener-al level of health of the nation. In addition to the NHS, private medical care isavailable for those that wish to pay for it through insurance. Private medical staffhowever are usually former or even still serving NHS personnel and the mainbenefit is access to medical referral much quicker than through prioritised NHSwaiting lists.

Education

Education in Britain is organised on a regional level, with each region havingslightly differing methods and organisation. Scotland however has a significantlydifferent organisation from the English and Welsh regions.

Education in Britain is compulsory from the age of three through until the age of18. Further education for a further 3-4 years in vocational colleges, polytechnicsor universities is also all but compulsory with around 98% of Britons havingcompleted some form of further education. It is possible to defer further educationfor a number of years, most commonly for travel or joining the army, but even themost mundane of employment requires further education. This concentration oneducation has resulted both in a highly skilled workforce and a well developedfurther education system.

The general breakdown of education is for the ages of 3-4 children attendpre-School, 5-10 is primary school, 11-16 is secondary school, 17-18 juniorcollege and 19-21/22 is further education. From secondary school onwards theeducational establishments are specialised into vocational, technical or‘grammar’/arts streams. Education up until further education in free in Britain,while further education attracts a debt for the student which is paid off throughtaxation in the first ten years of work. In addition to the ‘state’ education there isa very well established private (although known as ‘public’) school system whichprovides an alternative source of education for those willing to pay, as of 2299around 5% of British children were educated this way. Public schools are oftenhighly prestigious, better performing and frequently provide access to highpaying or elite jobs; some of the more well known include Eton, Harrow, Winches-ter and Westminster Schools.

The further education system includes vocational colleges, polytechnics anduniversities which in total number over 200 different institutions. Some of Britain’suniversities are ancient, with the oldest Oxford and Cambridge, being over 1000years old although most have more recent heritages. There is also the famousOpen University which offers purely distance education. British universities arewell regarded internationally with the best ranking alongside the likes of Harvard,Yale, Ashton, Heidelberg, Europa and the Sorbonne. British universities stilleducate a significant number of overseas students from across the globe andfrom some of the colonies. Aside from their simple educational function the

THE OLD SCHOOL TIE

Britain's famous PublicSchools are still regardedas a haven for the scions ofthe elite and the wealthy,be they British or asignificant number offoreigners. Public schoolshave large fees payable forattendance as well aswaiting lists due to theirpopularity, although mosthave a subsidisedscholarship scheme forgifted pupils. Theseschools usually provide ahigh standard of education,but also provide theirstudents with access to aninformal social networkwhich helps (but does notguarantee) them gainaccess to prestigiousuniversities, government orCity employment,membership of Londonclubs and access topolitical and Royal circles.Although not as pervasivein influence as at the heightof the reigns of QueensVictoria and Alice, the 'oldschool tie' can still be ofhelp to the ambitious.

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Britain:2300ADresearch output of these institutions is one of the key contributors to the Britisheconomy.

Cinema

British cinema has never achieved the heights of the great production centres offilm such as historic Hollywood, Paris or modern day San Francisco. It hashowever consistently filled a niche of off-beat and non-mainstream productionswhich frequently perform very well at the box office and at awards ceremonies.While British cinema produces most categories of films it is most often successfulwith historical drama, gritty urban thrillers or typically quirky comedy.

While solely British financed films have never managed to dominate the worldBritish studios and talent have always been strongly in demand. Highly skilledprofessionals, generous tax breaks and well equipped studios have resulted inmany of cinemas most famous movies being made in Britain. British actors,directors and technicians are still in great demand around the world.

Media

Britain has a substantial and vital media sector which has a conflicting reputationfor both high brow and low brow output.

The entertainment sector is dominated by a range of broadcasters including theBBC, Independent Media Network and KY Network. BBC is a state financed,although editorially independent media organisation that covers a vast range ofdifferent delivery method including film, broadcast, radio, datanet, magazines andeven books. The BBC has a remit to cover all aspects of British life and to conductactivities that would not normally be considered viable by commercial companies,although the BBC is also a populist organisation. The BBC’s output, including itsnews content, is highly regarded domestically and internationally for its perceivedimpartiality and quality. IMN and KYN are commercial media conglomerates thatare more populist than the BBC and who often beat it in the ratings. While manyperceive these companies to be relentlessly low brow many of their productionswill rival those of the BBC, and their news output is often in fierce competition.

In addition to home produced entertainments Britain is a major importer ofoverseas shows; usually from America, Australia or Wellon, although there is aniche market for French and Brazilian foreign language shows. Many of theseshows fill prime time slots in competition with home grown drama, the everpopular soap operas and major sporting events. There are several generalentertainment channels – BBC have 4, IMN 3 and KYN 2 as well as a vast arrayof specialised sports, news, entertainment and other channels available throughthe Data Net.

The rise of data networks saw the demise of the traditional print newspaper andmagazine industry, although some people continue to insist of buying hardcopyprintouts. Instead these have largely moved into the on-line arena and largelydecreased in size. Nevertheless famous, centuries old, newspaper names suchas The Times, Telegraph and Guardian remain in operation alongside a host ofother news sheet and magazine publishers.

Data Network

Britain’s data network is a state sponsored framework which is also linked into themain European Data Network. The data network is a mega bandwidth systembased on a backbone of ultra high speed optical links with additional back up frombroadcast, radio, satellite, wireless and other data transfer system which ensureevery house and mobile terminal in the country are covered. Access to the datanetwork allows access to broadcast channels as well as routine data functions.

BRIXTON MARKET

Brixton Market is a longrunning INM domestic soapopera now in its 35th year.Set in the trendy SouthLondon suburb of Brixton itfollows the lives, relation-ships and challenges of thepeople in this cosmopolitanarea. Broadcast everyweekday at 7.30pm it ismust watch television formany Britons, foreignerswill generally find it incom-prehensible, down beatand ever so slightly de-pressing.

BOND, JAMES BOND

Perhaps the quintessentialBritish movie series, al-though more often than notmade with American mon-ey, the 007 series is stillgoing strong. It is currentlyin production on its 92nd(or 98th by some counts)movie in the series, withcurrently its 21st differentactor portraying the Britishsecret service agent. Bondhas been re-made, re-writ-ten, cancelled, revived andre-imagined on dozens ofoccasions and veered be-tween being cutting edgeor a pastiche of itself with-out loosing its basic popu-larity. The forthcoming andyet to be titled Bond 92 willsee James Bond take onthe Kafers for the secondtime and is awaited withbaited breath by fans.

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Britain:2300ADBritain’s data network has universal access although it is funded by taxation levy,and includes free access to most BBC and free commercial content and data.Premium and specialist content is usually accessible by payment of appropriatefees, although it is often possible to access some content through overseas links.

Sport

Sport plays a massive part in British culture and most Britons will freely admit tobeing obsessed by sport. Britain also played a major role in the development oforganised sport over four centuries ago, although any benefit they have gainedfrom this has long dissipated.

Association Football, or soccer, remains the most popular sport in Britain. Thepost-WW3 era saw the final establishment of a pan-British league incorporatingthe leading English, Scottish and Welsh teams with six professional feederleagues supporting the higher levels. British football continues to support promo-tion and relegation through the leagues and some of the most famous clubs canfind themselves dropping out of the top flight. British football is dominated by thebig clubs such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Newcastle and Tottenhamalthough lesser lights frequently are able to achieve success. While club footballhas unified on an international level Britain continues to be represented by teamsfrom England, Scotland and Wales.

For most of the past century there has been one professional code of Rugby,although there are still strong amateur competitions for Old League in the northof England. Rugby is a popular minority sport across Britain with one British andIreland league and feeder competitions in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, north andsouth England. European and international competitions are highly popular withspectators, although grudge matches like Wigan-Leicester and Bath-Gloucesterremain an atavistic pleasure. International matches are organised on a countrybasis although the famous British and Irish Lions select team tours every twoyears to major rugby nations like Australia, Azania, New Zealand and Wellon.

Cricket retains an idiosyncratic following and general popularity in England andWales, especially during major international series in it both its short and longforms. Golf is a very popular pastime, especially among the middle classesalthough fees frequently place it out of the price range of many enthusiasts.Racket games such as tennis, squash and badminton also still have their place,although international success is often limited in spite of the profile of events likeWimbledon.

Other popular pursuits include hill walking, rambling and other outdoor activitieswhich are exceptionally popular and see most national parks being extremelycrowded at weekends and holidays. British motor sport is also very strong thanksto many teams being based in Britain and local drivers often have great success.Water sports such as sailing and rowing are well supported, as is horse racing.

Music

Britain has a remarkable and diverse musical scene. Its popular music is a majorexport and combines local innovation and recycling of foreign music. The Britishhave consistently had the knack of producing new acts and music that becomehighly popular in both the domestic and international markets. Indeed music isoften at the forefront of British cultural recognition overseas even at times whenit has lagged behind other nations economically or diplomatically. Some Britishacts are often highly alternative and short lived but can become and remainimmensely influential.

British popular music has also consistently taken foreign musical styles, integrat-ed them and sold it back overseas. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones remain

NEWCASTLE UNITED FC

Newcastle United is afootball club based inNewcastle-upon-Tyne inthe Tyne and WearMetroplex in northernEngland as was founded in1892. As a club it has hadtwo 'glory' periods, oncefollowing WW3 where itdominated for almost 50years and once in the mid-2100s. Since then the clubhas failed to match theseheights, although exceptfor occasional times offinancial crisis it has usuallybeen competitive and wontrophies fairly frequently.The club is notable for itsfanatical 'Geordie' fan base,its rivalry with SunderlandAFC, and its huge, newlyrebuilt 100 000 seater St.James' Stadium whichtowers over the centre ofNewcastle.

WAR ZONE THUGS

Britain has had a long tradi-tion of producing first rateforeign and war corre-spondents, who often goon to break into the bigtime on overseas broad-casters. The current doy-enne of the warcorrespondents is the dash-ing Clive Finnegan an ex-Royal Marine officer whocut his teeth as a freelancereporter during the CentralAsian War and has coveredevery major and minor con-flict since including remark-able reportage from undersiege in Aurore. Now in hislate 40s he has landed aplum job as lead colonialcorrespondent for FranceMonde, the main Frenchinternational news channel.

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Britain:2300ADthe most famous of these groups, but the Moroccan influences of the ‘New WaveSka’ movement in the 2190s or the brief heights of the ‘Bombay Pop’ bands in theearly 2230s should not be underestimated. Currently the main trend has followedon from Francophone ‘angst punk’ of the late 2290s. Britain is also a reliableproduced of middle of the road super groups with at least two globally successfulbands emerging each decade with rockers Blue Rage and retro funk-punk comboThe Adamants currently ruling the roost.

The popular music scene in Britain is supported by a massive range of musicvenues, ranging from pubs and clubs to huge arena shows. While many bandshave to graft their way towards recognition the hard way playing gig after gigmany pop bands are put together by management teams to appeal to specificsections of the population, while these are often successful they rarely break-through on the international scene. British diverse music scene often supportsmany fringe bands from overseas who sometimes ‘break’ the UK before returninghome for domestic success.

Popular music is not the only style supported in Britain with classical and folkmusic also remaining popular within there own niche audiences. Britain supportsa significant number of orchestras with examples in every major city. Choirs alsoremain in large numbers often as a part of religious groups, although civic choirsalso exist in areas such as Wales as do a few remaining brass bands.

Rites

The British are a pragmatic and phlegmatic breed who exhibit little of the overtnationalism and flag waving, outside of sporting events of course, of many othersocieties. As such there is no single national holiday, although the Queen’sBirthday is held as a bank holiday on the first of second Saturday of June eachyear. In addition the ‘saint’s days’ of the individual countries are celebrated alongwith Christmas, Easter and New Year although most of these holidays retain littleof their old religious symbolism. There are also a number of individual ‘bankholidays’ that provide long weekends throughout the year.

The following days are holidays: St George’s Day, England, 23rd April, StAndrew’s Day, Scotland 30th November and St David’s Day, Wales 1st March. Inaddition the large Irish expatriate, Irish descended or general party lovers unoffi-cially celebrate St Patrick’s Day with gusto every year on 17th March.

Food and Drink

Britain has often been the butt of many jokes about the quality of its food,especially from the French, although this reputation is largely undeserved. How-ever for many Britons high quality fresh food has become relatively unaffordabledue the size of the population and cost of imports. The result has been aconcentration on innovative use of spices, sauces and recipes to make best useof the available ingredients.

Spicy food has been the backbone of most British diets for over 300 yearsfollowing on from the introduction of curry from India in the time of Queen Victoria.Of course today the typical British curry bares little resemblance to its Indianforebear but remains incredibly popular and is the national dish. The othermainstay of British food is the ‘Sunday roast’, usually of beef, lamb or chicken withroast potatoes, gravy and sometimes Yorkshire Pudding, which is a commonfamily meal. That aside British tastes are very cosmopolitan and reflect thevarious cultural influences the nation has experienced. British cooking in thehome is usually fairly sophisticated, but even in the smallest towns a range ofinternational cuisines can be experienced when eating out.

BONNIE & CLYDE

Bonnie & Clyde is a longrunning cult Britishanimation series basedaround the adventures oftwo genetically modifiedgenetic Australian cats.Bonnie is a tomboytortoiseshell who looksafter her brother Clyde aphilosophical grey andwhite with latent ninja skills.Communication is all basedon facial expression andtail shape and movement –Bonnie’s tail oftenresembling an exclamationmark and Clyde’s aquestion mark. Theanimation is by claymation,an incredibly slow andpainstaking procedure,which means there are onlya very few episodes andmovies made. The show iswell known for appealing toboth adults and childrenalike with its well plottedsubtexts and humour.

VICTORIA CROSS

The Victoria Cross (VC) isBritain's highest award formilitary bravery, awardedonly for near suicidal (andoften fatal) acts of valour inthe face of the enemy. Firstawarded in 1856 in theaftermath of the CrimeanWar the medal has beenawarded just 1578 times in450 years and hasreputedly becomeincreasingly difficult to win.There have been 15 VCswon in the Kafer War so far,of which nine have beenawarded posthumously.There is a considerablebody of literature andmedia productionsgenerated on VC winnersand many survivorsbecome reclusive in laterlife. In addition to the Britishawarded VC; Wellon,Australia, Canada and NewZealand also have theirown version of the medal.

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Britain:2300ADModern French cuisine with its mixture of European and African elements hasdeclined recently in popularity but is still commonplace, although the British tastetends towards the Magrehbi influence. American-style fast food is easy to findalthough with a decided Texan and Mexican twist in many restaurants. Italian,Chinese and Thai food remain highly popular.

One British tradition that remains very strong is that of the local pub. The majorityof Britons have a local bar within 'staggering distance' where they can enjoy a pintof their favourite beer or other drink. Most British people will visit the pub at leastonce a week. Pub food is generally cheap and of a good standard while mostpubs screen key local and national sporting events. Opening hours are generallybetween 11am-11pm although many stay open later especially in city centres.

Locally produced alcoholic drinks include an array of types and styles of beer:lagers, bitters, pale ales, stouts etc, together with gin and famously Scottishwhisky. British wine is notoriously unimpressive and the country is a major wineimporter from France, Australia and America. Along with wine Britain imports avast array of alcoholic beverages and most are available from local 'off licenses'or supermarkets.

Tea remains the mainstay of non-alcoholic beverages in the UK although coffeeis also popular as is Tiranean Char. The old adage 'when in doubt, brew up' isstill very much a day to day part of British life.

Architecture

Britain has a wondrous array of architecture, despite the devastation of the late20th Century. There are several cities which retain their central core of genuinemedieval buildings and fortifications, whereas as other conurbations are entirelymodern in their outlook. Tourism to Britain is strongly based on Britain's culturalheritage, however much of this has been rebuilt and is not as old as mostforeigners believe. The modern Royal palaces of London, along with the Housesof Parliament, are not much over 250 years old.

Contemporary architecture is Britain has become dominated by the requirementto house Britain's large population and much of it is high-rise and high-density.This is a style sometimes known as 'dispersed arcology', with many entire districtshaving been rebuilt and redeveloped creating their own communities. Thisapproach has had its critics and success has been mixed with some districtsthriving and others falling into disrepair and social and economic failure.

Fashion

British fashion is a fairly unremarkable mixture. Common work ware is fairlyformal for those in office jobs, with most wearing uniform or equivalent suits, orpractical attire for those with more robust jobs. Middle class informal wear issimilar to that found around the English speaking world with trousers, shirts ort-shirts common. Sports based clothing is popular with the working classes andthose who passionately follow their football teams. The changeable weather isalso a factor and most people have practical jackets and umbrellas handy in caseof downpours. The colonial look, of rugged and practical clothing for informalwear, is very popular at the moment.

British haute-couture has a niche all of its own among the upper and middleclasses but some avant-garde designers apart is firmly a follower behind thelatest French fashion houses.

YORKSHIRE PUDDING

The Yorkshire Pudding is abatter based dish usuallyserved with roast beef andgravy. First formallydescribed in the 1700s, it ismade from a batter of flour,eggs, butter, milk andseasoning cooked in anoven. Yorkshire puddingscan be either small or large,usually swelling up like asoufflé, and form anintegral part of mosttraditional Sunday dinners.While simple in concept it isactually quite a difficultrecipe to master and manysimply buy theirs alreadymade from supermarkets.The combination of thebatter and sausagestogether is known as 'toadin the hole'.

TIKKA MASALA

The Tikka Masala is one ofthe most popular Britishcurries, and is a lightlyspiced dish served in acreamy yoghurt source andcan include a variety ofmeats. The origins of thedish are disputed, but mostregard it as typical of 20thCentury Anglo-Indiancuisine. The Tikka Masalacan be found on the menulists of both Indianrestaurants and most pubs.It is usually eaten with rice,naan bread and poppadums.

BITTER

Bitters are a range of darkerbrown pale ales which arevery popular in Britain andare brewed with a profusionof names, types andbreweries. Bitter is availablein cans and bottles as wellas on draught. Many pubsstill use traditional handpumps for bitters which arenot attached to chillers inthe same way as electricpumps for other beers.Hand pumps produce aspecific texture of beer andis reliant on the skill of thebarman, but the lack of achiller is the root of thecommon belief ofAustralians and others thatBritish drink warm beer.Popular and historic brandsinclude Tetley's,Boddingtons andTheakstons.

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Britain:2300ADDirector Resources

Personalities

Queen Margaret

Queen Margaret is the current monarch of Great Britain. She is the daughter of themuch loved King Christian who was forced to abdicate due to chronic illness, andtook the throne in 2301. Margaret, now in her late-30s, was born into a relativelyminor branch of the royal family with both her parents in RSN service and wasraised and educated on both Earth and Tirane. She served herself with the RSN'sIntelligence Division for a number of years before retiring into the reserve toremarkably take up the position of Governor General of Wellon at 29. Although acontroversial appointment for many she quickly won the hearts of the Wellonese,in part due to her long association with the country and in part due to her owncommon-sense, charisma and quick wittedness, although opponents claimed shewas always too involved in politics.

The gradual decay of King Christian, believed to be as a result of his long servicein zero-G conditions with the RSN, led to Margaret ascending the throne followinghis abdication. Margaret came to the throne at a time of crisis with the French Armand its British colonies under attack. She has responded with strong support forher government, but especially the armed forces taking great risks in combat andhas visited the front on two occasions during visits to Alicia and New Africa. Shehas also been heavily involved in diplomacy, shoring up British relations both withher allies and her rivals including a rare state visit to Buenos Aires.

The Queen's popularity is very high both in Britain and in the wider Commonwealth.She has been married to Richard Finnegan, a successful Barrister for ten yearsbut the couple have yet to have children, leading to a great deal of speculation asto her possible heir, who is currently her brother Edward, Duke of York, who isserving in the RSN on the French Arm.

The Rt Hon Joshua Lloyd Parry MP

Josh Parry is the current Prime Minister of Britain and leader of the Liberal Party.Parry is a professional politician who has worked his way up through the WelshAssembly and the robust politics of Swansea after graduating with a Law degree.He has previously held the position of Home Secretary in the Edgewood adminis-tration before leading his party to victory in 2299 on a platform of domestic reform.His tenure has however been dominated by the increasingly disastrous war on theFrench Arm, during which he has championed the defensive strategy which hasseen the Reserve Fleet held back. This policy was very controversial, but eventu-ally delivered the victory of the Battle of Beowulf.

Parry is due to hold an election in the next year and is hoping to return to adomestic focus. Parry is an intelligent and passionate man, but is innately conserv-ative in his approach. This has often put him at odds with more aggressive leadersoverseas, not to mention some of his own party members. Parry is married withthree children, the eldest of who is about to graduate from university.

Vice Admiral Lord Graham of Beowulf, RSN, KCAC, DSO

The newly ennobled Lord Graham is the victor of the Battle of Beowulf and themost notable military figure in the country. A long service officer of the Royal SpaceNavy of renowned competence and efficiency, if not flamboyance, he has beenone of the three key human Admirals in the war against the Kafers alongsideRochemont and Borodin. In fact Graham has had a difficult war forced to hold the

KHAKI ELECTION

The last British generalelection was in 2299 andwas dominated bydomestic issues and sawthe election of a Liberalgovernment. The crises ofthe Kafer War have seenoff-world issues come tothe fore, and the invasionof British colonies has ledto immense pressure onthe government. TheConservative Oppositionare hoping to maximiseon government failuresand to win the nextelection on a ‘khaki’platform of support to themilitary. Graham’s victoryat Beowulf has eased thispressure somewhat butthe Opposition arepushing for an election assoon as possible.

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Britain:2300ADline at Queen Alice's Star protecting the routes to Earth with the sometimesmotley Reserve Fleet while British and other colonies further up the Arm havebeen devastated. His performance at Beowulf and subsequent operations havegiven him a leading position in future strategy often juggling the demands of thevarious allied contingents and their home governments.

Graham is actually born on Wellon of Scots decent, but has spent most of hisadult life on a range of warships and stations across human space. Well knownfor his personal warmth and array of contacts across both the British and alliedmilitaries, Graham is fluent in French and German as well as English. He hasserved on secondment with both the American and French space forces as wellas having been the commander of the Duke of York. Graham is a widower, hiswife was a station administrator, and has two grown children neither of whom arein the military. Graham's life is dedicated to the military and committed tocompleting the clearance of the French Arm of the Kafer threat.

Sir Alan Robertson

Sir Alan is the CEO of the British based Trans-Indi multinational trading concern.Trans-Indi has most of its assets in the Chinese and American Arms but has alsohad its operations disrupted on the French Arm. Trans-Indi concentrates on bulkand high value shipping as well as orbital mining and prospecting. Sir Alan hasworked for Trans-Indi his entire 38 year career including postings to Stark andHan Shan, although in the last two decades he has worked primarily from HeadOffice in London. Sir Alan controls the operations of the concern with a great eyefor detail and a canny knack for diplomacy being as comfortable in Beijing as inReston.

Sir Alan has impressive clout in his role with Trans-Indi and links into the BritishColonial and Trade Offices. It was Sir Alan's influence which has driven thepresence of RSN anti-piracy efforts on the Chinese Arm and equally steeredBritain away from full military participation in the Central Asian War. Sir Alan'srivalry with fellow magnate Nicholas Ruffin has survived the latter's rise to powerin France but tensions are still evident. Sir Alan's time at the top of Trans-Indi iscoming to an end as he approaches retirement with eagre subordinates lookingfor advancement, but he is unlikely to go quietly. Sir Alan has been married twiceand has a dozen children and grandchildren, many of whom are also workingtheir way into business.

Rob Butler

Roberta 'Rob' Butler is the lead singer of The Adamants, a Bristol basedfunkpunk group currently dominating the British charts and making headway intothe English speaking music scene across a dozen worlds. Paisley born Rob isone of the founder members of the band, and although she doesn’t giveinterviews she is often in the news as a result of a constant stream of arrests foralcohol and drug misuse and has even served jail time in Vancouver. Highlytalented those close to her fear she is headed for a classic ‘rock and roll’ fate ofa break down or early death.

Joanna Phillips

Midlands born Jo Phillips is a footballer who is currently captain of both ArsenalLadies and England. A classic ‘midfield dynamo’ Phillips is an attractive andcharismatic figurehead who was behind the semi-final success of the Englandteam in the 2300 Ladies World Cup and hopes to go one better in 2304. Phillipsis a role model for female sports and has an almost ubiquitous media presencehelped by the ladies currently being more successful than the men’s team.Phillips has been romantically linked to several high profile figures, but is

CLIPPER SHIPS

Lacking any FTLtransmission capabilitycommunications out to thecolonies are entirely relianton the movement of data orvery occasionally hard copyon board ships. While mostdata is carried, for a fee, inthe databanks of shipstravelling on routine routesthere was also a market formore rapid transit. Clippersare high speed shipsdesigned to transit betweenstars carrying data, VIPpassengers and high valuecargo often operating in arelay with other ships.These ships most famouslyoperated on the ChineseArm during the high tensionduring the Central AsianWar and were at risk frompirates, privateers andunfriendly warships. Manyof these ships becamefamous and competitionswere held for the fastesttravel including the famousEarth-Clarksstar Run. Theeconomic conditions forthese ships are no longerfavourable and many werescrapped or sold on,however several areenjoying a second career asprivateers and scouts onthe French Arm.

Trans-Indi is a major user ofclippers, although some ofits classes of vessels havebeen more succesful thanothers. Its revolutionaryKingfisher Class shipsproved uneconomical andhave since been leased toHMG.

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Britain:2300ADcurrently dating Tomas Rose lead singer of the rock band The 8 Ball. Phillips isconstantly stalked by the paparazzi looking for new stories.

Careers

Police

The British  police officer  or 'bobby'  remains an iconic figure in British societyand  the popular media. The British police  officer is usually unarmed in theconduct of their duties, although all are firearms trained, but also have extensiveunarmed combat training. British police generally have a reputation for profession-alism, wry humour and honesty and, although bad apples obviously exist, institu-tionalised corruption is rare. Police cover the usual array of duties includingcommunity, traffic, criminal investigation through to more specialist firearms andcounter-subversion roles of the 'Special Branch'.

Initial Skills: Sidearm-1, Melee-2, Streetwise-2, Information Gathering-2,Ground Vehicle-1, Psychology-1, Bureacracy-1Primary Skills: Underworld Skills, Intellectual Skills, General Skills, Melee,Sidearm, LinguisticsRelated Skills: Vehicle Skills, Psychology, Journalistic Skills

Professional Sports Player

In sports mad Britain many people make highly successful careers out of playingsports; with a few becoming fantastically wealthy and famous. In Britain this ismost commonly the case with football players, but is also true of other areas suchas golf, motorsports etc. Most professional sports players specialise at an earlyage and most will obtain only sports related tertiary education, although somesports are different. The longevity of professional sports careers can vary remark-ably between a few years to several decades, but almost all will go on to othercareers with the exception of those who are successful enough to becomeindependently wealthy. (Requires at least one physical attribute to be 15+).

Initial Skills: One physical attribute +2, Ground Vehicle-1Primary Skills: One physical attribute +1 per turning point, Streetwise,Bureaucracy, Melee, Swim, Riding, Vehicle Skills, First AidRelated Skills: Medical, Intellectual Skills

Musician

Many people make careers as musicians in Britain; ranging from lightweight popacts to members of classical orchestras. While many people have some sort ofmusical talent very few actually make a living out of it and most people whoundertake this career also have another form of employment to pay their day today bills. At the other end of the scale are those who are able to ‘break’ andbecome nationally or even internationally famous either as a result of their owntalent or of that of their management.

Initial Skills: Music-3, Streetwise-2, Information Gathering-1, Ground Vehicle-1Primary Skills: Underworld Skills, Intellectual Skills, Music, Melee,Related Skills: Vehicle Skills, Psychology, Journalistic Skills

Minor noble

As a result of its hundreds of years of history Britain has a large of noble familiesof a variety of backgrounds; new and old, wealthy and impoverished. Most of thescions of these families make their way through life perfectly normally, othersmake more use of their ‘position’ in society; whether that be through exclusiveclubs, the ‘right’ social circles, prestigious colleges and fashionable nightlife.

I PREDICT A RIOT

Britons have aninternational reputation aspolite and law-abidingpeople, and this isgenerally the case. Thereare occasions howeverwhen the British will take tothe streets and protest,which can sometimes leadto significant violencebetween crowds and thepolice. Full scale riotsbetween fans followingfootball games are nowrelatively rare, althoughsporadic violencecommonplace. Large scaleprotests in central Londonagainst French militarismwere relatively frequent inthe period 2288-92 andcould sometimes spill intoviolence especially in theFrench embassy. Raceriots have been known,usually when a minoritypopulation feels poorlytreated by the authorities –the so-called ‘Battle ofTrafalgar’ between policeand CAR ethnic refugees in2291 was perhaps themost spectacular in recenttimes. Issue motivatedprotests can also occurwith a very small PAX rallyin London in 2301 beingattacked by right-wingopponents. British policeresponse is usually robust,although less violent thanits French equivalents.

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Britain:2300ADWhile often derided as ‘toffs’, ‘hooray Henry’s’, ‘sloans’ and the like, some makevery valuable contacts and links which pay off later in life. Only the wealthiest canmaintain this dilettante lifestyle for long and most move on to a more long termcareer in their mid to late 30s.

Initial Skills: Computer-1, Melee-1, Streetwise-1, Information Gathering-1,Ground Vehicle-1, Psychology-1, Bureacracy-1, Leader-1Primary Skills: Intellectual Skills, General Skills, Vehicle SkillsRelated Skills: Academic Skills, Journalistic Skills, Underworld Skills

‘Boffin’

The ‘boffin’ has its own peculiar place in British popular mythologist from the timeof WW2 as an obscure, sometimes eccentric scientist, technician or engineer.The usually solitary boffin labours away on projects often overlooked by moreconventional organisations, yet eventually emerges with a groundbreaking devel-opment. The likes of Barnes Wallis and Alan Turing started the stereotype but itcontinues to be true today especially in the research labs of many universities.The corporation British Exospace has several small bespoke labs specificallydesigned to make use of this phenomenon.

Initial Skills: Computer-1, Information Gathering-2, Theoretic Science-2,Bureacracy-1Primary Skills: One Academci Skill, Intellectual Skills, General Skills, Melee,Sidearm, LinguisticsRelated Skills: Two Academic Skills, Writing

Chancer

The chancer is a British petty criminal with the eye for the main chance or apotential big deal. The chancer has worked an apprenticeship in petty crime suchas burglary, car theft, small scale drug dealing or confidence tricks and is nowlooking to expand. The chancer may look to create his own criminal group, takesomeone down a peg or two, or simply bring off an innovative heist. Charming,roguish and cunning he may be, but the chances are his career may well not bea long one.

Initial Skills: Streetwise-3, Melee-2, Information Gathering-2, Ground Vehicle-1,Forgery-1, Computer-1Primary Skills: Underworld Skills, Information Gathering, MeleeRelated Skills: Vehicle Skills, General Skills, Computer, Bureaucracy

Wildlife

Britain is a nation well known for its non-threatening wildlife, indeed it has onlyone native venomous snake and that is small, very rare and not deadly to humans.Compared with other nations and especially off-world colonies a walk in theBritish countryside is almost completely safe.

Farming animals

Cows are very common in the countryside and are farmed for meat and dairyproducts. British cows are highly bred for productivity and produce excellentyields. Sheep are farmed in the less productive areas such as the Welsh hills,Pennines and in the north of Scotland. They are hardy animals who produce woolas well as meat. Deer are also farmed, but are much less common, and can alsobe found wild in some remote parts of the islands. There are numerous othermore exotic animals which are farmed on a more specialised basis; such asostriches, alpacas and even a few kangaroos.

RULING THE WAVES

British national identity isclosely associated with itsposition as an island nationand its seafaring traditions,as such the role of theRoyal Navy (RN) as the‘Senior Service’ has beenone of major importance forthe country. The RN hasbeen the Earths mostdominant navy on severaloccasions especially in the19th and mid-22ndCenturies. The RN is still animportant and powerfulforce with numerouscarriers and submarinegroups deployed in theSouth Atlantic and Homewaters. The RN also has asmall presence off-world onthe oceans surroundingBritain’s colonies.

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Britain:2300ADHorses

Britain still has a relatively large horse population which is divided between racingand domestic purposes. There are a number of areas in the country wherenumerous racehorses are bred and trained. The ownership of horses forrecreational purposes is still common across the country, but especially in ruralareas, and many young girls still grow up wanting their own horse.

Domesticated Animals

Domesticated pets are almost universal in Britain, prompting some outsiders tothink that the British like their pets more than their children. Indeed the RoyalSociety for the Protection of Animals was formed in 1824 more than 60 yearsbefore its counterpart for the protection of children. Cats and dogs are by far themost common pets, although small rodents, birds, reptiles and a host of otherscan also be found. Virtually no home is without a pet of some kind, and thePentapod’s biosampler has been hugely successful as a pet for small childrenprompting speculation of a further range of product launches.

Wild Animals

Wild animals are relatively uncommon in Britain, but can still be found in a numberof locations. Rabbits are prolific in the countryside, although generally held incheck by predators. Foxes are found in both rural and urban areas, and a limitednumber are hunted each year. Badgers are present in the countryside in smallnumbers. A small but well established population of grey wolves inhabit thenorthern Highlands of Scotland having been introduced there in the mid 2000s.Lastly no moor in Britain is complete without is own ‘beast’ or rarely sightedcreature such as a big dog or cat that occasionally preys on sheep or otheranimals. The usual explanation is that these are escaped panthers or other bigcat escaped from zoos or private collections although recent sightings haveclaimed to have been of more alien creatures. Actual proof of the existence ofthese animals is very hard to come by.

Campaigns

The Royal Society

The Royal Society is a British foundation which was initially formed in 1660 undera Royal Charter as a body dedicated to the expansion of scientific knowledge andincluded the foremost minds of the day including Christopher Wren, RobertHooke, Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton amongst others. The fortunes of theRoyal Society waxed and waned, but were dramatically revived in the aftermathof WW3 under the initial patronage of King Charles III.

The post-Twilight Royal Society was thrust into the forefront of the recovery of thenation with scientists pioneering economic, agricultural and industrialimprovements. It was the Royal Society that provided much of the intellectualhorsepower that allowed Britain to enter space and become a colonising nation.Indeed it was long term Royal Society programs as much as short term ColonialOffice policies that have led to Britain’s current position with largely self-sustaining colonies.

Today the Royal Society still retains influence in the scientific arena, especially inthe sometimes idiosyncratic realm of advanced theoretical science which Britainstill excels in. However its long term colonial strategies have been somewhatundermined by short term political measures, in part related to the destabilisationof Europe since the 2280s. Membership, especially Fellowships, of the RoyalSociety are still extremely prestigious in British society and match the great andthe good with some of the nation’s finest brains. The Royal Society maintains

SHIPS OF THE ROYALSOCIETY

The Royal Society worksclosely with the scouts ofthe RSN's AstrographicService but also maintainsits own small fleet ofexploration and laboratoryships. The Royal Societyhas three small and ageingexploration vessels Beagle,Endeavour and Pathfinderwhich are equipped forscouting and surveyingduties. It also has threelarger and more modernscientific vessels Sir IsaacNewton, Sir StevenHawking and LordRamage. The RoyalSociety lacks the highmedia profile of the ARI,but conducts a steady andeffective program ofresearch and exploration.The Endeavour was caughton the French Arm duringthe Kafer attack butmanaged to survive afterreaching the shelter of theRochemont's 3rd Fleet.

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Britain:2300ADstrong links with similar bodies such as the ARI, FPK and its more adventurouscousin the Royal Geographical Society.

The Royal Society is based in London at the Carlton Building in St. James, a sitebequeathed to it during London’s post war rebuilding, although it has manybranch offices. The Royal Society’s current President is Sir Arthur Kelly a noted,if sometimes controversial, stutterwarp physics specialist and bon-viveur.

Show me the Money

The PCs have become involved in a potential colonial expedition to a remotelocation that may have great rewards in knowledge or resources at the end of it.The only problem is getting the expedition off the ground, all of which requiresmoney and patronage. The players have to work their way around London societyand commerce using whatever levers; fame, favours or blackmail, they mighthave to try and obtain funding for the expedition. These sources of funding couldrange from the prestige of the Royal Society, to a contract with a transnational allthe way through to a combination of high-interest financing and ageing trampfreighter depending on how successful they are. On the way they may crosspaths with celebrities, ministers, businessmen, academics and criminals. Thejourney will not be a smooth one.

Man vs Ice

The British have long had a fascination with exploration and the Antarctic hasbeen a particularly popular destination. The resource exploitation activities on thecontinent and the rise in military tension between those involved, not to mentionthe ever present draw of off-world exploration, has made expeditions problemati-cal in recent years. However in the last few years the Royal Geographical Society(RGS) has driven a championed a new wave of Antarctic exploration. The leaderof this effort has been Sir Michael Ford, a former Royal Marine officer, arcticexpert, popular television presenter and classmate of Queen Margaret.

Ford has recently left on an expedition to the centre of the continent on board theairship Sir Vivian Fuchs with a team of seven other RGS members and a BBC filmcrew. After two weeks of exploration and constant updates from a region claimedby both the British and Argentines nothing has been heard for the past week.British military air reconnaissance efforts have been stymied by Argentine airforce patrols and both nations have stepped up both rhetoric and military activities.The RGS have organised a rescue expedition from their main base at Rotherawith the airship Terra Nova and a specially team of trouble shooters and RGSscientists and experts. The RGS hopes to get into the area, find their missingpeople and avoid provoking a military confrontation.

The Firefly Factor

Angus Gordon is the one of British Exospace's most innovative small starshipdesigners, although many of his ships have not made it past the drawing boarddue to conservatism on the BEx board. Gordon's most recent masterpiece is theKilliecrankie class of scouts a cutting edge design optimised to roam behindenemy lines raiding and gathering information. However production of the Killie-crankies has been suspended as British line warship production has been in-creased to counter large Kafer battleships. Gordon has also been working on anew fighter, the Firefly, designed to replace the ageing Wellington in RSN servicehowever progress on this has also stalled.

Gordon has not taken this news well and has disappeared from RNAS Machriha-nish in Argyllshire in Scotland where testing of the Firefly was underway. Gordonis renowned as a hill walker and it is believed he might have simply taken himselfaway from his job for a while. On the other hand BEx security division suspect that

TERRA NOVA

The Terra Nova is aDiscovery Class airshipbelonging to the RGS and isa highly modified cargo zepdesigned for operationsover Antarctica which hasbeen further modified forexploration. The Terra Novacan carry 15 crew andpassengers in spartanquarters together with asignificant payload forvehicles and cargo. Theairship is designed with anexplosive anchoring systemwhich can hold it firmly tothe ground in all but thefiercest of storms.Discovery Class airshipsare operated not only by theRGS but also by the BritishAntarctic Survey and alsothe British military.

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Britain:2300ADManchurian intelligence have been involved in surveillance on the Firefly proto-type and may have even attempted to kidnap the designer. BEx have called ontheir links with the Royal Society to obtain a team who can track down and protectGordon as production of the Killiecrankie may have to be restarted immediately.The PCs will have to track down the missing scientist across Scotland andconvince him to return to BEx and complete his work.

Fleet Street

British news providers are a famously aggressive and sometimes rowdy bunchcollectively known as 'Fleet Street' after the famous street where many first hadtheir premises. They range from low brow tabloid organisations hungry for thelatest celebrity gossip to intellectual broadsheets pondering on the importantissues of the day. Entrepreneur Nick O'Connor has recently launched a new newsservice The Mercury which he hopes to plant in the middle ground being bothpopulist but also serious. He has leased an old building in Fleet Street and hireda group of eager, up and coming journalists and support staff to man it.

The Peer and the White Feather

Captain the Lord George Dominic St.John Percy is the youngest son of the Dukeof Northumberland and is currently an officer in the prestigious Grenadier Guardswhose 2nd Battalion are currently stationed in London on ceremonial duties. LordGeorge has an unenviable reputation as a dilettante, bon vivant and ladies man.The Mercury has received information that Lord George, current Second inCommand of No.1 Company has refused an order to join a reinforcement draftgoing out to Grenadier's 1st Battalion on Beta Canum. Lord George has longbeen regarded as a poor soldier and an unpopular officer, but this leak suggestshe has used his position to avoid active service.

A team from the Mercury has been assigned to get to the truth of the matter,whether Lord George has been misunderstood or whether he is a coward. Theywill have to deal with an obstructionist military unwilling to give easy access to theofficer. Luckily Lord George is an almost permanent fixture in the London socialscene and should the team be able to penetrate the rarefied circles in which hemoves they may be able to obtain an exclusive. The team will also need to lookat the source of the leak which may be a disgruntled soldier, a spurned lover orsomeone within the command of the regiment.

Dragon Lords

Harry Ellison is the Edinburgh based author of the hugely popular 'Dragon Lords'series of fantasy/sci-fi novels set on an alternate Beowulf. The books follow thelife of the orphan Diomede Phillips as she grows up as a mage and familiar to theSua dragons of Beowulf and have spawned spin off movies, games and virtualreality environments. Ellison, a former Leith dockyard worker and nowimpressively wealthy, is about to release the eagerly awaited 10th book in hisseries.

Unfortunately however a copy of the closely guarded manuscript hasdisappeared. The Mercury has received an anonymous message from a memberof the public who claims to have the manuscript. The Mercury would love to gethold of exclusive extracts but the tip-off claims to come from someone who hasinformation on the author which ranges from a dissolute past through to the theftof the idea of Dragon Lords from another, now deceased writer. The team will findthemselves on the first train north to Scotland to discover the truth or otherwiseof the matter.

Sports

WHO DARES WINS

British special forces havea profile far above that ofthe regular UK military andregularly appear in newsand entertainment mediapresentations. In fact Britishspecial forces, grouped as'UKSF', are a small but verywell trained body who areutilised as the cutting edgeof British covertgovernment policy. Themain units are the SpecialAir Service (SAS) drawnmainly from the Army, andnot the Royal Air Force, theSpecial Boat Service (SBS)and the Special PlanetaryService (SPS) raised fromthe Royal Marines. UKSFhas been heavily involvedin the Kafer War andseveral best sellingmemoirs have recentlybeen published.

Former UKSF personnelcan be encountered indozens of differentprofessions frombodyguarding to journalismafter leaving the service.Indeed membership of oneof these elite units is oftenclaimed by those desperatefor troubleshooter stylecareers.

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Britain:2300ADBritain's obsession with football is well known around the world and mediacoverage reaches saturation level even for routine matches. The Mercury is noexception and has a large sports team. However a tip off has been received thatthere is a significant network amongst some senior players in a number of teamswhich has been involved in match fixing. A special investigative team has beenestablished to look into the matter an gain an impressive scoop. The team maywell have to break into the inner circle of some of the players who may haveorganised crime links and the investigation may prove to be more dangerous thatwas first expected.

A Life of Crime

Criminal life in Britain is a little different from that in many other countries. Largescale organised crime is present, but concentrates more on the corporate side ofits business, particularly money laundering. Criminal groups on the streets aremost often local groups without wider affiliation how rise or fall over a matter ofmonths, years or decades. Rarely does one group completely dominate andinterests overlap and interlink. In addition firearms are not readily available,resulting in a somewhat (although not always) less lethal criminal scene.

This means there is more room for the petty criminal and the chancer or smallgroups of them to make a living on the margins and occasionally make a big haul.For inspiration movies such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch,Layer Cake or the original Italian Job can provide good inspiration.

The following scenarios are designed to be linked together with common orgarden British crime linked into a wider plot by a provolution cell.

God Save the Queen

In London in 1977, the year of the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, an obscurepunk band called the Sex Pistols released a then highly controversial music singlecalled ‘God Save the Queen’. The song linked the Monarchy and fascism andwas generally seen as an assault on then British society. It has since beencovered on dozens of occasions and the original retains an off-beat popularity.

An original limited edition A&M label, rather than the later more numerous Virginedition vinyl single (an ancient form of music recording) has been located in ahouse sale in a rough area of London. Copies of this track that survived theTwilight are literally worth their weight in gold.

The PC’s are hired by a non-too fussy, but wealthy, music collector to try andobtain the track before it is publicly revealed and put on the market. The onlyobstacles are that the track is now in the hands of a criminal gang who arebecoming aware of the value of what they have, an inquisitive media and twoother competing groups.

Sledding

The end of the Central Asian War has saw a great deal of surplus militaryequipment come onto the open market. In Britain this has led to the rise of a newmotorsport involving demilitarised surplus combat ACVs popularly known assledding. This has numerous forms including rally, race-track and amphibiousdisciplines using a range of vehicles old hover-tanks to single man utilities. Whilesledding has declined from the height of its popularity in the 2290s it remainswidespread with a thriving base of fans, drivers and custom mechanics. IndeedBritish hover-tank manufacturer Vickers has a specialist arm devoted to sleddingproducing components and custom racing designs.

FARAZ TWINS

The Faraz twins are two ofthe most dangerouscriminals currently workingin Britain. They are actuallyWellonese from PointSterling who are notoriousclan ‘gun boys’ currently onthe run from their previousemployers. Of Cantonese-Nigerian extraction they aretall and athletic, althoughthey lack the typical facialscarring of gun boys, andare highly proficient inarmed and unarmedcombat. Currently theywork for the highest bidderand have a steadilyincreasing reputation in theBritish underworld.

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Britain:2300ADWhile most sledding is entirely benign it also has its dark side with involvement insmuggling from the continent which also had its roots in support runs to theFlemish insurgency in the early 2290s once the border crossing from theNetherlands became too dangerous. Even today some sledders, are implicatedin the movement of illicit goods from the continent or Ireland to Britain and back.Indeed the team is tasked to investigate one such operation at the behest of alocal figure who believes illegal weaponry is being smuggled into the country foruse against him.

Jack’s Back

There has been a spate of deaths within the poorest communities of the East Endof London. The victims have all been members of the underclass; drug dealers,junkies and ravers. The number of deaths has reached double figures in a matterof months, however the Metropolitan Police have yet to make any breaks in thecase let alone arrests.

The crimes show signs of immense sophistication with a range of methods andmeans being used in the commission of the crime. In one of the most recentmurders a hacked street cleaning robot was deemed to be the weapon, in one ofthe earliest surveillance cameras had been negated, in another a witness wasdrugged with a psychosis inducing chemical. Without concrete leads the Met isfloundering and unable to advance their investigation with many theories abound-ing as to the identity of the criminal or criminals.

The PCs are approached by a local businessman of dubious reputation whowishes to hire them to conduct their own investigations unhindered by the legalrestraints of the police.

Provolution Now!

London has long been renowned for its diverse and multicultural character fed bywaves of immigration. The Central Asian War saw a number of refugees fromboth western CAR and Uyghurs from the Manchurian province of Xinjiang arrivein London and form their own communities, predominantly in south London. Partsof these communities have been infiltrated by Provolution activists and youngermembers have become sympathetic to the cause and even activists themselves.

This has led to the development of two rival ethnic gangs, one CAR (‘the HotSteppers’) and one Xinjiang (‘Nine Clans’) based, operating in south London.These groups have been keeping a relatively low profile in terms of overt crimebut have become active in computer crime, illegal cybernetics and sale of illicitfirearms; enabling other criminal groups. The ethnic origins of the groups havemade them hard for the police and MI5 to gain much good intelligence on.Recently however the relationship between the two groups have deteriorated witha set of tit-for-tat killings and a full scale conflict looks likely to erupt whichProvolution is hoping to make use of to conduct terrorist attacks across London.

PROVOLUTION

Provolution is the extremistpost-humanist movementwhich has moved intoanarchic terrorism. Amixture of proto-Communist, anti-state,technocratic and anti-colonialist the Provolutionmovement has exploded inthe aftermath of the CentralAsian War. Many veterans,predominantly Manchurianbut from all sides, boughtinto revisionist Provolutionrhetoric and combined itwith force. It was rumouredthat in the early 2290sManchurian cities were rifewith Provolutionist agitationand violence contained onlyby harsh policing.Provolution has sinceexpanded, most notably inthe colonies on the ChineseArm, with terrorist actionsaimed at state andcommercial targets and isnow spreading across thecore. Provolution operatesin a sophisticated cellstructure utilising hightechnology with the supportof its numeroussympathisers, and due toits anarchistic leanings andlack of concrete aims hasproven to be very difficult tocounter. It is also involvedin smuggling high techequipment, including illegalbionics.

Provolution was slow incoming to Britain but is nowmaking up for lost time. It isprimarily concentrated inthe big cities and targetingdisaffected youth forrecruitment into anexpanding network prior toa large campaign. It isbelieved that there are atleast 4 Provolution 'activeservice units', cellsconducting terrorist attacks,in operation in Britain.Police Special Branch andMI5 officers areincreasingly focussed onthis growing threat.

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Britain:2300ADDesign Notes

Britain has relatively little coverage in 2300AD, in large part to the game’s earlyconcentration on France and the later on American contributions to the Kafer War.What information there is on the UK can also be contradictory with some works ofcanon directly in conflict with each other. For this work I have drawn on an earlierarticle ‘Britain in 2300AD’ which looks at how Britain is depicted in canon. Theresult is a Britain which is roughly equal to Germany in terms of power andinfluence, but which still lags behind France. I have also not taken into accountanything from the 2320AD setting.

There are some small variations from canon. I have not repeated the ‘Monarchsof the UK’ list by Loren Wiseman, primarily as the reign of Queen Alice differsfrom that depicted in the Colonial Sourcebook, although I have not strayed farfrom it. I have not mentioned the Faroe Islands which are depicted in theEarth/Cybertech Sourcebook mapping as being part of the UK. Similarly the fateof Hong Kong is not mentioned in 2300AD canon, although it is mentioned inTwilight:2000 canon as still being still in British control in 2000. I haveconsequently left Hong Kong as a UK dependency if only for its value as anentrepôt for adventurers into Asia and meeting place between East and West. Ihave also varied from the E/C SB depiction of common work practices.

I have attempted where possible to avoid either a Hollywood or a ‘Four Weddingsand a Funeral’ view of the UK although there is obviously some truth in some filmclichés. My intent for this work was to create a single sourcebook on France,Germany and Britain as the three main powers in Europe, however the initial writeup became increasingly large on its own to merit a stand alone. I hope toeventually complete companion works on France and Germany.

As always this work is not an attempt to foist my views on canon on others but toprovide a basis for adventures which can be changed as required. Wherepossible this book is consistent with my previous work, although no doubt thereare mistakes for which I am entirely responsible.

Bibliography

Bryn Monnery’s UK 2300AD siteMonarchs of the UK article at Pentapod’s WorldBritain in 2300 at EtrangerBritish Army: 2300AD at EtrangerRAF: 2300AD at EtrangerWellon site at Tirane SourcebookNew Cornwall article at 2300AD: Humanity Among the StarsDavid Nilson’s Three Blind Mice Challange magazine article at Pentapod’s World

GDW’s 2300AD canon

Britain: 2300AD

The 2300 AD game in all forms is owned by Far FutureEnterprises. Copyright 1986 - 2003 Far FutureEnterprises. 2300 AD is a registered trademark of FarFuture Enterprises. Far Future permits web sites andfanzines for this game, provided it contains this notice,that Far Future is notified, and subject to a withdrawal ofpermission on 90 days notice. The contents of this bookare for personal, non-commercial use only. Any use ofFar Future Enterprises's copyrighted material ortrademarks anywhere in this wotk should not be viewedas a challenge to those copyrights or trademarks.

The Past

Britain, home to the English,Scots and Welsh, has risen andfallen from greatness many timesover its history. It was islandnation that grew from waves ofinvasions; Normans, Angles,Jutes, Saxons and Vikings allwashed over its shores and mixedwith the native Celts forming itsunique culture. The British were apeople who looked overseas fromtheir comfortable island nationand through trade and invasiongained an Empire by the 19thCentury on which ‘the sun neverset’. Although the Irish said it wasbecause God didn’t trust them inthe dark.

The 20th Century and its threebloody wars saw the Britishdecline from their position as theworld’s leading nation. They hada long slow climb out of thedevastation of the ‘Twilight’,largely thanks to their cooperationwith the ascendant French, but bythe mid-22nd Century they beganto build another empire asmankind reached to the stars.

Britain was once again a confident,prosperous nation built upon theevolution of traditions andinstitutions.

The Present

The old certainties of the last 300years are gone. France has foughttwo bitter wars in Asia and Europeand suffered unprecedentedpolitical upheaval. A new GermanRepublic has risen from theBalkanised German States,humbled France, and upset thebalance of power in Europe andbeyond. America is slowlyemerging from her isolationismand moving outside of her normalsphere of influence. Out on theFrench Arm the alien Kafers areinvading human colony worlds,including British ones, unleashingdevastation and genocide in a warspanning light years.

Mainland Britain so far remainsuntouched by these conflicts butthe strains are beginning to tell inpolitical and economic life. For theaverage Brit however nothingmuch has changed; the routine of

work, watching the football and aquiet pint down the pub remainsas it has for centuries. Britishcultural life and its profusion ofwriters, artists and musicianskeep it in the internationalspotlight.

The Future

Under the youthful QueenMargaret the future is uncertainfor the British. The old alliancewith France is unstable; caughtbetween French political turmoiland German resurgence. TheBritish-led counter-attack againstthe Kafers following the Battle ofBeowulf has given room to re-take the lost colonies but the waragainst the Kafers hangs in thebalance. Britain has had to takean increasing level of prominenceat the head of an alliance ofAnglophone nations.

Land of Hope and Glory