England can be split into several key areas:
The South: The South has always been where most of the non-industrial companies have made their home, and today is no exception. Most of the money is considered to be in this area, and generally the standard of living is higher than the rest of the country. However what was once a major tourist area has slackened off somewhat since the turn of the century.
The North: The North has always seemed to be the main centre of industry and mining for the country, and has always been the hardest hit. With most of the coal mines now closed, there is a lot of unemployment here. The struggling shipping construction firms have attempted to make a slight recovery with the need for sturdy boats for water duelling and have retooled some of their closed plants for this need. The result so far is numerous small companies competing where there used to be only two or three. With a high percentage of the population here unemployed, television is the areas number one 'import', and consequently autoduelling has been well received. Most of the cities here have arenas of some kind, and they are nearly always full, with the crowds continuing the duels on the way home.
The Midlands: The West Midlands has always been the centre of the British Car Industry, however in the latter part of the last century this was in great decline, and the following years didn't help much. However, with the advent of Autoduelling, this area has undergone a spectacular recovery. The car manufacturers here build not just for the local economy, but also abroad to America and the continent, and the area just seems to keep booming. The weapons manufacturers have also set up shop here - close to the car factories, and the area has been christened "New Detroit". Not a good place to start trouble.
The East Midlands is the main centre for the food industry. The main algae farms are here, as are the new recovering real farms. Heavily guarded by the farmers and their buyers, this is about the only place in Britain where you can see convoys of trucks and escorts, and as they are food convoys, their escorts are usually a bit trigger happy.
England is also split into Counties. These are administrative parts of the country, and there are around 91 counties in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Each county has it's own local council and runs the place as it sees fit. It is responsible for the upkeep of the roads, public amenities, budget for the Police force, local taxes and so on. Americans should be noted that counties are not like states. Crossing a county line gives no protection at all from the police.
Public transport is still quite a booming industry. Armoured buses are common plying the intercity routes and also supporting the fortress hamlets and villages close by. Fares range from around £1 for a short intercity hop, to several pounds in high risk areas. Taxi's are common, and with the advent of autoduelling, they have become a even more fearsome obstacle for the lowly pedestrian. England has always had a large (if not very successful) rail service, and today this has been revitalised to enable safe passage for people and freight between towns and the countryside. Several companies run the rail network, and the level of service depends on the company, but all run armed trains with a sizeable maintenance team to keep the tracks in safe repair. They are partially subsidised by the government in yet another of its 'Let's cut the number of cars and congestion campaigns', which in typical fashion, has the reverse effect. Still, rail travel is fairly cheap and relatively safe and connects almost every major town in the country with each other.
Due to the lack of oil and the scraping of the large airliners, the air industry has been hit hard, and has had to re-think it's strategy. Airports these days tend to cater mainly for small aircraft and helicopters, with the larger airports having airship facilities. The two major airports are Gatwick and Heathrow, both situated around the London area, and cater for all types of air travel. They even keep one or two of their main runways open, although these rarely cater for anything too large. The other runways were left to decay, until the advent of duelling when they were re-opened as combat and racing stadiums to supplement the ever decreasing profits of the airports. The only major off-country travel is done through these two airports.
England has always had it's policemen represented by the typical friendly bobby on his push bike. During the food riots, this image disappeared completely when the police were armed and basically turned into another branch of the armed forces. Today, the police are trying to rid themselves of this image, and attempting to get back to the bobby on the push bike. However, these days the bike is represented by a state of the art police car with armour and weapons. Blended body armour (sponsored by Armour Tech) is the norm, with heavier armours worn in high risk areas or during civil unrest. The police are also armed, usually just with a heavy pistol, but depending on the circumstances, this can be increased to an SMG or assault rifle.
The modern police force is still a country wide organisation, but now it just patrols the major cities. It's manpower is too low to attempt to do much else. Thus small security firms have sprung up to fill the void left by the lack of police. These hire themselves out to whoever can afford them, and can range from small units with a few people and a couple of cars, to firms that can rival the local police establishment.
The police themselves drive white vehicles with yellow and orange reflective stripes. The county's badge is positioned on the side doors. The typical police uniform is black with silver badges. The purpose of this has always been high profile, and even in today's more violent society, that is still the case.
If you get in trouble with the law, then for minor offences (like speeding, openly carrying illegal weapons, nothing major), then you will likely just get a spot fine.
Other offences will require you to stand before a Judge at a county court and get sentenced. Sentences will generally be limited to fines, jail sentences or community service. The days of capital punishment that sprung up from the Food Riot years are long gone. England has also never believed in forced labour either, so it is jail sentences that are generally handed out. Unlike certain areas of the world where a life sentence is around 10 - 20 years, here, life is life.
Sentences range from a few months (reckless driving and causing accidents), to a couple of years illegal duelling with intent to cause bodily harm, to 10+ years for murder, smuggling and the ilk. Time can be taken off for good behaviour, and suspended sentences can be common for celebrities.
As a result of this habit, English jails are quite full. There has never been enough of them to go round, and conditions in some jails are horrendous, ranging from over crowding to prisoners doing minor time being placed in the same cells as prisoners in for murder.
If you find yourself in prison, the first thing to do is to find out which guards can be bribed, and then get onto the good side of them, for while actual prisoner cruelty is rare, life can go a bit smoother if you have a friend in the right place.
While in the UK citizens can now legally carry firearms and own bigger calibre weapons than at any other time in it's history, the general attitude for the country is that it is a necessity to do so, not a generally good thing.
Of course there are exceptions, gangs, jack-the-lads and various other types of people embraced the legality with open arms, but the massive 'Americanism' of common shoot-outs with the people, general 'Joe-Blogs' blowing his neighbour away for no apparent reason and the ilk, has not happened. Armed robbery has not escalated to the degree's that it might of, and it still seems that if you can do something without shooting a weapon, then that's a good thing.
Psychologists aren't quite sure about the reasons for this, but it a generally accepted theory that it is because the population just aren't used to being around guns. The English have tried to ban weapons for so long now, that when they become legal, most people just aren't interested.
As a result, there are more than the fair share of 'peace protesters' and anti-gun lobbyists around that EDSEL would be pleased. But methods are much different over here, and if EDSEL came over to do their job the way they do it, most of the UK would suddenly rise against them. Instead only break away splinter groups generally attack anyone with a gun, most of the normal work done is peaceful - trying to get questions and motions in the Commons or on Prime Ministers Question Time.
Still, this is not to say that the UK is a land of pacifists - far from it, the people just don't feel the need to express themselves through gunfire as much as some other countries.
But this could be all be changing.
With the advent of duelling, clones and vehicular weaponry as standard these days, that attitude is slowly becoming outmoded, especially amongst the younger generation. They never lived in the old days, before the grain blight and when law and order broke down. Instead they live in today's world, where guns are common and autoduelling a way of life, and for most of them, the old attitude is outdated and not needed.
Still, even amongst these, shedding blood for the sake if it is still not common.
The armed forces of the UK is a fraction of it's former self. They have been completely restructured to be a rapid strike force able to be sent to any hot spot in the world within hours, although the UK doesn't like to get involved in too many foreign affairs these days.
While small, the force still maintains it's reputation as one of the best fighting units in the world, and it's special forces (such as the SAS and the SBS) are still the best in the world.
The Navy however does get a lot more action than the rest. Their job has always been the defence of the coastal waters around Britain, and today that role includes defending the few remaining active oil rigs, protecting the small fishing fleets, turning back refugees from abroad, anti-smuggling operations and upholding the duelling laws around coastal towns.
While since World War II the Royal Navy has never gone into to large ships in a big way (mainly due to lack of budget), these days it has gone into small, fast and well armed patrol ships in a big way for coastal defence, leaving the destroyers, frigates and pocket carriers to defend the fishing fleets and oil rigs.
With a complement of Royal Marines on board, these ships do wonders at cutting down the illegal duels, and usually just the sight of a couple of patrol ships is enough to stop any duels, and these ships patrol the shores and major rivers.
The Navy isn't interested in arresting duellists, just wanting them to duel and go away to sanctioned duelling areas (they can provide escorts to these areas as well sometimes). As such, if you don't do anything stupid like attacking the Navy, then you won't even get a fine, just a pat on the back and told to go away.
To supplement the normal armed forces, there is also the Territorial Army, or the TA. This is the equivalent to a reserve army and is made up entirely of volunteers who devote a few weekends to the army a year, and go on a couple of week courses a year.
This teaches the troops basic weapon skills and discipline, and due to the nature of the world today, entrance into the TA is much higher than it has ever been as it is a free way of learning to shoot and gain other skills essential in the modern life.
Indeed many modern companies give preference to people who have been in the TA as they feel it turns people into team players.
In return for teaching people these skills, the army gets a civil defence force. This force would never be used abroad in a conflict, but recruits are subject to mobilisation in times of invasion or emergency and the army gains a steady supply of recruits into the armed forces proper.
For the younger generation, there are still the Scout and Cadet groups for them to attend. The Boy Scout Commando group from America is making some in roads over here, but for the most part has been supplanted by the old cadet groups - The Sea Cadets, Army Cadets and the Air Training Corps. These have been around for decades now, and teach their students basic survival and firearm skills, along with skills useful to their particular service, such as driving and heavy weapon skills for the Army Cadets, ship handling and operations for the Sea Cadets, and flying and combat skills and theory for the ATC. For the most part, these three forces can give a youngster a huge leap in life. None of them restrict girls anymore (that was abolished back in the 1980's), and if you want a life in the armed forces, then this is the way to go. The ages for these groups is usually around 12 - 18, but in some case cadets have been older when they left. Instructors are of any age.
