We the People
15th November 2025
Most of us now are aware of the ever-tightening grip of tyranny, and the erosion of our liberties, occasioned by ever more remote centralisation. To break it, we need a process which prevents power, both political and commercial, from continuing to rise to the top of a pyramid, from where our little lives are run by a few people who have no human connection with us. Here is my first blueprint.
I suggest a secession, whereby each of England’s 39 original, historic counties makes a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI). They are: Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, Cumberland, Derbyshire, Devon, Dorset, Durham, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Middlesex, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Rutland, Shropshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex, Warwickshire, Westmorland, Wiltshire, Worcestershire, Yorkshire.
Greater London should disappear, its boroughs reverting entirely to their counties. Inner London, I suggest, would also be subsumed into its surrounding counties.
It’s fun to think about, and I’d love to read a SF story based on this premise, but it has about 0.1% chance of ever happening, given what we know about people and about people in politics. So read it for the entertainment value, but don’t get your hopes up.