The Devolution of England in 2245 after the acts of 1945: It’s now 2245; in 1945 the Germans took control over the United Kingdom. They imposed some awful things back then. Their control was totalitarian. In 2245, the elected Government seated in Berlin is seen as liberal and to most they do a pretty good job. The English Language was lost, but to a few small Northern towns. You speak perfect Bavarian with a South London accent. In fact you speak Bavarian, Austrian, and German, all with perfect accents. At 21 years old, after travelling for a few months through Asia and Australia, you decided to settle in Berlin. The opportunities, the music, the culture, the hours, and the fun all suited your fresh worldly-wise disposition. For the first 150 years or so after the horrific losses at D-Day and the invasion across the channel, education was more like re-education, life was Orwellian and the population lived in constant fear. That being a long time ago, Germany’s Europe is now comfortable, liberal, and multicultural. The true history of how Germany imposed its rule on the rest of Europe is taught in schools. There is a common consciousness that what happened was wrong, never to be repeated. The new liberal government of Germany are the ones most behind this. As a young person growing up you witnessed the bitterness of the older generations. Now it is mild resentment, almost a friendly competitiveness. When the German football team plays England in the Euro Challenge, they always win. When German athletes compete in the World Sport Challenges they always win, especially it seems, against England. Occasionally an English sports-person prevails. This is rare and provokes real a swelling of strong national pride. Germany always touts this as a win for the Fatherland – a term still used but not with the vehemence it one held. The Northern towns of England are the ones where the bitterness is highest to this day. They took the brunt of the cruelty and were enslaved in the rebuild of Berlin, then Dresden, then the rest of Germany. You can see the odd piece of fresh graffiti “Scheiß auf die Deutschen.” You imagine that should the Northerners get to travel, this prejudice would abate. In your apartment in the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, you live with a boy from Dusseldorf. He is the love of your life. You find it amusing and difficult to explain to your family just why you support the German team over the English one in the World and Euro Football Challenges. You counter by saying that England just does not have the players, and besides, we’re one Europe now. Your brother’s kids mock your posh, almost perfect Bavarian and you do your best but slip back into a weird Cockney Blend when you’re home. As this new political regime of liberality came in so too did the regional resentments, the Catalonians in the North of France and Spain, The Northern Irish, The Scots and the English. The Czechs and the Slovaks, not to mention the Balkans and the endlessly confusing Russian territories. Civil war has never been permitted, nor until fifty years ago even the thought of dissent against the Capital was met with total annihilation. Rather than face this with Violence, in the new consciousness Berlin did its best to appoint locally respected leaders. In the North of France and Spain they appointed the son of a famous poet. In England they reinstated the Royal Family and allowed a token government, in the same style as the Old Parliament. They even allowed Sir Winston Churchill day, offering a two-day midsummer holiday with pay, to celebrate his fierce resistance. One woman campaigned from a young age for an Independent England. She was a generation or two above your birth age. As she was a woman and as the old Germanic mindset was toned out, she was allowed a voice. In the Old Westminster, even a seat was provided. Not one single person Imagined Berlin would allow a poll on Independence, let alone the possibility of a free England. She was on her own; many are surprised that she survived. Things moved fast in the past year; no one is sure how it came to be. Confusion, nationalism, pride, and division among families all add fuel to the media hype. Excitement and electric energy are reported. “It happened so fast,” people say. “What will we do without the Old government?” “Will we use the Deutschmark?” “Will our Country fail?” “What will become of everyone?” As an Englander you’re excited, but you too have reservations. Berlin is your home. You like to visit England but your life is here in the Capital. At 7am this morning you took a flight from Berlin to London City Airport. English People must be in England for this vote, you also have to prove your birthright. The closest Polling Station to City Airport is St. Paul’s Cathedral. You think it was clever to choose something as iconic as St. Paul’s for ex-pats and migrants to come back to. Emotion swells up inside you at the thought of this and you fight back a tear as the U-Ban glides to a silent, magnetic stop. Hoping for a short queue at the ballot box, you start the five-minute walk to the old cathedral. The Polls close tonight. Your family is expecting you. The buzz on the street is electric. Many politicians have traveled to London from Berlin. Above the Old Central Building of Control-in Berlin, the St Georges Cross flies. Your Emotion swells up again. This time you cry openly.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 20:37:32 +0000
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